1939 Caterpillar R2

You don’t see many crawlers at the shows around here. I suspect that is at least partly due to the logistics involved in moving them. Weighing in at a hefty  6130 pounds you can bet that it took more than a little effort to haul this Cat through the mountains to Gray, Tn. for the Tri-State Antique Power Association Show back in April.

The placard you see propped in the operator’s seat informs us that this is one of only 1185 4J series Caterpillar Model R2 units built between 1938 and 1942. The Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owner’s Club website ( www.acmoc.org ) places total R2 production at a slightly higher 2418 between 1934 and 1942. This website features a very detailed history of Caterpillar that is worth a look.

Built at the Peoria IL. plant in 1939 the 4 cylinder 251 cubic inch engine was rated at 25 hp. At the drawbar and 30 hp on the belt by Nebraska Test # 320.

This nicely restored example is part of the Christenbury Caterpillar Collection brought to the show from Liberty, NC.

Total Eclipse

“Be sure you are right, then do it quickly.”  Good advice for almost any undertaking. It was George Frick’s personal motto and it served him well.

Born in Lancaster County, Pa. in 1826 at a time when the sleepy pace of thousands of years was changing very quickly; he was immersed in the technology of his day from childhood. By the time he was nine years old he was helping his father operate a water wheel powered sawmill near Quincy, Pa. At seventeen he was apprenticed to a millwright in Ringold, Md. a few miles away. He had little formal education, like most of his contemporaries, but he had an aptitude for math and an intuitive understanding of all things mechanical.

By the early 1850’s he was building an assortment of farm machinery and his first 2hp. Steam engine in his machine shop and foundry in Ringold.  In 1853 he established The Frick Co. By 1857 he had added threshing machines to his product line and around 1860 had moved his company into a larger shop in Waynesboro , Pa.  The 1870’s saw the addition of traction steam engines and sawmills to the list of products manufactured by Frick. This Frick sawmill dates to at least the mid 1930’s. It was donated to the Foothills Antique Power Association of NC. by Ira and Ann Cline and was in operation at the 12th Annual Power Show in 2015. It is being powered by the Eclipse traction engine in the background.

About 1876 Frick began using the Eclipse trademark on steam engines. Eventually the entire product line of portable and traction engines, boilers, threshers and sawmills would use the name. By 1879 the company was publishing a house magazine called “The Eclipse Era”.  The 1880’s were a period of rapid expansion for the company. A new plant was built in Waynesboro, Pa. that was a marvel of modern manufacturing. It was featured in an article published by the Scientific American magazine. Sales offices were opened around the country. A Frick catalogue published in 1907 listed 19 locations including this one in Salisbury, NC. Other branch offices in the Southeastern USA included: Winchester, Va., Baltimore, Md., Charleston, W.Va., Nashville, Tenn. and Atlanta, Ga.

In 1882 Frick built its first ammonia refrigeration compressor and entered a field that carried the firm far past the era of steam power. Frick became an industry leader building some of the largest refrigeration plants ever constructed. Food processing plants, ice houses, skating rinks all used Frick products. Compressors like this one provided refrigeration wherever cooling was needed. Known for their long life and dependable service they were built to run forever. Forty years of daily service was not unusual. This one was probably still operable when the packing house it served was shut down and abandoned.

After 43 years at the helm of the company he founded, George Frick retired in 1888 but Frick Manufacturing soldiered on.  His son A.O. Frick served as president from 1904 to 1924 followed by Ezra Frick from 1924 to 1942. In 1953 to celebrate a century in business the company published a small book titled A History of Frick Company Waynesboro, Pa. which is probably one of the best sources you will find online and is well worth a look. Visit : https://archive.org and search for Frick history . You’ll be glad you did. Frick was purchased by York in 1987. Refrigeration equipment is still manufactured today under the Frick name by Johnson Controls.

While you’re at archive.org take a look at a general catalogue of Frick products available in 1907, a very interesting historical document, full of photographs and illustrations. The web address is:  https://archive.org/details/1907Frick

According to a list of Frick serial numbers posted at www.oldengine.org  serial number 7883 would have been built in 1899, and here it is, powering a Frick sawmill in 2015. They sure don’t build em like they used to.

