Chapter Officers: President Myles Twete of 4936
SE Flavel Drive Portland, Oregon
97206 503-267-6465 (home
503-777-2110) email: mylest@teleport.com
Secretary/Treasurer/Editor: Pat Farrell, 6647
Bridgewater Lane, Sedro Woolley, WA
98284 360-856-1294 e-mail <rp.farrell@verizon.net>
The NW Chapter of SACA newsletter
is sent out the first week of each season of the year. Cost of our hardcopy newsletter is $5 a
year.
Our mission is to perpetuate the
use of the steam automobile and to share information pertaining to them.
Events:
July 8-9, 2004
Stanley Museum
consignment auction, Kingfield Maine. Call 204-265-2729 for information
July 11-16, 2004
Centennial of the Climb to the Clouds Auto Race up Mt.
Washington. New
Hampshire.
Call 204-265-2729 for more information.
July 31-Aug
1, 2004
Brooks, Oregon Steam car mini tour and steam meet. Gates open at 7am.
Interesting towns nearby. Also a 1916 Covered bridge. Visit the Brooks Power land web site
for a list of their activities
http://beta.antiquepowerland.com/info/2004show.html
For more information on the mini tour, contact Eric Gleason
at gleason@netcnct.net
September 17-18, 2004
Chicagoland Chapter Open SACA meet, Berrien Springs,
Michigan. Contact Bill Ryan for more info at 847-945-8088
September19-24,2004 Western
National Steam car meet. Steaming
to Steamboat 2004 Western Steam Car Tour in Avon & Steamboat Springs,
Colorado.
Five days of relaxed touring in the
heart of the Rockies at the peak of Colorado's fall color season. The tour is open to all production
steam cars (models prior to 1930).
Enjoy five days of relaxed touring in the heart of Colorado Ski Country
at the height of the fall color season.
The tour begins and ends in Avon, five miles west of Vail on Interstate
70. From Avon, we steam up to
Steamboat Springs (85 miles) and spend three nights there before returning to
Avon.
Sunday: Avon: Registration and puttering around Avon
and the Vail Valley. Firing-Up Banquet.
Overnight in Avon.
Monday: Avon: Sightseeing tour of approximately 50
miles in the Eagle Valley. Spend
the night in Avon again.
Tuesday: Avon - Steamboat
Springs: Steam from Avon up to
Steamboat Springs, about 85 miles.
Overnight in Steamboat Springs, a combination of authentic western
ranching town and jet-set ski resort.
Wednesday: Steamboat
Springs: Tour the Elk River Valley
just outside Steamboat Springs.
Visit Steamboat Lake State Park and enjoy a western dude ranch barbeque
lunch. Approx. 80 miles. Overnight in Steamboat again.
Thursday: Steamboat Springs: Explore the countryside between
Steamboat Springs and Craig, Colorado (about 40 miles west of Steamboat). Third
night in Steamboat Springs.
Friday: Steamboat Springs -
Avon: Return to Avon from
Steamboat Springs. Blow down
Banquet will be Friday evening in Avon/Vail/Beaver Creek. Spend the night in Avon before leaving
for home Saturday morning.
For further information: Rob
Reilly
2360 Juniper Ct.
Golden,Colorado80401
Phone:(303)526-2641
Email: SteamTour@PeakConsultingServices.com
October 17- 23, 2003 Gateway to the Ozarks invitational Steam Car tour. Eureka,
Missouri. Contact Ann and Jack Doerr at 636-938-5844
or email them at jhdoerr@juno.com
SACANW
business meeting, Minutes:
April 3, 2004, Expo building, Portland
Swap meets. Meeting was brought to
order by President Myles Twete at 2 pm. Present were Rob Williams, Alex Beamer,
Eric Gleason, Mr. & Mrs. Myles Twete, Mr. and Mrs. Pat Farrell, Harry
Hibler and Russ Hibler, and Alan Glickman. Guest Alex Beamer was introduced. He presently owns the Tracy Porter/Bert Harrison Stanley Mt.
Wagon. The Treasurer's report of
$963.17 was given. Since many of
our members are now receiving our newsletter by e-mail, our printing and
postage costs should be becoming less and hopefully we can maintain our present
bank balance. Old Business: The 2004 Western Nation Steam car tour
in Colorado was discussed. The tour is only open to pre 1930
production steam automobiles. More
information will be sent to participants as the costs of the tour and other
information becomes available. New
business: Harry Hibler discussed
his problem of 5 tire blow outs on their 1900 Locomobile and what cold be done
about it. Pat Farrell suggested
sandblasting the inner rim of the clincher to give the clincher bead more
bit. Also the rolled edge of the
new rim should be checked against an original rim to make sure that it has the correct
profile to retain the clincher bead.
