The New Year’s Day WHISTLE BLOW

of January but temperature was well into the fifties. Back in
November my friend Hank Marsilio, a steam whistle collector,
approached me with the idea of having a New Year’s Day whistle
blow. Since I have the engine stored behind his house, I really
could not say no, even if the thought ever crossed my mind. After
about 45 minutes of struggling with a dying flashlight I finally
had all the hand holes in and tightened up. The water hose was
stretched out from the house and I started to fill the boiler;
while the boiler filled I stripped off the tarps, folded and placed
them in Hank’s garage. At 9:00 a.m. we started a fire, and by
10:15 a.m. the steam pressure gauge read 20 pounds. Hank and I
stuffed the fire box full of wood and went to his business, H.M.
Eagle Boiler, Welding, and Machine Shop Service on Steel Street in
Youngstown, to get the steam whistle manifold he had completed the
night before. When we arrived back to his house at 11:00 a.m., the
steam gauge only read 40 pounds!

Feverishly we worked to get de cent pressure for the noon
whistle blow. Luckily we can leave pieces long since my firebox is
2 feet wide and 4 feet long; as you might have guessed, my engine
is rather large. The engine is 10 inch by 16 inch and turns a
four-foot diameter flywheel and a six-foot diameter flywheel with a
working pressure of 125 psi. The engine and boiler are in excellent
condition and have been used very little since she was built in
1923 and carries a Pennsylvania certificate for 125 psi. Slowly the
pressure rose and at noon we had 80 psi and Hank let loose his five
inch three chime Powell. That was only the beginning.

Hank being a boilermaker by trade and holding A.S.M.E.
‘R’ & ‘S’ stamps, fabricated his own whistle
manifold. The manifold was capable of holding 10 whistles connected
to ball valves ranging from 2, 1, 1, 1, and inch, so various size
whistles can be quickly attached or removed without having to shut
down the entire manifold. Hank Marsilio is an avid steam whistle
collector and currently his collection is about 30 whistles. He has
a five-chime whistle off a locomotive from the Pennsylvania
Railroad, which Was re ported to be heard ten miles away when we
had a mini whistle blow in November.

‘Blow whistles and they shall come ‘after the noon
whistle, we began to connect the whistle manifolds to my engine.
Luckily Norm Baxter, a good friend from Howland Corners, came over
to watch the whistle blow, but he was ‘volunteered’ to help
us attach the manifold. Norm is no stranger to steam, he has been
‘Boss’ at the Geauga County Historical Society Century
Village’s Steam Sawmill for over 10 years in Burton. Just this
past summer he purchased a 1917 16 HP Frick traction engine, which
is now torn completely down; the boiler is at Hank’s shop being
rebuilt. The rest of the crowd were non-steam owners, and numbers
varied throughout the day.

As night started to fall, we learned a Youngstown TV station was
interested in taping the engine for their evening news. Brian
Baxter (Norm’s son), a good friend of Hank and I, stopped by
and planted the idea of a spark show for the TV people. For those
people who do not know, a spark show is where you put sawdust in
the fire box and the action of the engine draws the burning sawdust
through the boiler and out the stack. We did have one flaw in this
idea no sawdust but necessity is truly the mother of invention, and
so we used bags of dry leaves. We turned the blower on full and
stuffed the leaves into the firebox. The leaves were sucked through
the boiler and out the stack in an impressive sight! The TV people
never did show their loss!

In closing, we will be blowing the whistle and having the spark
show again. The whistle manifold will be up at the Burton show this
year. It will also be available to those with whistles when the saw
mill is operating at the Geauga County Century Village in Burton
during their special event weekends.

Gas is for cleaning parts, diesel for stopping rust, and STEAM
IS FOR HAVING FUN!