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Again, I apologize for the lack of variety in these photos. When you're crewing an event like this, you don't get to get away as much as you'd like, so I didn't get away to get too many pics. Come help us crew next time so I can get out more and get more pics!!!
Paul looks at Nick's ghost, fleeting by the camera
View from the cab of Pappy whilst driving down the main strip in a parade
This was supposed to be a shot of all the tractors in the background, lined up behind the bleachers.
More tractors lined up
Getting the Baker Fan belted up to run
This is me taking a picture of Sunny taking video fo the belt running... :-)
A bunch of small, intricate engines on a cart. The same guy had a vertical fire tube boiler similar to the one I just bought.
This shot shows the boiler (single lap seam, like mine) with all the whistles on it. I think he was running it at 80 pounds.
Some of the smaller engines. I can't believe that he didn't have a primimg problem since the littles ones were fed so far from the main steam line.
For those that can't tell, these are the guts of windmills. This is what is at the top of the tower, with blades attached. The gears reduce the speed and the cranks create an up and down motion for pumping water, etc.
Who know that they came in so many sizes. I like his sign too...
Here is a beautiful example of the standard 3-piston pump. In this photo, the mechanics are clearly laid out. 120 degree separation on the crank shaft for smoothness. Not sure how someone could mistake this for an engine...
A large gas engine running. I think I have video of this I'll have to post later.
This was a corn machine. I can't describe it with a name, but it seemed to strip all the corn kernels off the cob and put them into the bags for grinding later. Very quick in operation and fun to watch run. Again, I think I have video of this.
Inside a blacksmith shop.
Here they are heating up a hammer head that they are getting ready to forge.
Here it comes out of the fire, quite hot.
I thought it was ironic that they used a hammer (albeit a larger one) to make a hamner with.
I tried to get a couple action shots.
Here is a belt-driven power hammer. It's smaller than most I've seen, but it would have still been cool to see it running.
I guess it's not readily apparent what's going on here. I think they were making shingles. The two machines were being run off John Deere gas engines. It would have been cooler if they had been steam powered.
I guess this was a mini sawmill of sorts. They would load up a log and keep pushing it through the sawblade. The boards/shingles would drop out the bottom. They actually got pretty quick at this.
Here the Vista guys have belted up to our Baker Fan.
Getting ready to do the tractor pull
The boiler is belching black smoke as Zack is trying to build the pressure as high as possible (without lifting the safety popoff valve) for the pull.
Kind of a perspective shot showing the grounds and the crowd. There was another pull going on in parallel on the other size of the dirt area.
Another perspective shot showing more of the crowd.
The pressure built up was all for naught as the clutch started slipping not too far into the event.
I asked one of the officials later how much weight we pulled, and he said they didn't really measure it like that. It was more of "how far" did we pull it. I think we went 88 or 188 feet. Can't remember what the other tractors did, but it seems like they were better adjusted and went further in general. Well, there's always next year.