Show Co-Chairman and Director P. O. Box 636 Easton, Maryland
21601
This past July 10, 11, 12, 1998, the Tuckahoe Steam and Gas
Engine Association, Inc. celebrated its 25th anniversary. Our show
grounds are located five miles north of Easton, Maryland, on U. S.
Rt 50. We are proud to say we own our own grounds, and have ever
since the beginning. This was one of our greatest reunions ever. It
takes at least a whole year’s planning to put on a successful
show. Our show committee, which consists of all our standing
committee chairmen and directors, is continually trying to find new
exhibits and exhibitors to participate in our show.
I think even the newest person to our hobby realizes it takes a
lot of us ‘Iron Men’ to put on a show. At our show, I’m
proud to say we even have a few ‘Iron Women’ that help put
on the show, but we sure could use more help at times, whatever the
gender.
At this year’s show we had some friends bring their steam
tractors down from Pennsylvania and Delaware. Norman Gay brought
his 1895 8 x10 Frick traction engine and Mike brought his Farquhar
traction engine from Rough and Tumble. For the third year Butch
Biesecker brought his immaculately restored Keck-Gonnerman. Norm
and Mike were an extra special hit when they belted to our Baker
fan late Saturday night for a spark show. WOW!
A trademark sales ploy for the Frick Co. So we tried it. Jamie
Hall of Church Hill, Maryland, at the throttle of his Frick 8 x 10
#17590. After six years of restoration, 53 new castings, parts,
machining, Imron paint, original striping and twenty years of
sitting idle, she ran like a Swiss watch. Belted backwards to Eric
and Pat Harvey’s Lane shingle mill at the third annual Old
Queen Anne’s Days at the museum in Centreville, Maryland,
1998.
Norman Gay’s Spark Show: Take one 1895 8 x 10 Frick, one
belt, one Baker fan, one good hot fire, add five bushels sawdust,
planer chips or shingle dust. Combine late at night. Get: one
pretty good late night iron man spark show. Everybody loved it!
Just another unexpected highlight of our 25th annual show.
Anyone wishing to bring a steam related exhibit to our show is
always welcome. If you are coming from another state and you do not
have a current Maryland boiler inspection, please contact us as
soon as possible to have your engine inspected in time for our 1999
show.
We currently have ten traction engines on our show grounds
regularly. We also have a couple portables and a stationary steam
building full of mill engines. Next year we plan to welcome back
the club’s Peerless U 1-2. This engine has had some extensive
firebox and mud ring replacement. There were a great many of you
who asked about the location of this engine and its condition. It
will be back next year! Good as new!
Butch Biesecker of Bear, Delaware, displays his beautifully
restored Keck Gonnerman in front of the Rural Life Building at
Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association’s 25th annual show. Jan
Redpath has just dedicated her late husband Art, an avid steam
enthusiast and collector, and invites her family to come up and
blow the whistle.
This year in our Rural Life Museum, we were proud to have
members of the John Kauffman family display some of his paintings
and models. Mr. Kauffman worked for the Frick Company for many
years, striping and painting equipment by day and painting farm
scenes at night. We look forward to having them back in 1999 if
their schedule permits.
At our 25th reunion we did have a few problems. We almost ran
out of parking, again. The worst problem was running out of room
for our gas engine exhibitors. For a time Saturday, our gas engine
folks got to meet a lot of new friends as we moved them in tighter
and tighter. We will have more room next year!
We are also very proud to say our steam model area was almost
filled to capacity with all sorts of unusual models. It seems more
and more people are putting together complete exhibits to bring to
shows. This really can add to the show if you have ample room. This
is where the year’s worth of planning come in. Our show grounds
are forty-two acres and it sure gets small fast, but with proper
planning it all works out.
There is certainly a lot more that goes on at our show than a
bunch of dirty old steam engines threshing wheat, sawing logs and
shingles, plowing, tractor pulling or just milling around. But this
is the Iron MenAlbum and that is what we want to
hear about.
Looking forward past the smokestack toward next year’s show,
I can tell you it is going to be big. We are already expecting at
least two new regular steam engines. The first one is Jamie
Hall’s 1915 8 x 10 Frick traction engine, a must-see-frame
restoration, including Imron paint and 50 some new castings. This
is a factory original restoration straight from the blueprints, a
true one-of-a-kind. The second new engine is my own, an 1899 Frick
traction engine weighing in at a meager 12,000 pounds.
Hopefully, our equestrian building will be completed sometime
after the 1999 show. This new building will house our groundhog
threshers, as well as our five-horse sweep. Each year the Lapp
family from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, demonstrates with the
help of their five Belgian mares. Our horse sweep is hooked to a
small wooden barn thresher. It will be so much nicer to have all of
this out of the hot July sun.
In conclusion, on behalf of the Tuckahoe Steam and Gas
Association, Inc., I would like to thank all of those ‘Iron
Men’ who inspired us so long ago. Without that inspiration from
our forefathers we might have lost all of this precious equipment
that changed a primitive nation, and gave us the knowledge to
appreciate and operate the equipment. Again, thank you and we will
see you all again at our 26th Reunion July 9,10, 11, 1999.
This photo of the group of enthusiasts standing around a Frick
steam engine in the hot sun might not seem too important. But,
actually, the guy with the flashlight and clip board is our state
boiler inspector, Ron Warden. And it’s a hot Saturday, July 11,
1998. The second day of our 25th Annual Show. Now you can start to
understand why I sent in the photo. This never happens. A boiler
inspector out on his own time, Saturday during show time. Two
engines showed up late Friday night from Rough and Tumble and a
model from North Carolina. It didn’t take long and here he was,
wife, four kids, flashlight and coveralls. And after a thorough
inspection and hydrotest new show pieces were fired up and ready
for the day.
This is the kind of dedication that is needed to prolong this
hobby. Without support from local officials and a good team of
volunteers to help put on a show, it might all be lost. Here
I’m proud to say is a group of young people that are hard
working and get the job done. This is why Ron wanted to come out
and inspect these three engines. So they could be shown properly
under steam. Eric Harvey, Tuckahoe Steam and Gas
Association
