Mystery Metal

 This month it’s your turn to supply the information. That’s because in the next few minutes, I'll have told you everything that I know about this piece of machinery. 

Back in 2018, I was at the Richland Creek Antique Fall Festival, admiring this contraption when the owner walked up. I had just gone over every part of it pretty thoroughly, looking for anything that might help identify it, and had found nothing. I asked him If he knew who made it. 

His answer surprised me. “I think it was homemade”,he said. Hmmmm, well maybe. Certainly there are things about it that would lead you to that conclusion, like the tiller steering mechanism, made from old plumbing pipe and fittings. 

It wouldn’t have been beyond the capabilities of a skilled and determined shade tree mechanic but it would have been a ton of work. 

I’m inclined to believe that it evolved gradually over the working lifetime of the tractor. As parts of it broke, they were replaced with whatever the owner could scrounge up to keep it going. 

Then again, it might have been cobbled together from two or more broken down garden tractors to make a single working unit. 

Even the gear shift knob contains one last haunting mystery. Preserved under the glass is a faded photo of a woman. Who was she? 

Well folks, I’ve about run out of new, interesting stuff to post. If you go to shows for several years in a row, you start seeing the same things you saw the year before and last year thanks to the Covid Scamdemic hysteria, there was only one show held near where I live. If I do find something that’s especially interesting, maybe I’ll add a post about it. 

Page Garden Tractor

 A short while back we took a look at a Red E Tractor. In this post we’ll examine one of it’s siblings, cousins or whatever the family connection is between the Red E Tractor Co. and the  Page, Dairy and Farm equipment Company.

Although I was able to find more sources of  info about the Page than the Pioneer products, the exact nature of the relations between the two companies remains extremely sketchy. 

Both companies were operating in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin by the mid 1920’s . According to vintagemachinery.org, Pioneer was doing business as M.B.M. Manufacturing Co. It wasn’t until 1946 that they changed their name to the Red E Tractor Co. and in 1949 they bought out Page and the companies merged. 

Both were building 2 wheel walking tractors by the mid 1920’s. I found an undated magazine ad for Page’s “Streamlined garden tractor” that boasted “20 years experience”. The ad looked like something you would find in the classified section of magazines published in the 30’s and 40’s.  That was the period when everything was “streamlined”, even things that didn’t move like toasters and roadside diners. What the advantage was for a garden tractor is hard to imagine. 

The advertisement went on to gush about the machine’s many virtues. It had a headlight and an equipment light for night work. It had a direct drive, worm-gear transmission that employed cut gears and ball bearings. “No cheap belts or chains.”  This model was offered as 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 hp  models. 

I have not been able to determine if either company was selling four wheel riding tractors before 1949 but I did find photos of a Page catalog dated 1950. The cover illustration shows Page’s rear engine riding model # ZA10FS with a 4 hp motor. What was readable on the cover was about all that I could glean from that site, so it remains a mystery when  the engine moved to the front . 

The tractor shown in these photos was exhibited at the Steam Expo in 2018.  It is powered by a Wisconsin model AENI engine with a serial number 3353760 shown on the plate. If someone has a registry of Wisconsin engines they might be able to date this tractor by the motor, provided of course, that it is the original power plant. 

Sources: 

www.vintagemachinery.org

www.worthpoint.com 

www.farmcollector.com Uncommon Garden Tractor Collection by Bill Vossler 

D-4 Tournapull

 Tom Trenka has done a good job of providing visitors to the Richland Creek Fall Festival with some information about his Tournapull, it’s all up there on the big board. Granted, he’s not a graphics professional but it gets the job done. You probably won’t be able to read it on your device so I’ll run down what it says below. 

This D-4 was built to fill a military contract during World War II. The Army wanted a small road scraper that was light enough to be airlifted by their C-46 and C-47 cargo planes and landed in combat zones by a CG- 4A glider. The original  plan called for the scraper to be pulled by the standard military jeep but the jeep wasn’t up to that challenge. 

Robert G. LeTourneau’s company had the contract for the Carryall Scrapers so when the Jeep idea fell apart he designed a two wheeled vehicle that consisted of a Continental Y-112 engine that turned out 44 horsepower through a Borg-Warner transmission. The four forward speeds permitted a maximum road speed of 16.1 mph. There was a single reverse gear. It was a bare bones machine. The operator sat above the wheels in an open cockpit surrounded by the machine’s controls and little else. 

