Days Gone By Threshing Show at Portland Tennessee Oct 2014

[Mike McKnight]

One of the last dos for the year in my part of the world is this show, held the first weekend in October. This year we had nine full-scale and two half-scale engines under steam, and as always had a great time! Here are a few pics to show the fun.



Here you can see the difference between Joey Collins' 14 hp Frick and David Hensley's 12 hp Frick on the right.



Friday night a big dinner is cooked for the exhibitors-fried catfish, French fries, corn bread, turnip greens, white beans and ham (beans are cooked with steam from Joey's Frick boiler). If you walked away hungry, it's your fault!

[Mike McKnight]

Rick Apple, who owns the 36" Keck-Gonnerman threshing machine, let the smaller engines thresh this year. I was really surprised at how easy the machine pulled, though I've always heard a larger thresher was easier to turn, just as long as it wasn't loaded too hard.



Here's David threshing with his 12 hp Frick. His great-uncle bought this engine new, and his grandfather ran it for him. A few years ago David was able to acquire the old engine and get it back in the family. He got a new boiler built for it, and regularly shows the engine at several shows a year. It's about as perfect a size engine as you could ever want, as he hauls it with his pick up truck and tri-axle trailer!

I threshed with my 13 hp Gaar-Scott later in the day on Satirday, here we are stoking up and getting ready.


The 17 yr old young fellow on my engine came down from Illinois with his uncle, who is an engine owner. I basically "handed him the keys" for the little Gaar over the weekend, and all I can say is that boy is probably hooked for life on steam! I thought he was about going to drive the wheels off my engine!

[Mike McKnight]

The Amish crew handling the pitching duties on the thresher.


A couple of the three Keck-Gonnerman engines that were steamed up at the show-there were an 18, 19, and 20 hp engines under steam, and a 16 hp on display (but not in steaming condition.) Back in the threshing days, this was BIG Keck-Gonnerman country!



A spark show was put on Saturday night with Joey Collins' 19 hp Keck.

[Mike McKnight]

Really exciting was the return to steam this year of the Childers family ZZ Geiser. This is the largest traction engine in my home state, and hadn't been steamed for close to 30 yrs. owner Glenn Childers was extremely accommodating to make sure anyone that wanted to drive the massive brute got a chance. It was fired on wood-god knows how many pounds of slabs got burned that weekend!!!!



In this picture author John Spalding (in the blue jacket) is having a turn at the throttle, with Glenn steering.


On Friday, the big Geiser was put on the sawmill-a job it did for many, many years on the farm.

[Mike McKnight]

That engine is nothing short of massive!



The tubes in it are over 10 feet long-the tube cleaner is out of necessity ridiculously long!



It is a twin cylinder, 8.5" bore and 10" stroke.

[Mike McKnight]

In addition to having my little Gaar there, I also show my 22 hp Huber there-affectionately called Big Bad Bertha! Here she is, with some friends about to take her thru the parade.



A friend of mine told me "It must be nice to have an engine you can burn whole fence posts in!" You can burn about anything shy of 8 foot long slabs in this engine.

[Mike McKnight]

It doesn't matter whether you're talking about partying, girls, or running steam engines, generally the morning after is no fun! Here's most of the engines lined up, ready to be drained, washed out, and cleaned up for the Winter the next day. I cleaned my two up and headed on the long trek home.