Roger Byrne

The 1928 International Dealer truck in the picture posted by twostepn2001 is a 3/4 ton S. The S stands for Special Delivery and was built from 1922 to 1928. Some were equipped with the fancy coupe type cab and others were roadsters or wood cabs. If they were ordered by IHC dealers for their own use, the factory would paint them red and featured company logos and advertising. As far as the being "1 of just 200 built" . . . well if that is true, then it would only refer to the ones ordered that year by IHC dealers because there were 4,417 S trucks built in 1928 alone. Total production of the 3/4 ton S Model IHC trucks was over 37,400 from 1922 through 1928. The first photo below is a better photo of Wendel Kelch's (an expert in early International tractors and trucks) Red Baby that was posted in Gary's photos. By the way, in Gary's last photo . . . maybe ?? some IHC dealers used Model T's as service vehicles before International came out with Red Baby??

"Roger, I looked through about 300 photos Tom took at Hastings ? ? ? I could not see any of a Nichols & Shepard engine. I'm sure glad you know the guy who owns these tractors! I think he used to own the IHC AutoWagon I'm getting someday. Gary!😁" Gary, you have me confused. Tom was at the Root River show two weeks ago and took photos. There was a show at Hastings last weekend and yes I have worked on all of his big tractors at some time over the last 30 years. As far as that Autowagon . . . . .

Look out fellas . . . . Gary has his computer problems taken care of and will be back on tomorrow!

Either Gary's friend didn't tell him where the show was (unlikely) or Gary just wanted to preempt me. I'm guessing it's the second because relatives of Olson had their Nichols & Shepard steamer at our Root River Show for the first time this year. Gary, post some photos of that engine, I didn't get time to take much more than a couple photos. I had the 10-20 Titan, Shovel Nose truck and the 8-16 International plus a couple other things there this year. As it was, the ugly ducking 8-16, that actually created the most interest among IHC guys because few of them had ever seen or knew anything about one. The 15-30 McCormick Deering next to it belonged to Troy Vetsch so we had a good lineup of early IHC. However Troy never got a chance to drive it around because he was running the 24HP Minneapolis steamer for the whole 3-day show.

Those pumps are an essential component of a steam locomotive. Many of us that model live steam locomotives also include them on our models. Below are a couple photos of just two of the engines that were made by a Master locomotive builder friend of mine, Berne Ketchum of Ames Iowa. The detail of his builds is outstanding and he makes 95% of his engines from scratch with no castings.

The sound you are hearing is one of the auxiliary steam drive pumps. One pump would be for the air compressor for the train brake system. The other pump is for pumping water in the boiler if it's needed. It is likely the pump you hear is for the brake system and is the vertical unit mounted in the middle of the boiler. Most of the time they exhaust into the smoke box but it looks like they may just be venting some to the outside of the boiler.

Gary, I'm glad you noticed I used the term "error" . . . I know you never make mistakes. And yes, those are aftermarket Rocky Mountain Brakes (or possible ACs) on that Model T motorhome. I've got a set of them on the shelf that I'll be making use of soon. By my count, seven of the tow trucks you posted above, have Weaver Cranes. I sure agree with you about the engine handling comment. As an engineer, control of the machine is your job from boiler condition to the the total operation of the engine. To me, the term ENGINEER and RESPONSIBILITY must go together . . . and yes, I'm considered to be a hard ass when it comes to steam engine operation.

Watch it Gary . . . I check this thread every day to see what's going on and see how many "errors" there are in your postings. I let most of them go unless you really screw something up. By the way, that "Pea Pickers motor home" you posted above is on a Model T car chassis. The wheel base is wrong for a TT and you can tell by the rear springs plus the rear wheel hub.

Looks to be a late 1940's Diamond T.

That is a 1915 or early 1916 (NOT 1912) Ford Model T car with a aftermarket truck conversion kit. Ford didn't start to make the Model TT (Ton Truck) until 1917. Before that, there were several companies making kits to change your Model T car into a light truck. It was a framework with a heavy rear wheel drive unit that you just slipped over your car frame and connected the driveshaft to the transmission. I had an I-O-W-A conversion unit that I sold to a friend a year ago.

Before there are a bunch more posts, I figure I should explain what a "Cloverleaf" roadster is. They are a three seat car with two in front and just one in back . . . the seating was said to look like a "Cloverleaf" when viewed from above. A very odd arrangement that was NOT a popular design and were only built for a few years by a handful of different companies. The logic of that one narrow seat in the back escapes me as it did with most people back in the day. The Ames Company, which made accessory bodies for Fords, made one for a Model T.

As far as I can tell, the car in that Texas photo appears to be a 1917-1920 Marmon Model 34 Cloverleaf Roadster.

Gary, the Return Flue Minneapolis steamer is "SHREDDING" corn. It's the same idea as a hand-fed thrashing machine. Bundles of corn are placed on a side platform, the operator cuts the bundles and feeds them into the machine. The stalk,leaves and husks are chopped up in the process and blown into the barn to be used as bedding. The corn (still on the cob) goes into a wagon for future use. The small amount of shelled corn that is knock off the cob in the process is saved and discharged at the rear of the machine in a bagger. I'll tell you those corn bundles are a LOT heavier and harder to handle than grain bundles!

"few people understand how I (Gary) function."

I make this posting with great sadness, my good friend and a regular poster on this forum, Anson Sheldon Jr. "Delta Dirt" has died. I received the news from his wife Melinda today. I last spoke to him a few weeks ago and knew he was having a tough time of it. We only talked a short time do to his breathing issues . . . not even long enough to get into one of our enjoyable "Blue Smoke" sessions. We never met in person, but got to know each other first through Gary's forum, then from MANY phone conversions and E-mails. Rest in peace my friend, your "Northerner" buddy will miss you. When it is available, I'll post a link to his obit.