Any other suggestions would be welcomed by Harry.
June 10-12, 2004, there will be an antique
car tour in Port Albernie, Canada. So far, 3 steamers are registered to
attend. Contact Pat Farrell for
further information. July 8-9, 2004;
the Kingfield, Maine Stanley
Museum auction is well supplied with
steam car related consignments this year.
The following Mt. Washington
steam car tour should be well attended too.
Eric
Gleason discussed the Brooks Oregon Engine Show that will be held July 31-Aug
1, 2004. SACANW will
have a steam car display and a mini tour.
Saturday, after we all have taken a trip through their noon
parade, those that can, will proceed on a min steam car tour around their local
area. A tour of about 15 to 30
miles is planned and Eric has been driving the routes to make a selection for
our tour. Saturday evening we will
all meet for a no host dinner near by.
Camping is available on the show grounds, and lodging is available near
by for those that need it. Sunday
will be another show day with good-bys in the afternoon. Myles Twete will put it on the
website. August 13th-
14th in Wheeler, Oregon,
there will be steam boat meet put on by the Northwest Steam Society. Steam cars are welcomed to attend. About the same time as the Wheeler
event, The Forest Museum on Vancouver Island will be
putting on their annual show of steam used in the woods. Last year there were about 4 steam cars
in attendance. Myles said that it
was well worth the time to attend.
Pat
Farrell requested that the annual business meeting next year (2005) to be moved
to July 8-10th at Sedro Woolley, Washington. Pat and Merrily Farrell will host a
"steam clinic" at their museum.
Friday, will be for road testing and tuning our steam cars. At twelve
noon on Friday will be our business meeting. Saturday will be a 20 mile steam car
tour and an evening pot luck dinner will be shared by all. As suggested by Rob Williams, Sunday
will be farewells and returning to our homes. There will be room for camping at
the Farrell's with lodging nearby if needed. Due to security reasons, Pat
insisted that this steam car meet be limited to only SACANW members.
Allen
Glickman arranged for dinner at 6:30
tonight. It will be at
"Chevy's" which is located at the Orchards just off of highway SR 500
and Thurston Way.
Rob
Williams announced that he has a 1910 Stanley
model 61 for sale. It is a nice
running car with a new boiler. He
is asking $65,000 for it.
At
2:55 pm, Pat Farrell motion to adjourn
the meeting.
Dinner
at Chevy's: We all enjoyed steam talk while eating our Mexican dinners.
Unfortunately, due to the limited seating, Rob Williams and his friend didn't
stay for dinner.
Mike Mailway wrote: What make of
automobile was the first American police car? -- The Stanley
Steamer. Boston.1903. Records shows police only drove it about 10 miles an
hour. Literature on that particular vehicle indicated it was used
"to intimidate."
Hub Capp
Russ Hibler writes: I
thought you might be interested in the latest developments. Locomobile wheel-tire-rim problems: We
have had 5 clincher tires blowout due to bead not holding on rim.
Wheels built from------------
1. Hubs we made.
2. Rims sold by Coker Tire.
A. 40 spoke holes and dimples in rim provided
by Coker
3. A. Spokes provided by Buchanan's Spoke
& Wheel Building.
7-9 Ga. stainless spokes.
B. Nipples-9 Ga. 250 x .770 ss
4. Tires by Coker to fit rims.
After Andrew's workshop in
March-'04 Harry & I shipped all assembled wheels-tires-tubes and flaps back
to Coker to see if they could solve the problem.
After many contacts with them -
they tried many things, nothing worked. They had blowouts too. They still have
everything in their shop. June 11-'04 they called. They (Coker) have decided
the nipples stick up to high, thus holding the tire bead up so it does not seat
properly.
They now propose grinding down
the heads of the nipples.
Conclusion: Rims must not have been dimpled deep
enough to make them flush with the rim.
Regards Hib
April 2004, Bakersfield
Tour and Swap Meet Report. By Pat Farrell This year's annual tour and Swap Meet in Bakersfield,
California brought out about 80 cars that
all toured together on their first day. Wednesday's first day tour took us all
to a quite large county museum consisting of many vintage homes that were
collected from around California.
The vintage homes were all restored to make up a nice little town that
represented the very colorful Fernando
Valley history. Later, while we ate lunch at another
park, the local channel 8 news team did a special on our vintage cars. The evening's news featured the
horseless carriages, especially one blue 1914 Stanley
roadster, driving around the picnic area.