The Tournapull was all about weight reduction and it managed to tip the scales at 7,500 pounds. The “gliders” they were talking about using to deploy  this equipment had aerodynamics slightly better than your average boulder and their “landings” were more like a controlled crash.  Every ounce mattered. I don’t know how many were deployed by that method but I did find a picture of a carryall being towed ashore from a landing craft by a caterpillar tractor. 

During the course of WW 2, LeTourneau produced: 1,800 Tournapulls, 10,000 Carryall Scrapers, 14,000 bulldozer blades, 1,600 sheepsfoot rollers and assorted smaller equipment. The wartime increases in demand led to opening new factories in several locations. The first was a factory in Australia in 1941,followed by one in Vicksburg, MS. in 1942 and 1945 saw one opened in Longview, Texas. There were also factories located in Stockton, Ca. Peoria, Il. and one in Toccoa, Georgia that had been established before the war. 

Ironically, the success of wartime production may have led to the company’s ultimate demise.  In 1935 LeTourneau signed a 10 year contract with Caterpillar to supply bulldozer blades, scrapers and other accessories for distribution at Cat’s dealerships. This deal gave LeTourneau instant access to a nationwide dealership network that he didn’t have. Along the way Cat’s management may have begun to see LeTourneau as a competitor or maybe they just got greedy. Whatever the reason they decided not to renew the contract in1945. This proved to be a mortal blow to LeTourneau who sold the business to Westinghouse Air Brake Co. in 1953. 

Additional source: 

www,usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/letourneau.htm       

Red E Tractor

 In 1918 a mechanical engineering student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin presented his design for a two wheel walk behind tractor to his Professor for comment. It’s not reported if the student got an A for his project but Professor Earl Welbourne must have been impressed because by 1920 he was heavily involved with the production of the machine. 

A factory was established in Milwaukee with Welbourne at the helm. Sometime in the middle 20’s the firm became known as the Pioneer Manufacturing Co. and the tractor became the Pioneer Red E Power Cultivator. The article in gas engine magazine ( which is the source for this post and about all that’s available online ) doesn’t say what became of the original designer, but he seems to have faded from view. 

In keeping with the theme of rugged self reliance, these machines were designed for easy owner maintenance. The piston and many other components were the same as those used for the model T Ford thereby ensuring a ready supply of replacement parts. To make it easy for the owner to work on his machine, a tool box was built into the cast shroud around the engine. Simplicity and easy repair became the main selling points for the Red E product.   Contrast this to the attitude of manufacturers today.  

The two wheel walk behind tractor had been the mainstay product for Pioneer since the early 1920’s but by 1946 things began to change with the introduction of four wheel garden tractor models. These were rear engine models that had been designed by The Page Dairy and Farm Equipment Co. of Milwaukee Wis. Pioneer had had some sort of relationship with Page for a number of years, but when they merged is not made clear. 

1946 was a year of change. Pioneer built a new factory in Richfield, Wis. and changed its name to : Red-E Tractor Co.  Since That’s what’s on the front of the tractor shown in these photos it dates this machine to after 1946. The first 4 wheelers however were rear engine models that were originally a Page product. Red E closed down sometime during the 60’s. 

I photographed this machine at the Steam Expo. in Cumming, Ga. 

Sources:  A Short History of the Red E Tractor  by Gas Engine Magazine 

The Jack Rabbitt

 If you ask a search engine they will tell you that this engine does not exist. I tried Google, Bing and Duck, Duck, Go and got zero results every time. No matter how I phrased it, I drew a blank. 

The same for a search for a manufacturing company called Thompson Brothers. The closest result was about an early car dealership in Salisbury. That was a possibility. It’s not inconceivable that a car dealership would also sell general purpose engines, but that will have to remain speculation until something emerges to back it up. 

Thompson Brothers certainly could have been some kind of retail merchant. It was not unusual for manufacturers to put the retailer's brand name on one of their products. All that was required was an order that was big enough  for the extra work to be worthwhile. 

The thing that interested me the most about it was the fact that it says made by Thompson Brothers, cast onto the water hopper. Salisbury, NC. isn’t exactly famous as an industrial or manufacturing center. True, Southern Railroad’s  maintenance facility was a few miles away at Spencer, but most of the industrial activity was mills that processed cotton into cloth. 

So that’s the story about the Jack Rabbitt. Maybe someone out there can fill in the blanks, If so, please leave a comment. Until then, at least some pictures are now online. A little bit is better than nothing. 

