1916 Case Steam Tractor 65 Hp Geared Pump for Sale

Rescuing a 1916 xvi hp Avery Steam Engine from the Republican River

Author Photo

By Bill Vossler

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Restoration of the Avery was complicated by its submersion in a Kansas river. Sand was packed in tight behind and around every slice.

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The Avery had been lying on its side for 65 years.

Ted McNamara

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The Avery, lifted clear of the river after 65 years underwater. "It took three big tanks of water to get all the sand and slime off the engine," Ted McNamara recalls.

Ted McNamara

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Cleaned up, only not nonetheless restored.

Ted McNamara

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Some of the crew that helped salvage and restore the steam engine (from left): Gene Zopfi, George Benson, Ted McNamara, Kurt Eiden, Art Job and Bob Tollefson.

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Art Job built rear axles for the Avery, perhaps the most hard part of the restoration.

Nikki Rajala

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The stalwart trio of Jody Hicks, Ted McNamara and Art Job with the resuscitated Avery engine.

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A rear view of the Avery's firebox.

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The 1916 Avery xvi hp steam traction engine was one of the smallest models the company made.

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Forrest Pense may accept been 92 years old, but he wasn't going to miss out on the fun. He sat down on the banks of the Republican River virtually Scandia, Kan., during Memorial Twenty-four hour period weekend in 2000, and began removing his shoes.

"We asked him what he was doing," says Ted McNamara, Dayton, Minn. "He said 'I want to be in the middle of this.' So Gene Zopfi and I hoisted him up, waded out and carried him across to the isle so he could exist closer to the Avery as we dug it out." Forrest had waited 65 years for that moment.

Lost to the overflowing of '35

In 1935, brothers Nathan and Emil Isaacson supplemented income from their grain elevator past pumping sand from the Republican River near Scandia, nigh the state line in n central Kansas. "Their equipment consisted of a barge with a (1916 16 hp Avery) steam engine and a dredge pump," writes Mary Jo DeSota in the Nowthen (Minn.) Threshing News. "The stop of the pump was placed in the sand and the steam engine was used to pull the sand out of the river."

That May, heavy rains in southeastern Colorado were edifice up to a catastrophe downstream. When the river surged and floodwaters swept down the Republican, the Isaacsons could do little more than picket as their barge swamped, flipping the Avery and the dredge pump into the river. Deciding they'd had plenty, the brothers signed over salve rights to Forrest, who was starting to collect steam traction engines.

Some might take called Forrest eccentric; others might call him a man alee of his fourth dimension. He one time hopped a freight railroad train to Peoria, Sick., to encounter where Avery engines were manufactured. On another occasion, he bought a steam traction engine almost Lincoln, Neb., drove it to Harvard, Neb. (a distance of about 75 miles), parked it and never used it again. Ultimately he would build a collection of nearly thirty steam traction engines, including a 1916 Avery 16 hp model (banality no. 51) like the one mired in the Republican River.

For 35 years, Forrest kept an eye on the Avery. When the river was low, parts of the engine showed above the surface. But if yous knew where to await, the Avery could ever be seen, even if water levels in the not-navigable river were high. Every bit time passed, Forrest determined which of the engine's parts might be damaged, salvaged what he could and scouted replacements, preparing for the day when the steam engine would exist rescued. In the late 1960s, he tugged on the Avery with a Caterpillar D-8. The attempt was non a success. "He pulled one wheel off, snapped the axle and bent some side irons," Ted recounts. During the next 30 years, Forrest fabricated three more than attempts at salvaging the Avery. Finally, surrendering to advancing age and ill health, he gave up.

The hunt resumes

In January 2000, 4 members of Minnesota's Nowthen Historical Power Association (NHPA) stopped in to run into Forrest'southward collection of steam traction engines. During the visit, he told them about the buried Avery.

Meanwhile, Ted McNamara was getting involved in steam. "I traded a pickup with a snowfall plow for a i/2-scale 65 hp Case steam traction engine," he recalls, "and got rid of my gas engines and the scent." Afterwards, while driving to a prove, Ted spotted Gene Zopfi, Champlin, Minn., firing upwards his ane/4-scale model steam engine and 24 hp Minneapolis engine. Their budding friendship drew Ted into the NHPA.

That'due south when Ted heard nigh the buried Avery. Gene was part of the grouping (including George Benson, Matt DeMars and Gary Bendickson) that had visited Forrest. Ted was totally captivated by the tale: His passion for the project provided the emotional spark. Gene and George agreed to finance the project; ultimately Ted would purchase them out. The men discussed possibilities. "Forrest said if nosotros could go the Avery out, he would give it to us," Ted says. "My eyeballs got big, considering the initial engine investment is big, plus all the money for the boiler and repair piece of work."

