Great Oregon Steam-Up: Wrap-Up

Antique Powerland hosts 16 other independent museums on their grounds. We were so overwhelmed with things outside that we only visited the inside displays at one of the museums. The trolley was circling the grounds regularly during the Great Oregon Steam-Up.

In addition to the full sized trolley, there was a large collection of miniature trains that were pulling carloads full of people.

Tractors were everywhere, generally grouped by brand. Sometimes, a collection would represent many models of a single brand.

Allis-Chalmers was the featured brand this year. Apparently they chose a different featured brand each year.

Condition of the equipment varied greatly with a small handful of tractors finished to a quality far beyond what was stock from the factory. Check out the reflections in the paint! This one also had a sign asking people to not rub the paint.

I loved the Caterpillar lineup. Some had been repainted and restored while others showed the rust and character from years of use.

I was really impressed with this gas powered Holt Caterpillar from 1913. It was designed and built for use in Central California and was the predecessor of the modern Caterpillar company. It was still operating and took part in the daily parade.

This Bacyrus-Erie steam powered railroad crane from Southern Pacific was operating. Lots of steam and noise!

A potato cannon on steroids. This rig is owned by a pumpkin farmer and looks like it would do a very impressive job of chucking pumpkins. Seems like something Ellen might need.

Here's a few of the brands that were seen at the show.

Some of the brands were integral castings

while others were separate plates, castings, decals, or hand painted logos.

I got a picture of the Porsche tractor, but the camera battery was dead before I spotted the Lamborghini tractor.

Lots and lots of fun crammed into a few hours. Next time I'll plan on a whole weekend.

Great Oregon Steam-Up: Flea Market

The flea market at the Great Oregon Steam-Up was held in two locations. The larger portion was held on a field west of the Car & Motorcycle Museum

but most of the antique glassware "smalls" as well as collectible truck and tractor toys were located in a large warehouse near the venue entrance.

It was no surprise that there were large displays of old hand tools for sale

as well as a few tractors for sale.

I was surprised to see blue water containers in various shapes

and sizes.

One of my favorite items in the flea market was this Yale motorcycle - about 1915. It appeared relatively complete. I didn't ask the price or if it was running.

My favorite was this 1934 Chevrolet school bus. It was offered complete with another front clip and frame that appeared in better condition. Seems like it could be the basis for a very unique camper.

Great Oregon Steam-Up: Cars & Trucks

Clear out at the far end of the area was a nicely mowed grass area with a wide assortment of great looking cars. I found out later the Car & Motorcycle Museum was next to the field but we only took time to tour the interior of one museum.

The Straight 8 Buick was my favorite car. I thought it looked impressive from the front,

or the back.

The trucks looked just as  good.

Lots of love and tender care to restore this old farm truck. We won't calculate how old it is since I think it was born the same year I was.

Loved the Texaco fuel truck that was parked in the service station's service bay.

If you find the service station, the car & motorcycle museum is located next to it.

We were surprised to find a huge "flea market" with all sorts of stuff across the road from the service station. A true scrounger could have spent all day just cruising through the boxes, barrels, and tables full of stuff as well as the stuff that was too big for a box or barrel.

Great Oregon Steam-Up: Oil Burners

There was a whole line-up of Rumley Oil-Pull tractors at the Great Oregon Steam-up but this is the only picture I have. I took two camera batteries but 600+ pictures later, the batteries were dead before the Oil-Pull tractors came through the parade.

The Titan tractors were out in force as well.

It was fun to note the different designs of the simple Titan radiators, the water flowing over hardware cloth to provide engine cooling.

It looks like a steam-roller but used an ignition engine. If I recall the comments, they don't have any idea who the manufacturer was.

This Heer is very rare and very advanced for the day. It had four wheel drive and four wheel steering.

I don't recall the manufacturer of this tractor and didn't notice it on the grounds until it came through the parade. The most interesting part of this entry

was the artistic hat the driver was wearing!

There were lots of stationary engines running including this large two cylinder engine that

was blowing smoke rings.

This engine wasn't running at the show but had a very interesting history. This 200 hp. engine (and its twin) powered water pumps for irrigation in Riverside, California from 1928 to the late 1950's. It would run at full power for 24 hours a day for months at a time. The only known heavy maintenance in that period was the change of one cylinder in 1944.

Smaller stationary engines were there by the hundreds. Some restored, others looking quite used.

As usual, you can double click on any of the photos for a larger version.

Great Oregon Steam-Up: Steam Tractors

The Great Oregon Steam-Up happens annually on two consecutive weekends in late July and early August. What you'll see over the next few posts is from a quick pass through the grounds on the first Saturday. An adult single day pass was $12. I think the smart thing would be to dry camp on site ($15 per night) and get the $20 weekend pass. Next time...

They held a parade at 1:30 which lasted 90 minutes. Not all of the equipment on site took part in the parade, but most of the operating steam engines did. This engine was built by Westinghouse. Who knew? I sort of figured that steam tractors were pretty rare - they said this one was very rare.

This Case steam engine was retrofitted at some point with steering. Originally this one was designed to be steered by a team of horses, thus the seat mounted on the front left corner by the stack. A hybrid, long before we were talking about hybrid vehicles.

Many of the tractors were staffed by multiple generations of a family, and often were operated by younger family members

as in this example.

We had carefully chosen grandstand seats in the shade for the parade which made photography less than ideal. I sure enjoyed the shade!

This is the same tractor that was in the first picture where they were using the engine to power a large fan.

This was one of two engines that were fitted with a small steam powered generator to power a headlamp.

The dark grey "motor" was actually a generator, powered by a small steam turbine on the other end of the generator. The exhaust from the steam turbine is the vertical pipe alongside the smoke stack.

The collage below is sized large so that you can see some of the individual detail of the steam tractors if you want. Like all my photos, double click to get the large version.