Short Story On The Buffalo Pitts

3510 Laurel Dr. Holiday, FL 34690

I would like to tell a short story about the 12 HP Buffalo Pitts
(engine appears as photo #6 on page five of the November/December
1987 issue of Iron-Men Album). This engine came from Homburg, NY.
It was never used for road work; it furnished power for a cheese
factory. It was bought by Robert Marshall (deceased), East
Bloomfield, NY. He had an International agency, and he put the
engine in there and never did anything with it.

I met Mr. Marshall at the Kinzers, PA show, where I was
displaying my models. He told me he had this engine and asked me to
visit him. I guess it was about 1 years later when I finally got
over there.

The engine stood in the corner with everything piled on it. I
asked one day if I could get it out. The cab was not finished. He
told me I could get no help from him, as he was too tied up with
his agency. I finished the cab, and I changed the coal bunker from
left to right. If it is the same engine, there is a patch welded in
the back left hand corner of the ash pit.

I painted the engine, and when a new tank was put on I lettered
it. I ran this engine two years at the New York State Fair, nine
days each year. I ran it over the road three miles with lugs on to
the first parade any engine had been in at the Monroe County Fair,
and also at the Hemlock County Fair.

I had a water glass on the water tank; I don’t remember
whether it was installed on the new tank. I reflued it one time
with used flues, never very satisfactorily. On the differential
gear housing there are four ¹/₈‘ plugs to
take out to oil it.