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Weekly News October 31, 2016Description
Passengers on Steam Car Tours: Until Ruth and I were married in 1985, I always needed a companion to accompany me on trips in our Stanley cars, and there were several who were willing to put up with me. After World War II, my father commandeered Homer Kratz to go with him, and Homer loved it following his retirement from NVF in 1947. He was always ready to go and logged many miles in the front passenger seat of the Mountain Wagon, the Model 87, the Model 76 and Doble #E-11.
In my first long tour in a Stanley, the New England Glidden Tour of 1947, my father invited Ralph Willis, an old trapshooting friend from Penns Grove, New Jersey, and C. E. Simmons from Washington, D.C., who owned two Model 740 Stanleys, to go with us. Roy Benge accompanied us to Hartford, the tour’s beginning, and returned home by train. We took newly restored Models 71 (a 1910 car that we then called 1911) and the reliable 1918 Model 735. My dad had planned that he and Willis would travel in the 71, and Simmons and I would use the 735. As the late September weather turned cold, however, we switched cars, as the 71 had no front doors, and from Hartford on, Mr. Simmons was my passenger in this earlier car, with my father and Ralph Willis in the 735. Simmons was bundled up and complained of the cold for the whole trip. Before we got home, we had covered over 1,300 miles.
In 1948, Homer went with my father in the Mountain Wagon on the Pennsylvania Glidden Tour from Philadelphia to Bedford Springs and return to Reading, and I used my 1914 Model 607 on the same trip to transport old trapshooting friends C. T. Jackson, Sr. and Jr., from Stormville, New York. Earlier that summer, my dad and Homer had used the Model 76 to drive to the first steam car tour, held at Charlemont, Massachusetts, on the Mohawk Trail. I went alone in my Model 607.
On the 1949 Glidden Tour through Virginia (Gettysburg, PA to Wilmington, DE), my father, Homer Kratz and Wilmington insurance agent Charley Dougherty made the trip in the faithful Mountain Wagon, and I used my 607 with passenger Bill Carr, a flyer who lived with his wife in the 3rd floor apartment at Auburn Heights during World War II, when he was flying C-54s for the Air Transport Command out of New Castle Air Base. In 1950, Jack Hutton of Wilmington accompanied me in our 1913 Model 78 roadster, and my father and Homer made the trip in his newly acquired 1912 Model 87. This trip started in Lake Placid, New York, and finished in Rochester, after going through Montreal and the Thousand Islands.
In 1951, Elwood S. Wilkins III of nearby Strickersville went with me in the 607 to Allegheny Mountain Region meets at Cumberland, Maryland, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and then, along with Bob Ostwald of Staten Island, in the same car to a steam car meet at Wellesley, Massachusetts, on which trip we were accompanied by Earle and Harriet Eckel in Earle’s 1914 Stanley roadster. In 1953, we “doubled up,” with my dad, Homer, and I driving to Detroit and back for the Glidden Tour in our Model 735. In 1954, Norbert Behrendt of Washington, D.C. accompanied me in the newly restored 1913 Model 76 on another Glidden Tour through New England. Two steam cars tours were at Lakeville, Connecticut, in 1955 and 1958. On the first one, I drove my father’s Model 87 with Bob Way, my third cousin and Stanley owner from Kennett Square, as my passenger, and my dad and Homer Kratz were in the 1924 Doble #E-11. On the second, I went with my father in his Doble. In 1957, we went to Kent, Ohio for a steam car tour, and I drove my father’s 735 with its new Gibson piston valve engine, accompanied by Richard Penny, a machinist from West Chester.
Most of the Glidden Tours starting in 1955 were hub tours (a trailer and tow vehicle could be used, as each day’s tour came back to the same tour headquarters every night). There were exceptions in 1957 and 1961. On the earlier one, Bob Way accompanied me through Virginia in our Model 76, and on the latter, Weldin Stumpf was exposed to steam cars for the first time in the same car when he went with me from Hershey to Wilmington, Delaware, via Lancaster, Reading, and Scranton, all in Pennsylvania. In 1975, I used this car again on a Glidden Tour at Canandaigua, New York, driving to and from with my passengers Willard and Eleanor Robinson.
Only thrice did I go on a long tour in one of our internal combustion cars, twice in the ’37 Packard and once in the ’32 (both still in our collection). In 1974, I used the ’32 for a 1,300-mile trip through New England with passengers Pownall, Peggy, and Andy Jones, and in 1980 I drove the ’37 round-trip to Boston to visit Frank and Eloise Gardner. Finally in 1984, again in the ’37, I drove to French Lick, Indiana, and return for the Glidden Tour there, accompanied by Bob Collins of Hance Point, Maryland.
