3018 Bremen Street, Columbus, Ohio 43224
The three-inch scale engine is complete to the smallest detail
including the famous Case eagle trademark on the front of the
boiler.
Not many people can boast of keeping a working steam traction
engine in their basement. But Forrest Love of Columbus, Ohio can.
engines stored in his cellar.
There is a hitch, of course. The Case engines are
miniatures.
Love, a retired electrician, has made a hobby of building
miniature steam engines. His last project, a three inch working
scale model, took ten years to complete. It is 1/4 the size of the
original Case engine popular during the first part of the 1900s for
farm work. The engine stands 32′ high, 25′ wide and 62′
long.
Love began construction on the engine in 1968 based on plans
ordered from Alexander Enterprises, Kansas City, Missouri. Working
on the engine in his spare time, ‘and sometimes I couldn’t
spare,’ Love painstakingly built and painted the individual
engine parts.
The boiler was constructed of 3/8′ steel and hydro-tested to
200 pounds. The engine’s working steam pressure is 100
pounds.
Love’s first excursion into the world of steam engine
miniature involved an even smaller version of the famous Case
engine. Started in 1959, the first engine was built on a 2′
scale and took five years to complete. One sixth the size of the
original Case, it too is a fully working model.
Its construction was based on plans ordered from Charles V.
Arnold, Junction City, Oregon, a company that has since gone out of
business. The smaller engine’s working steam pressure is 85
pounds and it was hydro-tested to 150 pounds. The model stands
20′ high, 15′ wide and 41′ long.
Love’s interest in steam engines began while growing up on
the family farm in Delaware County, Ohio, in the days when the
steam engine was the main mechanical work horse for farm
chores.
The two Case miniature engines represent 15 years of work. The
bigger three inch model stands 32′ high, 25′ wide and
62′ long. The smaller two inch model stands 20′ high,
15′ wide and 41′ long.
Fascinated by the large machines, Love hired on to a steam
engine outfit as a teenager and worked as a driver for several
summers. The first hand experience of working with the steam
machines was the start of a lifetime interest.
In the early 1940s, hard times forced Love to leave the farm. He
moved to the city and found work as an electrician. Love’s
interest in steam engines was temporarily forced to take a back
seat to more pressing problems.
Once settled in a suburban home and a new profession, Love’s
thoughts returned to steam engines. A full size engine, of course,
was out of the question since it would not fit in his yard. Then
Love hit upon the idea of building a miniature. The rest, as they
say, is history.
Love’s next project is to build a water wagon for the bigger
of his two miniatures. He also plans to tour several of the Ohio
steam engine shows with his two miniatures during the summer.