Thursday
morning, the cars split into two different groups that were to travel two
different routes. The longer tour
was to go out of town to see a wind mill farm and other attractions. The shorter thirty five mile tour drove
around to a furniture factory and then to our lunch stop at the Kern
County fair grounds. It was while on the way to the factory
that our pilot light's line became partially plugged and our pilot light went
out, flooding the front of our burner with fuel. Soon the fuel was burning on the outside of the burner
instead of the inside. Driving
through a business district, the people were all yelling to us, "You're on
fire!" We turned off our fuel
and looked for a place to pull off.
The streets quickly became a gridlock by the hysterical people observing
the two foot diameter flame leading our car. After we pulled off the road, as I was fanning the flames to
burn off the excess Coleman fuel, the city policeman took up his position at
the front of our Stanley. A passerby told me to stop fanning the
flames as it was to surely make the fire bigger. Another concerned citizen, yelled, "Get away from the
car! There is a large fuel tank in
the back which is leaking and it is going to blow!" (It was our water tank
leaking water) With this I assured
the officer by saying, "everything is all right, I am just burning off the
excess fuel." The officer responded, "Any time I see fire coming from
a car, everything is not all right".
With that, he called the fire department on his radio. Meanwhile, the tour cars were driving
by us and they all were thinking that the Stanley
had finally got nailed for speeding.
Frank Hurley later said, "I thought that you had got a speeding
ticket, and any old car that could get a speeding ticket, should have the
ticket framed for hanging on the wall". Due to the traffic jam that our Stanley
audience had caused, our officer quickly left to give a police escort to the
fire truck. Just as the fire truck
and firemen had arrived behind our Stanley,
our steam was up and we left them standing in a cloud of condensate.
"Our"
next stop was at the furniture factory. They build most of their furniture from
alder purchased from Northwest Hardwoods who are located in Washington
and Oregon. We toured through their factory in two
groups of people. We started our
tour at the order desks and design desks, and we finished at shipping. It was very educational in furniture
construction, finishing, and marketing.
Arriving
at the fair grounds for lunch, with most all our members from our
Skagit/Snohomish HCCA regional group being in attendance, it looked like we
were back home again. Everyday the Bakersfield
tour committee fed us well. As in past years,
we sold almost everything that we had taken to the Bakersfield Swap Meet. And almost immediately, we converted
much of the new found money into useable car parts.
In
addition to television coverage, the newspaper reporters also gave our '14 Stanley
a good write up in the Bakersfield Californian. There wasn't any mention of our fire, thank goodness.
We
plan on attending again next year.
SSsssteamer
Tow Vehicle Depreciation
By Pat Farrell
Over
the last five years, Merrily and I have been towing our 1914 Stanley roadster to car tours in our enclosed
eighteen foot long trailer with our "new"1999 Chevy Tahoe. We had a rather abrupt wake up call
when we factored up our vehicle depreciation upon its trade in.
We
selected the Tahoe as a tow vehicle because of its adaptability to our
different use needs. The Tahoe was
rated to tow 6,500 pounds, and for a rest nest while driving those long hauls,
it had enough room in its back to hold a full sized mattress. It was also a
people hauler. Its gas mileage was usually 16 mpg, and while towing our
trailer, it was only about 9 mpg.
With its 5.7 L 255 hp engine, the Tahoe never was short of power on the
hills.
During
its five years, we quickly put 100,000 miles on the Tahoe's odometer. Arriving back home after April's trip
to Bakersfield, it had to go into
the Chevy dealer for an axle bearing replacement. Needing a more reliable vehicle, we thought that it was
about time for a replacement. For
our trade in, we held out for the NADA price guide's wholesale value of
$11,000. For its replacement,
after all of the dust had settled, we had to come up with a $25,000 difference.
Both the 2004 Tahoe and the 2004 GMC Yukon were about evenly priced so we
selected the Yukon. The new Yukon
gets 18 mpg. It will tow 7500
pounds using the same 3.73 ratio rear axle, which is another half ton more than
the 1999 Tahoe could tow! The 2004
Yukon's smaller 5.3 L engine
produces 295 hp, which are 40 more horsepower to pull our trailer.
As
we reflect back at our depreciation over the last five years, we found:
*The replacement cost difference
of $25,000 divided by the 100,000 miles driven, has cost us twenty five cents a
mile in depreciation.
*At 16 miles/gallon gas mileage,
it has cost us $4 dollars in depreciation for each gallon of gas that we have
put into the car.
*Our last 7,000 mile round trip
to Kingfield, Maine
had cost us $1,750 in Tahoe depreciation.
There
seems that the only ways around this high rate of depreciation is to put more
miles on per year and to trade our tow vehicle off sooner, or to buy a tow
vehicle a couple of years old with low mileage. Or... never trade our tow vehicle off and try to drive it
for the rest of our lives. Is
that possible?
Recent Auction in Michigan
Reported by: Tom Littrell
I had a great time at the
auction. There were hundreds of folks there.
