Reminiscing About the A.D. Baker

I am retired and living in Roswell, New Mexico and I have a
collection of the Iron Men Album magazines. Checking through my
collection, I find many interesting articles or stories. In the
1979 May/June issue (Volume 33, No. 5), Mr. LeRoy W. Blaker,
Alvordton, Ohio 43501 wrote an article on the A.D. Baker Company of
Swanton, Ohio. In this article Mr. Blaker described the steam
tractor the A.D. Baker Company had developed. Mr. Blaker also gave
the specifications, etc., of the two models of the Baker, and he
described the problems the steam tractor had due to tube
failure.

‘Abner Baker realized that they should have a high pressure
steam tractor and came out in about 1923 with a water tube boiler
(or steam generator) carrying 550 pounds water pressure. It was
automatic stoker fired, radiator condenser, and low down plunger
pump to pump the condensation back to the water tube boiler. It
would have been a great success if the cylinder oil could have been
separated from the condensation. After much use, the cylinder oil
coated the inside of the water tubes and caused them to fail.

‘Abner told me their first high pressure steam tractor had a
double cylinder simple engine, but that was too wasteful.

‘Their next engine was a vertical cross-compound, but he
told me he did not like the indicator cards as they showed the low
pressure piston made about one-half stroke before the high pressure
cylinder released its steam. I told him he would have to admit the
Reeves cross-compound was a very good economical engine. He did not
answer me.

‘Their next high pressure steam tractor, about 1925, was a
tandem compound with piston valves, and center crank but did not
use the Baker valve gear. The valve reverse gear was similar to the
Grime but carried the top end of the eccentric strap on a radius
link, or just like my invention that I applied for a patent on May
17, 1920. The boiler on this engine was a horizontal fire tube
carrying 300 pounds water pressure with super heater in top of the
firebox. This also had an automatic stoker.’

In 1923, Sam Rapp of Covington, Ohio bought a Baker steam
tractor. In 1924 he bought the large model to pull a grain
separator. Mr. Rapp soon discovered the steam tractor was not a
dependable source of power because of the tube failure problem Mr.
Baker described in his story on the A.D. Baker Company.

The pictures included with this story were a present from Mr.
William Rapp.

Correction from our last issue

In the Nov/Dec 1989 issue, we ran a story on page 2, ‘Steam
Engines Cavorting On The Hillside.’ The story came from a press
release furnished to us by Domino’s Farms. This month, we
received word from Mrs. Hilda Harrison Willis of 9238 Columbus Road
NE, Louisville, OH 44641, who requested that we set the record
straight:

‘It was my late husband Charlie Harrison of Fredericktown,
Ohio,’ she writes,’ who bought the 32-120 Reeves engine
from the Tyler Brothers in Moore, Montana and had it trucked to our
farm in Frederick-town, Ohio.

‘The late Ewart Dearing from Vancouver, BC, Canada, found an
almost new boiler in northern Manitoba. He and another friend
hauled the boiler out over the frozen Muskeg to a location where my
husband then picked it up and hauled it home. They had to haul the
boiler out, while the muskeg was still frozen and even then they
broke in a couple of times.

‘That boiler had been used on a sawmill, but was in an
almost new condition.

‘Mr. Brodbeck bought the engine from me in 1980 after my
husband’s death. He came prepared with lots of equipment and
helpers to haul the engine, plus extra boiler and lots of other
parts to his place in late summer 1980.

‘The engine (Reeves 31-120) had been used in Montana as a
plow engine, but had not been neglected for 41 years as stated in
the article.

‘Mr. Brodbeck has done a very good job in restoring the
engine and I am sure my late husband would be very proud and happy
to see it running and looking so good. Up to his very end he had
the engine on his mind and tried to figure out how to restore it
without much outside help.

‘I am glad Mr. Brodbeck is the owner of the engine now and
am happy to see it at the Wauseon show every year.

‘But I feel the truth should be told and credit given, to
whom it belongs.’