But afterwards 65 years in the river, they figured, the Avery would be junk. Even so, as a tribute to Forrest, the group decided to try to recover the Avery and truck it 600 miles to the NHPA evidence grounds. There, they planned to constitute it on a concrete slab, "a memorial to the 'lost simply not forgotten,'" Ted says.

Ane memorable twenty-four hours

During the kickoff several months of 2000, the men fabricated several trips to Kansas, studying the site where the steam engine sank and considering options. Ultimately, they decided to build a cofferdam, using a sandbar island, and and then used compressed air to remove debris and sand.

Meanwhile, Gene did paperwork with the Kansas chaser general's office, establishing that, at the location of the steamer, the Republican River was non-navigable. Adjacent landowners retained milling rights on both sides of the river, assuasive access to the steamer. Then, on Memorial Day weekend, a golden opportunity arose. "Shirley and Henry Strenad, who own the land on either side of the river, called to say the river was the lowest they had always seen," Ted recalls. The water level that May was but knee deep; 4 inches of the engine's water tank showed higher up the surface.

Rental equipment was too expensive, but Shirley came to the rescue with a flatbed trailer, Caterpillar D-7 crawler and backhoe. The Minnesota contingent procured an air compressor, telephone poles, railroad ties, and cribbing and blocking materials to brand a slip.

Later 40 minutes of pumping, most of the debris and water was removed. "When the Avery was exposed plenty," Ted says, "we ran a cable down from the backhoe and wrapped a vi-inch nylon strap around it." The Avery wouldn't budge. The Caterpillar D-7 (with a snatch block) was hooked upwards. It pulled; the backhoe wiggled. Ten minutes later, the Avery shuddered and bubbles rose to the surface. So it came loose. Slowly the cached engine began to rise out of the muck, covered with hard sand and calcium deposits resembling barnacles. "At that point we could inappreciably keep Forrest away from information technology," Ted says. "We had to pull him back, he was and then excited."

A trench was dug in the bank, and a Caterpillar loader pulled the Avery on shore. Almost of the 450 people in Scandia seemed to be on site, Ted recalls, watching the action. Excitement mounted equally the relieve coiffure took stock.

"One time nosotros got it out, we saw that the sight glass wasn't broken, and when nosotros pulled out a lesser handhold to drain the banality h2o, we could feel how thick the boiler was," Ted says. "Our eyeballs got real large then, because it seemed similar this monster was practically brand-new, and could be restored." Subsequently, a putty knife was used to scrape away hardened sand, revealing "boiler number 49, June 27, 1916."

The group was elated. Threescore-v years to the twenty-four hour period later on the alluvion of '35, the Avery was on dry land. By that time, both Ted'due south and Forrest'due south hearts were chirapsia a lot faster. "Forrest had a huge smile on his face," Ted says. "That night, Forrest wanted to slumber in his pickup on the riverbank. That guy lived, ate, breathed and slept steam engines."

Later, Forrest took Ted back to an onetime building on his property. "He said, 'Y'all take this Avery water tank, side irons, forepart door, front smoke ring, whistle and crosshead pump (with the original steam gauge).' Over the years, he'd removed or bought all that stuff for future restoration."

Restoration begins

When the Avery arrived in Minnesota, it was unloaded in Factor's cow pasture. "Six Holsteins helped us with the work," Ted says with a laugh, "licking it for table salt, I suppose. They breathed downwards our backs when we were working on information technology."

In one case the grime was removed, the Avery was moved to higher basis. Then it was torn apart, piece by piece, bolt by bolt. "During the entire process, just a single bolt broke," Ted marvels. "We sprayed penetrating oil, tapped nuts i way so the other, and every one came out." Most were rethreaded and used when the automobile was reassembled.

Then the real work began. Jody Hicks, president of the NHPA/Nowthen Threshing Show, and Art Job, Ted's neighbor, put in yeoman-like work restoring the Avery. "Jody helped every weekend except ii, bead-blasting and priming almost every role smaller than 2-by-four feet, and painted everything that wasn't ruby," Ted says. "She wasn't afraid to get into the dirt and muck. The backs of the cycle cleats were packed with mud, so they had to come off. She chipped out the mud, sandblasted, primed and painted."

Art brought a lifetime of welding experience to the job. "If but office of a quadrant of a gear remained, and the other role was broken off," Ted says, "Art recreated what was missing instead of making an entirely new office. If half was at that place, he fabricated the new part, and brazed or welded it together."