Additional resources:

www.farmcollector.com  George Frick and his Steam Empire by Sam Moore, March, 2012

Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines by Jack Norbeck

Old Rusty

To paint, or not to paint: that is the question.

Whether ‘tis nobler to suffer the pits and flakes of outrageous corrosion.Or take up spray gun, and by opposing end them.

So who wouldn’t want a tractor that looks, and probably runs, better than it did when it rolled off the assembly line half a century or more ago.

For the hardcore collector this kind of dithering isn’t an option. Nor is a good night's sleep as he lies awake, listening for the  unmistakable ping of a rust flake separating from base metal emanating from the tractor shed. Every atom of rust must be sand blasted and wire brushed into oblivion.

The thing is, at a show I always find myself being drawn to the unrestored exhibits. They have an air of history that gets removed along with the rust and grease and peeling paint. At the end of a total restore what you have is a new old tractor and wasn’t that history what attracted you in the first place? It is a dilemma.

There is however, a third path; midway between the untouched and total restoration. You could embrace the rust and make it your friend.

In the Rat Rod community rust is considered to be a precious metal and a patina like the one on Old Rusty is to die for.

The debate about how to best preserve your rust rages on bulletin boards and in chat rooms. Is clear coat the way to go or not? How about oil and what kind works best? Boiled linseed oil has a large and loyal following. So what is Ole Rusty’s secret? My guess would be lots of elbow grease followed by plain old car wax but what do I know? If you are privy to the inside skinny, or just have a favorite secret formula you want to share, please leave a comment.

The Worthington Parkover

The best thing about going to shows is they’re always a learning experience. The Tri-State Antique Power Association Show was no exception. I always see some interesting oddity that I didn’t even know existed. Case in point, the Worthington Parkover.

Charles Campbell Worthington born in Brooklyn New York in 1854 was a second generation industrialist, his father founded the Worthington Pump and Machinery Company. After graduating from Columbia University he joined the family business, inheriting the company when his father died in 1880. The firm produced steam pumps that enjoyed worldwide success and later branched out to produce steam powered automobiles and later still gasoline powered models that did not. In 1899 he sold his holdings in Worthington pump Company and “retired” to pursue his real interest in life, Golf.

He purchased a 5 thousand acre estate that he named Buckwood Park that  included a summer resort complete with country club and golf course. Now that’s a lot of grass, no matter how you cut it. Maintaining the greens and fairways was a formidable and time consuming task and his game was not improving as a consequence. Something had to be done! Sir Charles, as he was now known ( a reward for his company’s pumps contribution to expanding the British Empire ) was familiar with the traditional method of dealing with the problem having played the links of Scotland. His first recourse was to import a herd of sheep complete with shepherd and border collies. The result was less than optimal and the guest complained about the effect the byproducts were having on their golf shoes. Back to the drawing board, literally. He designed a series of horse drawn mowers that resembled the reel type push mower you still occasionally see used  to mow very small yards and started the Shawnee Mower Company to produce them. If you look for Shawnee mower Co. at https://books.google.com you can find illustrations of several of these mowers. The horses were a marginal improvement in the organic waste department but their hooves were dinging up the fairways so Sir Charles had leather booties made to cover their hooves. Honest! I’m not making this up. The booties wore out quickly and the horses complained. Clearly it was time to automate the process. Given his background, you have to wonder why it took so long.

By the early 1920’s the Worthington Mower Company in Stroudsburg Pa. was turning out light duty tractors to pull the various styles of mowers it produced. The Ford Motor Co. did the industrial heavy lifting, providing most of the drive train components. Certainly this was not the first attempt to turn a Model T into a tractor. Conversion kits abounded and almost all failed miserably because the T was never intended to pull heavy loads at low speed all day. It could however pull a mower with ease.The tractor and mowers were sold to .local governments for parks and road maintenance, golf courses, schools, hospitals, private estates, almost anyone with a lot of grass to mow.

Worthington produced the T based version until 1930 when it was replaced by an updated version using Model A components that offered electric starting among other improvements. The A version was offered at $650 while the T model sold for $495. The page from a 1933 issue of the Municipal Index that was clipped to the machine claimed that with a Worthington triple gang mower attached the rig could mow an acre every 10 minutes and move from one location to the next at at a road speed of 20 mph.

