35640 Avenue F Yucaipa, California 92399
You know, steam is real scarce in Southern California. The
remains of this fine little machine were found as a heating plant
outside Seattle, Washington, where the recent owner had used it as
a heating plant for his green house. He had purchased the roller
from the City of Seattle after its many years of usage there, and
he had paid for the entire roller. Fortunately, the engine was
still intact so I hauled it home and built a frame and truck
wheeling arrangement for it so that it could be run in parades,
fairs, etc.
Actually, it is still unfinished, for there is still an English
style cab to mount, in keeping with the English style engine
construction, as well as ‘cowcatcher’, embossed brass
boiler jacketing, and some finish gearing and then a paint job
which will make it outrank anything from Disneyland by far. A
locomotive bell is mounted beneath the smokebox, with air-clapper,
as exemplified in the largest Southern Pacific railway locomotives,
when Steam was the Romance of the Rails.
It also sports three whistles, and the little ladies are
daughters number 1 (at the throttle) and number 2, the younger,
standing alongside in the large foto. Pipe that California style
stack! made in the backshop, of course. The smaller color foto
shows the ‘Mrs’ at the controls, and also reveals the very
nice size of this fine little double cylinder roller. Monarch also
made a much larger size roller of same style construction, and I
have one of the engines from these machines also in ‘The Back
Shop’ as a stationary mount. The larger engine was box frame,
or full bed, and was also used on the Monarch steam traction
engine.
By the way, does anyone know who in California purchased a
Monarch road roller from an estate back east, and presumably
shipped it out here to augment the collection in this state???