The four “Trans-Con” tours, all made in the 1912 Model 87, spanned the years 1972 through 1989. We used no accompanying vehicles on any of these trips. The first one in 1972 was the longest, over 8,300 miles, and I had several passengers. Weldin Stumpf and Jules Reiver rode from Yorklyn to Montreal, then Stumpf flew home, his first flight ever on his 50th birthday. Jules and I continued to Minneapolis. Jim Johnson of Park Ridge, Illinois, joined at Minneapolis and rode to Yellowstone. Stumpf, his wife Dot, and his 13-year-old daughter Joan joined there and rode to the end of the tour at San Diego, then drove the car, without me, from Disneyland to Fort Collins, Colorado. I joined again at that point, and the Stumpfs dropped off at Omaha. Don Tulloch of Chadds Ford rode from Omaha to Dayton, Ohio, I was alone for 70 miles, and Bob Reilly rode the last leg from Columbus to Yorklyn. The car left home on June 13 and returned, all in one piece and on its own power, on August 9. The only serious repair was made overnight in a machine shop at Billings, Montana, after a rear wheel bearing had seized and damaged the axle.
The 1979 trip should have been easier, but I had more trouble. The car was trailered to South Miami, Florida, where I and my passenger, Gerald Brady, picked it up and drove to the starting point at Key West. Brady stayed with me to a point on the Blue Ridge Parkway, almost on the Virginia-North Carolina line, where new but defective rear rims caused a temporary halt to the trip. With wheels from my 1912 Mountain Wagon, which Weldin Stumpf brought from home, Jules Reiver (who took Brady’s place) and I continued to Oil City, Pennsylvania, where a rear axle broke, requiring a 30-hour repair. Finally, we finished the tour in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the others and drove home, Jules sticking with me.
The 1982 trip from Pebble Beach to Jekyll Island was not without trouble. Lindsay Greenplate started as my passenger (the car had been shipped to Pebble Beach), and the second day on the road, a boiler leak was detected near Alameda, California. Steam was leaking through the shell of the boiler under the piano wire. Lowering the steam pressure and band-aiding the leak frequently, we made it across the Sierras and the Rockies and almost to Holly, in southeastern Colorado, before both the boiler and the engine gave out. Bob Reilly had replaced Lindsay Greenplate in Reno. Our Model 87 was trucked and trailered from Holly to Tulsa, about 500 miles, where a wonderful crew of steam car men on the tour worked for 48 hours in 100-degree heat to replace the boiler with one brought by Stumpf from home and rebuild the engine with cylinders lent to us by Don Bourdon, who was on the trip with Brent Campbell. From Tulsa to Jekyll Island and on home to Delaware, Bob Reilly remained my passenger.
Ruth was finally on the scene when the 1989 “Trans-Con” took place from Galveston, Texas, to Bar Harbor, Maine (the car was shipped to the starting point). Fortunately, the Model 87 worked better than ever, and no breakdowns occurred. We drove home from the end of the tour in 2-1/2 days. Ruth was glad to be home after nearly four weeks away.
Work Report: On Tuesday, October 25, 17 volunteers were on hand: Ted Kamen (in charge), Steve Bryce, Anne K. H. Cleary, Rose Ann Hoover, Dennis Dragon, Ken Hilbeck, Bob Jordan, Bob Koury, Dave Leon, Jerry Lucas, Brent McDougall, Matt Richard, Tom Sandbrook, John Schubel, Bob Stransky, Mac Taylor, and Tom Marshall. The horn was attached and final adjustments were made to the engine on the Model H-5. Decorations for Halloween went forward in the museum. The plumbing on the new boiler in the Model 87 continued. More track work was done on the Lionel layout, and one locomotive was repaired.
Two new sight glasses were installed and tested on Locomotive 402. This engine was cleaned well from its latest use and in preparation for October 30. Several of the cars that had been used on our year-end run on October 16 were vacuumed out. On the ’37 Packard, shrink-wrap was applied over several electrical joints, and the battery-box cover and floor boards were sprayed satin black. A toe board was installed and a side kick panel and the glove box installation were begun.
On Wednesday, October 26, three volunteers were at the afternoon session: Jerry Novak (in charge), Dave Leon, and Tom Marshall. The tops were put up for the winter on Stanley Models 71, 78, 725, and 735, and the ’32 Packard.
On Thursday, October 27, nine volunteers answered the call: Tom Marshall (in charge), Steve Bryce, Rose Ann Hoover, Bill Schwoebel, Kelly Williams, Bob Jordan, Ted Kamen, Neal Sobocinski, and Tom Sandbrook. The two workbench drawers full of gauges of all kinds were cleaned out and the gauges sorted and labeled. A number are excess to FAHP’s needs (some are pressure gauges, and some are ammeters and volt meters). The glove boxes on the ’37 Packard were put back in place. The vaporizer and feed lines on the Model EX were flushed out again, and it is now believed that the fuel in the tank is old and deteriorated. The boiler on the Model 71 was filled, as it had not siphoned after the 10/16 run. A heavy duty vise and steel workbench were donated and delivered by Bill Schwoebel. The vise is already installed.
A trip was made in the afternoon to the scrap yard with the shell and copper tubing from the old boiler from the Model 87. It grossed nearly $500 for FAHP. It took a lot of volunteer hours to separate the metals in this boiler, but if the price of scrap copper remains high, it will pay to do it again.
The small stone building opposite the carriage house is called the “pump house” In this little building will be placed temporarily tools and parts that are surplus to the needs of FAHP. Volunteers are welcome to look through the items and take what you would like to have for your personal use. Please be aware that two steel “car movers” (small dolleys), lengths of garden hose, and red plastic letters for the front sign are also stored in this building and are not surplus.
