My Very Own Engine
(Page 4 of 5)
September/October 1996
Rory Esch
My next concern was to figure out how to get them both home. I
made a call to the most sought-after steam engine hauler in the
state of Wisconsin, Fred Reckelberg. Fred agreed to haul the
engines home for me. He decided it would be easier for him to haul
both engines to his place and then a few days later he would haul
them home for me. While I was on the phone with Fred discussing
trucking details, I mentioned to him that I really didn't want
the Advance. I had every intention of selling it as soon as I could
find someone interested. My main interest was just the Case. Fred
quickly questioned what I was going to ask for the Advance. I had
never really thought about it. Fred told me he would call me back
in a couple days to finalize the hauling plans and I should have a
price in mind for the Advance. He knew of a couple of guys that
might be interested in buying it as a group. Marcia and I agreed on
what we thought would be a fair asking price. Fred called back a
few days later and I told him my price. He said he would get back
to me in a few days, but in the meantime, he would haul both
engines back to his place.
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Fred called me the following weekend to tell me both engines
were safely hauled to his place. He told me if I wanted to, I could
come up to try out the engines on his sawmill. He didn't have
to ask me twice. Marcia and I made plans for the following weekend
to go to the Reckelbergs and run our very own engines. We had a
wonderful time! We only fired the 80 because that was the engine I
was mainly interested in. We put it on the sawmill for most of the
afternoon.
While the 80 was on the sawmill, we noticed a major problem. The
governor wasn't responding like it should. We took the engine
off the sawmill and parked it in line with Fred's engines. We
spent the rest of the day visiting. Fred told me the group of guys
interested in the Advance agreed on the price. When he delivered
the 80 Case during the week, he would straighten up with me for the
Advance. The group purchasing the Advance was Fred, his son Paul
and Larry Hamm. I couldn't believe I had sold the Advance
before I hauled it home!
Now I could direct all of my attention towards the Case. I
wanted to have my engine ready for the Sussex show at the end of
August. Before I could take it to a show, I needed to have the
engine inspected, and to get the governor working properly. All of
this work took me right up until show time, but we made it. I took
my very own engine to the Sussex Show. I was like a peacock with a
new set of tail feathers. I ran the engine on the sawmill Saturday
morning, but I still wasn't happy with the governor. With the
help of Paul and Mike Garity, we figured out that the pulley on the
governor was too small, causing the governor to spin too fast. I
had already made plans to take the engine to Edgerton, Wisconsin,
the following weekend for the Rock River Threshere Paul Garity
offered to make me a new pulley, the right size, at work during the
week and bring it to the show the following weekend. Paul is an
expert machinist whose talent is easy to see in his excellent
working scale model of a 110 Case. Just as Paul said, he showed up
Friday morning with the pulley. After we put the new pulley on the
governor, we proceeded to the sawmill. To my amazement, it was a
night and day difference. The governor responded to the first cut
almost before the log hit the saw. Before putting the engine away
for the winter, we took it to one more show at Union Grove,
Wisconsin.
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