Parker Steam Engines

[Richard Flanders]

Thanks Edgar. Not sure I'll get another chance to look at the hydro house unit to see exactly what the wheel looks like. My impression was that it looked like a paddle wheeler wheel but I could have missed something in there. I bet there's a Francis-type wheel off to the right where it goes out of the drum.

Calvin: I use that old diesel in my wood stove for firestarter. If I had an old Cat dozer I'd burn it in there. It's more like marine diesel than anything; very thick.

Here's a few more pics of a stationery engine used for power generation and some of the old cats at a silver mine on the Seward Peninsula at Omilak. The first freighting trip into this mine was in 1879 if you can believe that. 20yrs before the Nome gold rush and has seen activity into at least the middle 80's and is still owned by a friend of mine. This place is 90 miles northeast of Nome in the headwaters of the Fish River. This is about the best stationery engine I've seen in Alaska and could easily be restored to running condition. They generated power and ran a belt driven sawmill with it. The orange Allis Chalmers dozers could likely be gotten going in a few hours. The little Cat 22 is in excellent shape. These are very common in remote mine areas and were used for freighting in supplies and never had blades. There's hundreds of them scattered around Alaska; the Seward Pen is littered with them. Note that the pads are in near 100% condition. The square holes cut in the center were made to let snow out so that it didn't pack up on the rails and force the tracks off the front idler. These days we cut these holes round because the square corner holes tend to crack. This was a great spot to visit. Very remote with a brushy old airstrip.

When this thread finally comes to an end it will not be because I run out of pictures I assure you. I've spent 33yrs accumulating them. This is but a small sampling. I love this old stuff!