John's New Engine
Here's my new Engine. It is an older Little Engines Pacific. The engine construction was started in 1974 by Floyd Treece of Aurora, Colorado at age 70. Floyd passed away in 1979 just as he got the engine finished. His son in law John Watkins acquired the engine in 1980 and finished it up, although only cosmetic work was needed. John last ran the engine until 1984 and it had been stored ever since.
Through the Live Steamers List, I found out that the engine, now located in Kansas City, MO, was available. The boiler was hydro tested and the engine was fired up at Gale Gish's Rio Grande Scenic RR in Pleasant Hill, Mo. There were a lot of steam leaks after all the years in storage. We fixed the major ones and managed to get up enough steam pressure to test it. Gale and I determined that the engine was a good runner and I brought it home to the Gecko Belt & Sandy Flats RR in Overton, NV.
The copper boiler was purchased finished from Little Engine as were machined axles and wheels. (Floyd had a difficult time quartering wheels and gave up). The engine has a hand pump, an axle pump and a steam injector. Being older, there are a lot of bronze castings but only one safety valve . It currently runs on oil via a pot burner. The entire oil tank is removable revealing a coal storage bunker of sorts. Cast iron grates, a headlight, a bell and an assortment of plumbing parts also came with the engine. There is a bit of work to do on it, mostly around the plumbing and the oil feed line. It will need a headlight, a whistle, a bell added and some painting but nothing major. Included with the engine was a roller test stand.
 |
Here's engine on my steaming bay. |
| Here's a 3/4 front view.
(A headlight and bell will be added as well as a whistle.) |
 |
 |
Here's a view of the backhead with the cab roof removed. |
| Here a view of the left side on my engine stand.
(the steam injector is the red item below the cab. |
 |
 |
Here's the tender with 3 water line connections to the engine. The
oil feed line is just above the buffer and does not have a tube connected
to it in this photo.
(You can see the brass hand pump lever. The black knob on the left side controls a water valve and the small center brass knob up front controls the oil feed. The large round brass cover is the oil tank filler.) |
| Here's the test stand on my steaming bay.
(It holds the entire engine and tender and has been adapted to fit on my engine stand as well). |
 |