Meanwhile back at the country club, Worthington was making friends and influencing people. In 1912 he invited a group of golf professionals to play at Buckwood. This gathering reputedly lead to the creation of the P.G.A. which no doubt opened many doors over the years that followed. Politicians and ranking military brass were undoubtedly among those who found their way to the Shawnee Country Club. In 1938 Worthington was awarded a contract to provide mowers and tractors for maintenance of the growing number of Army Air Corps airfields amid howls of protest from his competition. Despite the ensuing litigation the military continued to purchase Worthington tractors throughout World War Two . In addition to their mowing duties the tractors were used to tow aircraft and trailers loaded with munitions. The number of tractors produced for the military must have been considerable because the company received several commendations for their war effort.

C.C.Worthington died in 1944 and the company he created was purchased by Jacobsen Manufacturing in 1945. Jacobsen produced products using the Worthington trade mark until 1959.

Sources:

www.gasenginemagazine.com C.C. Worthington and the Worthington Mower Sept./Oct. 1999

www.thegolfballfactory.com The Shawnee Mower

www.digplanet.com/wiki/worthington_mower_company

www.hemmings.com Article from Hemmings Motor News by Jim O’Clair Feb. 2012

Unfortunately, no information about who brought this tractor to the show was provided.

The 8NCredible

So why would anyone, sane or otherwise, want to flog a machine intended to pull heavy loads at a crawl to speeds illegal on most of the world’s highways? A reasonable question and one you might ask Jack Donohue who plans on attempting to best his own world speed record for tractors on June 18 - 19 2016. Way back in 1935 David “AB” Jenkins blasted across the Bonneville Salt Flats on his Model U Allis-Chalmers at 67 mph to set a record that would stand until Donohue’s 8NCredible blew it away in September 2015 by clocking 96.3185 mph at an East Coast Timing Association event. Next month he’s going back to Wilmington, Ohio to see if he can do better. Ya gotta admit, “ First tractor to break the 100mph Barrier”, just sounds better.

Harry Merritt, Allis-Chalmers’ tractor salesman extraordinaire and sometimes ringmaster is generally credited with being the father of tractor racing. Always on the cutting edge A-C offered pneumatic tires as an option on the Model U in 1929. Farmers were not impressed. They knew steel wheels would hold up but rubber tires! Undaunted, Merritt hired racing legend Barney Oldfield and Ab Jenkins to barnstorm the country racing specially modified Model Us at every county fair they could attend. It worked. How many new tractors with steel wheels have you seen on dealership lots lately?  These antics eventually led to world speed records for tractors, first by Oldfield in 1933 followed by Jenkins in 1935. Visit blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2009/09/15/land-speed-tractors-oldfield-v-jenkins/ to see some really cool photos of these events. There may have been some earlier impromptu races but it’s not likely. Would you want to race a tractor with steel wheels?

Today the United States seem to be somewhat of a backwater when it comes to tractor racing, but that may soon change. Certainly it would be a natural for small dirt tracks in rural areas. After that, would NASCAR be far behind? Judging by the videos posted on Youtube, It’s big in Russia. If any of our Rooskie Comrades out there want to add a comment, please do.

Why did Jenkin’s record go unchallenged for eighty years? That’s an easy one; MONEY! Record setting doesn’t come cheap and without backing from deep corporate pockets, there’s little incentive to try. If not for Donohue’s background, Jenkin’s record would probably still stand. Jack worked for thirty years as a NASCAR mechanic and car builder so he knows a thing or two about making a machine go fast. Add to that a lifelong passion for the Ford 8N that dates to the day his family bought a new one for their farm and the picture comes into focus.

After he retired from life on the NASCAR Circuit Jack started a second career specializing in 8N restorations and conversions from the standard four cylinder to the flathead Ford V-8. At this point all the pieces for the 8NCredible project came together. He originally intended  to make his bid for the record books at Bonneville but bad weather intervened. Following the June event at Wilmington Ohio’s Airborne Park he would still like to give the salt flats a try but sponsors to help defray expenses are needed.

You can follow the 8NCredible story as it develops and learn more about Jack Donohue Motorsports by visiting http://jackdonohue.com and be sure to look for the  world’s fastest tractor at a show near you.

Additional resources:

www.firstsuperspeedway.com

www.steel-wheels.net