Parker Steam Engines

[Richard Flanders]

You better not ever come to Alaska Edgar; you'd need an oil tanker to get all your steam engines, boilers, stationary engines, compressors, etc home.... I know where tons of them are, scattered all over the state from one end to the other.

[edgarspencer]

My son would send me pictures from Barrow, the Fairbanks area, etc, and it made me crazy. Between the old gold mining and remote power units, there's as much iron up there as there is oil.
The boy got off the boat in Homer, when he departed Kodiak, and borrowed a bike (his were being shipped to FL) and met up with a friend in Fairbanks, then rode 150 miles N. of the Arctic Circle. Lasflew to SLC Utah, picked up his Paris-Dakar BMW, and rode it back to Kodiak, 6199 miles. My a$$ was killing me, and I never left the farm.

[edgarspencer]

O&R, I've been to a few of the big Thresherman's Reunions, and it's a sight to see; dozens of magnificent traction engines, still doing what they did 100 years ago and more. I did use the excuse that my wife sort of gave me permission to buy one when she said we needed a garden tractor. I finally sold it as it was sinking in my driveway (18,000 pounds can do that)
I had a 32' steam launch, built in 1892, and kept it on the CT River, and at Mystic seaport for many years. I ended up selling that to Bill Ruger.