R.D. 1, Box 149A Ellwood City, PA 16117
Featuring steam powered threshing and saw milling by the members
and friends of the Northwest Pennsylvania Steam Engine and Old
Equipment Association, the 29th annual exhibit was held at the
club’s show grounds at Portersville, Pa. Our feature brand this
year was Case, and as usual, much of the work at the show was done
by Case equipment.
Wendell Bintrim’s 12-36 HP Case traction engine of 1911 ran
the Case steel thresher owned by his son-in-law, Steve Brandon. The
stationary baler, which makes those big 19 x 22 bales everyone
loves to handle, is also Case, and belongs to Wendell’s
father-in-law, Harold Bupp. One of the oldest tractors in
attendance was also Bupp’s, an 18-32 Cross motor. It is one of
the easiest starting and best running tractors we have seen. Bupp
also had a new tractor in evidence this year, a DC industrial. It
is a neat little close coupled machine which on close inspection
appears to be nearly all motor and transmission. As usual, the
club’s Case model VAC, which mows our grass and acts as utility
tractor, made many gallons of homemade ice cream, which was sold by
the Merle Bintrim family at that display. Several other newer model
Case tractors added to the exhibit. We had hoped to round up a car
or gas engine of Case manufacture, but were not successful at that.
We did have 49 antique cars and trucks registered.
Wendell Bintrim’s 1911 12 HP Case. This engine is the only
traction engine to have attended all the shows our club has had,
and it still handles most of the threshing duties.
All features of the show ran well, including the sawmill and a
new addition this year, in the form of a planer shown by Bill
Krolopp of North Jackson, Ohio. The planer was spun by a returnee
to the show a 6-18 horsepower portable Russell steamer now owned by
Bill Ferver of New Wilmington, Pa. The Russell was owned and
displayed for many years by the late Marvin McGeorge of Wampum,
Pa., who was a founding member of the show group.
The 15 inch gauge railroad under the management of Chuck Burr
and crew (mostly family) gave train rides to hundreds of children
both young and old. The gas engine lot was packed with over 400
putting and banging engines of many makes, and the tractor lot was
similarly loaded with some 135 registered entries. In fact, we are
looking at some way to rearrange both of these areas to allow them
more room.
And speaking of room, the flea market was expanded this year to
100 spaces, and they were all filled too. Due to weather and
schedule problems, the clearing of the new property north of the
parking lot was not done, but good use was made of the section that
was available, and most of the rest has been cleared since the
show.
I don’t know if any other shows have the sort of dilemma
that we do or not. Many of us thought we had hit our stride four or
five years ago in terms of attendance and income, and yet each
August when we count up after the show, we have set a new record.
This happened again in ’91. Our paid attendance was up about
800 souls, and since we had raised our gate price from $1.50 to
$2.00 the income was up substantially. We got virtually no
complaints from the public, since we are still one of the cheapest
attractions around, especially compared to the county fairs. The
main benefactors of the change were our gate handling committee and
treasurer, who were very happy not to have to handle all those
thousands of quarters. So our dilemma is that we are still growing
and prospering, but don’t quite know why. As we continue to
grow, some change is inevitable and we hope we don’t
discontinue what we are doing right.
The photos were taken by our good friend Fred Black of New
Castle, Pa. He likes our show and indulges his photographic hobby
there, which makes us very fortunate for two reasons. First, his
work is of professional quality, and second, most of us are too
busy to shoot many photos at all.
We will all be back at Portersville, Pa. and will have our 30th
show in 1992 featuring Rumely and Allis-Chalmers machinery. The
dates will be July 30, 31 and August 1, 2 1992.
