233 County House Road Clarksboro, NJ 08020
Be ye ware and take ye heed, For Murphy’s Law is true
indeed. Wednesday of the reunion we got bad priming problems and
small pieces of rust collecting in the valves of the feed pump and
injector check valve. That evening I took the pump home to Jersey
and rebuilt it. Returned Thursday morning and fitted it back, then
washed out both the tank and the boiler. Got the injectors working,
then found I had a split pump discharge pipe. Many thanks to the
Model Building for the copper tubing. By Thursday noon all was
okay; we got in the parade that evening and also rolled down the
area for the square dancing.
Friday morning a pin broke on the feed pump rocker arm. Again
thanks to Paul White in the Hobby Shop; he loaned me a drill and a
bit and luckily I had the right size roll pin in my tool box. Coal
was getting low so away to the coal pile for a fill up. On the way
back I found I could not steer. I thought perhaps it was the
steering engine so off came the drive chain and the valves were
adjusted. This proved not to be the problem, for trying to turn the
hand wheel was an impossibility. We realized then that the front
pivot had seized up completely and about the only thing to do was
to jack the machine up and try to free it that way. Much grease and
oil had been pumped in through the grease nipple but all it did was
come out the top. Finally we got the pivot shaft far enough down so
I could file all that rust and junk away. Some grooves were cut
around the shaft to carry the grease away from the nipple to the
lower area. Now when you pump the grease in it comes out the bottom
as well as the top.
Now that all problems were corrected we awaited a good Saturday
but it wasn’t to be, for it was raining. At 8:30 I walked over
with my camcorder for a few pictures, but nothing was moving. The
driveways were mud, everything was stopped and quite a lot was
covered. Then it started to rain again, so I took the camera back
to the truck. Knew it was no good lighting up the roller for in wet
weather you just won’t get very far.
Scotty Anderson wanted to get the little Tiny Tim roller going
so we did that and ran up and down on the granite chips in the
driveway. After a while it began to pour again so that was the end
of our bit of fun for that day.
Tiny Miller had trouble with his crane for I know he got some
clogged tubes and couldn’t get the brush through them. Had to
get the forklift to lift off the smoke-box top. Tiny was as dirty
as I was but I did get some consolation; Jim Conte gave me the
‘hard luck award’, which turned out to be a box of
Tide.
The main feature this year was Ford, and such a collection of
Fordsons as I’ve ever seen. There was even a Model T tractor, a
Fordson roller and Fordson crawlers. In fact this is the first
crawler I’ve ever seen, although I knew them to be
manufactured.
This Fordson roller really belongs to R&T, coming from the
Willcox estate, and will no doubt be put into an operational
condition. I’m sure Mr. Woodward will see that it does. As I
have said for so many years, there were horses and Conestoga
wagons, threshing, a shingle mill and all the other things that go
along with a good reunion. That rainmaker could have waited until
Sunday.
I must not forget a couple of new operations. Number 1 is the
steam driven cement mixer. This has been refurbished and is fully
operational, runs well. I don’t blame the operator for using
granite chips so as not to soil his nice black paint. Number 2 was
the well-drilling machine that Rick Gochenaur had going with steam
from the big boiler. When talking of well-driller, why do I always
want to say drell wilier? Now I’m getting like Andy Rooney. In
the Brubaker building was a nice display of old cars and I noticed
quite a few had NJ registration plates. Looking at the size of
these cars, they are twice as large as our modern ones, especially
the large Lincoln. Well, the English had a nickname for them, they
called them ‘Yank Tanks.’ They were built like tanks,
too.
Continuing on for Saturday morning, it started to rain hard at
around 10:30, but things still went on. The saw mill was going
nearly all day, driven by Ray Herr’s portable. Up in the
speaker’s stand was our announcer, Carl Simpson, dressed in
Sou’wester and foul weather gear and looking rather like a sea
captain on the bridge of a schooner. Ship ahoy, my hearties!
Caterpillar tractor off the starboard side!
Talking of water, I must mention the beautiful fire engine
brought up from Maryland. You can’t imagine the condition of
this piece, everything is so bright and brasswork, Oh Boy. Until
Saturday it was in steam in front of the main engine room pumping
water from a large receptacle. I wish I could have got a shot of
this on the cam-corder but was otherwise too occupied. Not to be
outdone, alongside it was Mr. Lockhart’s beautiful steam fire
engine model. He told me it takes 8 hours to polish it. I believe
him. This model was described in an article by A.D. Mast and Mai
O’Connor in IMA May/June ’88.
I stated in last year’s report that I would get a picture of
the Otto-Langdon engine but Hope Emerich beat me to it. She also
wrote an account of the boiler seminar held at R&T which
explained the whole meeting fairly well.
Now we come to boiler treatment. In horizontal boilers, even
though the water may be within 10 to 12 inches from the top of the
shell, you have far more steam space than you have with a vertical
boiler. This I’m sure makes the addition of treatment chemicals
more critical. At first we did no doubt add too much, so from now
on it will be a case of adding a little and if okay add a little
more. We cannot afford scale and corrosion to damage these old
boilers any more than it has done already, so we have to start to
protect them.
In a British model magazine, back in 1973, there was an account
of a Mr. Hughs visiting a Mr. Jack Kerr who was apparently
associated with the Austin show in Manitoba. While staying there
Mr. Hughs took several pictures and one of them shows a little
Buffalo and Pitts tandem roller. It looks rather small and I’m
wondering whether it could be related to our little ‘Tiny
Tim.’ As I stated last year, the only identification on ours is
B.A.P. NO. 23. Could this mean Buffalo and Pitts?
Looking at the picture in this magazine, our steering roll fork
is a little different and so is the bearing housing, it being held
with four bolts instead of three. There also appears to be a
flywheel between the cranks, and the rear roll bearing is also a
little different yet very similar. We are anxious to find out the
manufacture of our little machine, for when it goes through the
parade nobody knows what to call it.
A few weeks ago I was watching a show on P.B.S. called U.X.B.,
which stands for unexploded bomb. The story is about a group of
English soldiers who went around defusing unexploded German bombs
during World War II. It’s all based on true life incidents,
types of bombs, and the many ways the Germans devised the fuses to
foil the bomb squads. Many tricks were used so these squads had to
also be very inventive and on their toes at all times, thinking up
ideas to overcome these innovations.
One story related to a type of bomb that no way could be found
to deactivate with even the smallest amount of safety. Eventually
an idea was conceived. A small steam driven drilling machine was
made that could be strapped around this bomb. Steam was supplied
from a little stationary boiler situated behind a pile of sand bags
at a safe distance connecting to the drill with a long steam hose.
A hole was drilled in one side of the bomb case, then rolled over
and another hole drilled in the other side. When this was done, the
drilling machine was removed and the steam hose was then clamped
over one of the holes. Steam was again turned on and the explosive
powder boiled out. You may say, what has this got to do with
Kinzers? Well, we have such a portable steam boiler here. It looked
identical to the one on the TV show, being built by Merry weather
Co., a name long associated with fire engines. Just thought you
guys out there would like to know yet another way steam, that good
old propellant, was put to use.
To sum up, I wish to thank a few people for their efforts in
helping us while under the influence of Murphy’s Law. Paul
White helped with the drills, Don Sadler found the copper tubing,
Tiny Miller supplied jacks and sledgehammer. Sully Sullivan and his
son-in-law kept the fire going and the water up, and there was
another gentleman whom I did not know who helped us tremendously.
Under the anxiety and torment of these troubles, I forgot to thank
these people, so here I’m saying ‘Thanks!’ Not
forgetting Big Ed, of course.
Whoo whoo ’til next year!