I photographed this engine at the Foothills Antique Show at Hickory, NC. No information about it was provided. 

Indian Board Track Racer

 You won’t see many motorcycles here, mainly because I haven’t come across many that I thought were very interesting. I believe that this one that Walter O’Neal brought to the 2020 Foothills Antique Power Association Show is an exception. 

The show card that is displayed with the bike says it’s a 1919 Board Track Racer but I wonder if it’s not an earlier model. Most of the photos I have found online show two cylinder machines and they appear to be substantially heavier than this one. 

If you were to ask who was the first American motorcycle company, most people would probably say Harley Davidson, but Indian opened a factory in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1901, almost two years before Harley Davidson was formed. The motorcycle company was involved in racing from the beginning. The first single cylinder Indians, designed by engineer Oscar Herdstrom, were intended to be used to pace bicycle races, but the story actually begins several years earlier. 

George Hendee was an industrialist who raced bicycles as a hobby. Apparently he was very good at it and managed to become well known as a successful racer. Being a smart businessman, he realized the value of his celebrity status and decided to cash in on it. In 1897 he began making his own line of bicycles under the name, Hendee Manufacturing Company.  This was the age when tinkerers were finding ways to power everything so a motorized Hendee bike followed a few years later. 

Hendee sold his first motorcycle in 1902 and an Indian won its first race, an intercity road race from Boston to New York City the same year. In 1903 Oscar Herdstrom set a world speed record of 56 mph on an Indian.  In 1906 two Indian dealers set a record by riding from New York to San Francisco in 31 days. By 1914 the nation's roads had improved to the point that Erwin ``Cannonball” Baker was able to cut the trans continental time down to eleven and a half days, riding an Indian from San Diego to the east coast. 

While these road races provided plenty of entertainment for the participants, they weren’t very exciting for spectators to watch and worst of all, promoters couldn’t charge admission. Early on, some races were held on horse racing tracks and even a few on the bicycle racing tracks that were called velodromes. It was the latter that inspired what was soon to come. The velodromes were constructed entirely of wood with steeply banked turns that permitted much higher speeds than a flat track. 

If they worked for regular bikes, why not motorized ones? Or so the reasoning went,  Labor and lumber were cheap and plentiful at the time and tracks could be constructed  quickly. The surface of the track was made of 2 by 4 and 2 by 2 inch boards and the spectator gallery was usually perched along the top edge of the steeply banked track, separated only by a low wooden wall that allowed fans to lean out and gawk at the action on the track. Some of these structures were quite large. One located in Beverly Hills was a one and one quarter mile track. If at this point you're thinking that all this sounds like a really bad idea you’re absolutely right.  

Those two bys quickly worked loose under the pounding of machines traveling in packs at speeds over 100 mph. They Became deadly obstructions, sending bikes and riders flying into other riders and spectators. The carnage was so bad that some wags in the press started referring to these motordromes as murderdromes. The mayhem at these events only served to increase their popularity and motordromes began popping up in cities across the nation.    

Race fans continued to pack these events throughout the roaring twenties. It wasn’t until the stock market crashed and the world was plunged into the Great Depression, that board track racing began to fade from the landscape. During the 30’s most people spent their time wondering where the next meal was coming from, not what they were going to do for entertainment. By this point most of the motordromes were so dilapidated that they were unusable anyway. All that remained was for the owners to arrange for suspicious fires and try to collect whatever insurance they could.   

Sources:

There are several websites where you can watch newsreel clips of board track races. One of the best that I found was at www.rockymountainatvmc.com/rm-rider-exchange/motorcycle-board-track-racing-forgotten…  this site has links to video clips and a good history of early motorcycles. 

www.smithsonianmag.com The early deadly days of motorcycle racing 

https://brainbucket.rumbleon.com/history-of-indian-motorcycles 

https://www.indianmotorcycle.com/en-us/history          

Another Huber Maintainer Surfaces

 I think it's important to preserve as many examples of antique machinery as possible and private collectors are about the only ones who are doing it. When Troy Rountree sent me some photos of his maintainer and said he was considering selling it, I didn’t hesitate to suggest doing a post on it. 

From what I see on Google Stats when I check my Blogger dashboard there is considerable interest out there in antique graders and construction equipment. ( Yes, Google tracks and records everything you do and sells the data they collect to anyone who wants it.) If you are one of those people, here is your chance to add a Huber Maintainer to your collection. 