He also worked on the most difficult part of the unabridged projection, making rear axles. "1 was aptitude and one was cleaved, so rather than make new castings, he took 7/8-inch plate steel and cutting the gussets, with i-inch steel plate across the back, and used 5-1/2-inch round stock bored through to make room for a 3-one/2-inch axle to be fitted in," Ted says. "To brand it squared upward and true, that took the longest. I don't know what I would accept done without Art."

Submerged in a river bed for 65 years, the Avery was both protected and plagued by the aforementioned matter: sand. "Nearly of the unit was buried in sand," Ted says, "which helped to preserve it. But and then every unmarried function, bolt and nut had to be taken autonomously, calibration chipped off, sandblasted, painted and put back together. That doesn't necessarily have to be done on more conventional restorations considering sand isn't packed in, around, behind and nether every piece."

The big day

Because real life intruded at times, virtually seven years passed before the Avery was completely restored. Forrest Pense never saw his dream completely fulfilled: He died in 2004. "Forrest was a graphic symbol," Ted says, "and this Avery is a tribute to him and what he did for the steam customs."

The boiler was tested April eighteen, 2006. With the boiler completely stripped down and in a warm garage, ii inspectors from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry conducted an official ultrasound boiler inspection on the Avery. The engine was rated for 168 psi using a 2-rivet lap seam formula, a reference pertaining to original boiler structure. The salvaged Avery is a three-rivet lap seam banality with an original rating of 175 psi.

Afterward much work and many minor trials (like removal of paint that filled in parts of the bolt threads) everything was ready April 22, 2007. The 1916 sixteen hp Avery was set for its start fire-up in 72 years. Hoses and pipes were connected to Ted'south residential water line to fill the banality for a hydro test. Pressure level gauges were mounted. Leaking connections were tightened or stock-still. Gaskets were inverse, and the banality was drained.

At 11:40 a.thousand., wood was added to the firing box and the fire lit. As forest fume drifted overhead, steam was slowly built up and reduced, annealing the new iron. The water pressure level increased; by i:35 p.m., it reached 40 psi. Various adjustments were fabricated equally evaluation continued, just it was obvious the 65-year-buried fauna's outset fire-upwardly was a success.

Debut jitters

The entire restoration proceeded smoothly. "The ease of everything surprised me," Ted says. "Jody says it was meant to be, that there was a guardian affections on my shoulder, because everything seemed to work" – until the tertiary week of August 2007, when the Avery was scheduled to make its maiden voyage effectually the Nowthen evidence's parade track.

"We had fire in the firebox, and were moving like nosotros were supposed to practise," Ted recalls. "Nosotros had just filled upwards with water, come off a little hill and slowed down. I was going to dorsum into a parking place to wait for the parade to start when a piffling cantankerous-bracket on the eccentrics that alter direction broke. Nosotros knew that part hadn't looked peachy, but we figured the old boys who had brazed it at the manufacturing plant knew what they were doing, so we didn't touch information technology."

Perhaps 65 years underwater took its cost. At whatever rate, the Avery was hooked to a 1924 Caterpillar 60 (owned by Dan Wilhelm) and dragged forth the parade route. "But we got to accident the whistle a lot," Ted says.

Subsequently, the problem was fixed, and the outset actual driving of the Avery occurred during Labor Day weekend of 2007 at the White Pine Logging & Threshing Show at McGrath, Minn. "My heart was beating so fast I could inappreciably stand information technology," Ted says.

It was a remarkable, memorable moment. "One guy worked since 1935 until the solar day he died, dreaming of getting that Avery out of the river," Ted says. "Another spent seven years working on information technology with the help of a lot of dedicated people. In the terminate, this whole matter concluded up making 2 guys' dreams come true." FC

Kansas' Republican River swallowed more than i steam engine. Read about a 65 hp Instance that was saved from its depths: " Saved from the Republican River ."

For more information:
– Ted McNamara, P.O. Box xiv, Dayton, MN 55327; electronic mail: jhicksmn@yahoo.com.
– Nowthen Historical Power Association, P.O. Box 43, Rogers, MN 55374; electronic mail: nhpamn@yahoo.com; www.nowthenthreshing.com.

Bill Vossler is a freelance writer and author of several books on antique subcontract tractors and toys. Contact him at Box 372, 400 Caroline Ln., Rockville, MN 56569; electronic mail: bvossler@juno.com.

1916 Case Steam Tractor 65 Hp Geared Pump for Sale UPDATED