This is one of the annual events in our area that I try to go to every year. It's always held the weekend after the fourth of July. It makes for an enjoyable afternoon and I always get several good pictures of the equipment while I'm there. There is always an assortment of equipment on display, a lot of it running during the day. There's always the tractors, of course, and usually a couple of steam tractors and portable steam engines. Then there's the various "hit and miss" gas engines of different size and make. Then there's the antique cars. There's activities like the tractor pulls, and activities for the kids. And the star of the show is the Phoenix steam powered logging tractor from the early 1900s. It's normally on display year around in the town of Wabeno, WI, but they fire it up every year and run it for this event.
This is a link to an older video that we took of the Phoenix back in 2010.
Here's a few pictures that I took at the event this year.
This tractor is powered by a large twin cylinder hit and miss engine. The tank on the front is the coolant water tank for the engine, this tractor has a water tank instead of a radiator.
A nice portable hit and miss engine. The flywheel would drive a belt that ran whatever machine that was being powered. The flywheels are blurred in the picture because it was running when I took the picture.
Some other hit and miss engines.
The Phoenix, of course. Phoenix is actually the name of the company that built these steam tractors
A portable steam engine. This was hooked up to a shingle mill with the belt. The shingle mill cuts wood shingles for buildings.
Here's the shingle mill.
A big steam tractor, running a sawmill.
And the sawmill.
Here's a link to the youtube video that I made of the steam tractor running, and the sawmill cutting a board.
Well, this post is getting long, so I'll end it here and continue with part 2 tomorrow. There will be old tractors, and a couple of antique cars, so stay tuned! :-)
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my post,eh!
I hope you enjoyed it.
As always, feel free to leave me any comments or questions that you might have.
And remember,
Looks like a great gathering! I don't think I realized how many different types of engines - steam or otherwise - there are, plus the various tasks they could perform. Impressive event!
I'm curious about the 'hit and miss' engines... interesting name. Are they two cylinders alternating 'hits' or something else?
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The hit and miss engine is usually a single cylinder engine that runs on gas. The old ones usually ran on white gas, or even kerosene sometimes. They're called hit and miss because they don't fire every time they get to the compression stroke when they're idling. The flywheel keeps the engine turning and when it slows down too much, the governor makes it fire again to speed it back up. When it's running a machine, it fires all the time because it's working harder and the governor keeps it turning at a constant speed.
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Wow, that's very interesting and pretty advanced technology, I would imagine, for the day. Thanks for the great explanation!
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