I can’t provide much information about this machine. When you look at these photos, you know pretty much what I do about it. If you would like to find out more, send Troy an email:  troy@builderservicesnc.com .

Huber never produced the volume that some of the major players like Deere and International Harvester built, so you won’t be able to open your Steiner Catalog and order whatever parts you need. My way out of date copy doesn’t even have a mention of Huber parts. I doubt that the current one is much different. 

That shouldn’t stop a dedicated collector however. Where there’s a will, there is a workaround. If you know what you’re doing, a challenge just makes it more fun. 

I found a series of photos at www.tradeequip.com of a Huber motor grader undergoing what antique car buffs would call a frame off restoration. Anyone considering doing one should find it interesting. The model number and year were not listed, but the name of the company doing the work was Eastern Surplus & Equipment located in Philadelphia, PA. The asking price on this one was $9950. 

Just type in Huber Maintainer in a search bar and you will get several listings of various models for sale. I found a 1975 M700 for $13,500, a 1977 M600 asking $2500 and a 1987 M850 A that was going on auction May 1 2021. There was even a condition: new 2020 M850 E for $125,000 . 

Maintainers are still being built today, apparently in Valley City, North Dakota. You can visit their website at: https://hubermaintainer.com but you won’t learn much there, just the contact information for the company and a few distributors, scattered around the country. I also found a listing for Huber Construction Equipment located in Iberia, Ohio that could be reached by email at huberparts@yahoo.com .

All the photos shown in this post were submitted by Troy Rountree. 

You can read more about the history of the Huber Maintainer on the Oct 1, 2016 Ironmule post. Just type Huber Maintainer in the site search box. 

25 HP Superior Engine

 Patrick J. Shouvlin learned his trade working as an apprentice in a railroad maintenance shop in his hometown of Springfield, Ohio. After completing his apprenticeship he worked as a master mechanic for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and eventually wound up on the west coast. When he learned of the oil boom that was underway, he decided to return to Ohio and go into business for himself. 

Back in Springfield he opened his machine shop in 1889 mainly doing repair work for the equipment used in the nearby oil fields. It wasn’t long however, before he began working on a design for an improved oil field engine that would run on the abundant well head gas that was a by- product of the oil being extracted. 

Engines used for pumping in the oil fields were subjected to unusually harsh operating conditions. Many of the brands competing for a share of this market just weren’t up to the challenge. PJ set out to build engines specifically  for the oil fields, His engines would be simpler, sturdier and designed for long hours of continuous operation with little maintenance. They would be Superior engines.  

In the early years the Superior Gas Engine Co. depended on nearby oil field operators for most of its revenue but in 1894 Shouvlin collaborated with several other firms to form the National Supply Co. that would be headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa. National Supply would be the distributor for the member companies. As the market expanded Superior’s product line grew to meet new demands. By 1914 they offered horsepower options from 20 to 100 and hopper and tank cooled engines with 2 ½ to 15 hp. ratings as both stationary and portable models. 

By the beginning of the twenties Superior was working on semi-diesel engine development. In 1923 they acquired the Otto Engine Works which gave Superior an intro to the full diesel market. 1926 saw the introduction of a Superior vertical diesel and a name change to Superior Engine Co. Diesel products would be a mainstay for Superior for years to come.  

During the war years, Superior produced diesel engines for Liberty Ships and Landing Ship Transports. After the war, diesels continued to dominate Superior’s production, In 1950 they bought out Atlas-Imperial Diesel Engine Co. Five years later it was Superior’s   

Turn to be acquired when White Motor Co. bought the Diesel Engine Division from National Supply.  

During the 1960’s  the Ohio oil fields enjoyed a brief comeback and Superior resumed production of gas engines to meet the demand that continued into the 70’s. During this period ownership changed again with Cooper Industries buying the White Superior Engine Division. Today , Cooper still provides parts and service on the later model Superior engines and compressors.    

Sources:

The engine shown in these photos is a semi-permanent display at the Foothills Antique Power Association of NC Annual Show at the Hickory, NC. American Legion Fairgrounds. 

www.gasenginemagazine.com  A History of Superior Gas Engine Co. by Russell Farmer, June 1 2004 

https://www.cooperservices.com 

www.smokstak.com  A Brief History of the Superior Gas Engine Co. by Mike Murphy, March 29, 2014