Several were wearing steam
organization shirts. One fellow had a Stanley Museum of Estes Park
"tee" shirt. He seemed very pleased to have bought a round tank or
small boiler about 20" long and 8" across. I didn't recognize it. It
appeared to be copper, brass or bronze and had a sight glass
connecting the top and
bottom. There were no spare parts
to speak of. There were three steam engines; one was a Stanley 735 with the
serial number 735.3144. It sold for $3500 to a buyer in England.
The Stanley was a1923 740-B
Touring serial # 23464. It needed total restoration, although appeared fairly
original and sold for $26,000.
The Black Toledo Steamer sold for
$44,000. The other two steam car
engines sold for $600 and $1000.
The red Steamer which seemed to
be a homebuilt sold for $14,000. There was a placard on it that said
"Waltham Steam Carriage". It didn't attract a lot of attention.
There was an Iver Johnson bicycle
with a steam engine. It looked to be a one off creation. The bike company had
no record of it being made at the
factory. It sold for $8500.
The star at the sale was a 1900
Michigamme horse-drawn steam fire engine.
It appeared to be totally original with all the pieces. It brought
$140,000 A Nickols Shepard steam engine brought $8000.
Please note that all these
observations are from a very recent initiate into the world of steam. I don't
have any idea if I have given you correct
information, except I did take
the serial numbers off the Stanley engine and auto.
Spring Steaming
By Pat Farrell
Bill
Roberts of Bainbridge Island asked if I would like to go along to pick up his
recently restored 1914 Stanley model 607 touring from Hood, California. Liking adventures, I packed my knapsack
and we left his home at about 6:00 a.m.
on a Saturday morning.
By
7 p.m., we checked into a Best
Western in Sacramento and after a
quick dinner, we went walking Old Sacramento with its board walks and old store
fronts. Being aware of the pick
pockets and other devious people in the area, we wisely hid our wallets in other
places. By 10
p.m., we had seen most of the sights and then we headed back to the
hotel. Being dog tired, Bill hired
a cabbie to take us back. I soon
noticed that the driver was going the wrong direction in an attempt to run up
our fare, and I brought it to the driver's attention. He willingly turned around and headed to the hotel. When we arrived, the cabbie purposely
parked away from the hotel's lights, in the dark. His meter registered $8.80 and he said that $8.00 would be
good enough. From his roll of $20
bills, Bill handed him a twenty and the driver handed him back only $2.00
change. Bill asked for the other $10 and the driver proceeded to show us that
he only had one $10 bill and that was the one that Bill had handed him. Bill stood his ground and asked for the
drivers badge number and his supervisors phone number. With this, the driver came clean and
handed over the $10 bill.
Sunday
morning, we loaded up Bill's beautiful Stanley
at Mike and Sarah Simpson's.
Coming from a nice original car, it took them five years for the
restoration of this fine Stanley to
get to where it is was now. Mike
Simpson had taken just about everything apart, then cleaned, repainted,
polished, or plated everything before reassembling. The paint job had been farmed out, and Loren Burch had done
the upholstery. We finally
arrived home at noon on Monday. We are looking forward to seeing this
fine car on the road soon.
June, 2004 22nd annual HCCA
Antique Tour, Port Alberni, Canada
With foul weather
and uncertainly of the water supply between Nanaimo
and Port Alberni, we decided to
trailer instead of drive our 1914 Stanley
to the June tour. Arriving at Port
Alberni, we were soon greeted by our fellow
Skagit/Snohomish HCCA members.
Charlie and Geri Riel with their 1914 Ford in tow, parked along side of
us. Scott and Nancy Taylor's 1911 Pierce Arrow
and Fred and Helen Gilchrist's 1911 Cadillac touring, having driven their antique
cars all of the way came touring in from Sequim. Fred and Penny Cruger arrived towing their 1912 Abbott
Detroit as also did Bob and Loela Reeve who had trailered their 1910 EMF
touring from Sequim. Dave and
Elaine Ellis arrived in the dark night, towing their 1914 Cadillac Touring. Cadillac owners, Mike and Carolyn
Martin were passengers with the Ellis's on the tour. The Port
Alberni tour had about 34 antique cars on the tour. Of
the older cars, Vern and Pat Wellburn with their 1899 Locomobile, maintained a
steady pace and were soon passed by Richard Roberts and Neal Brady Browne in their
1907 EX Stanley. Lynn Nash, in his
1902 Nash easily kept ahead of Dave Proctor in his 1904 Rambler. Since I was tooting our 1914 Stanley
606 roadster whistle most of the way to the coffee stop, Richard had used only
about half the amount of water as we did.
"The steam used for the whistle doesn't turn the wheel." At the coffee stop, we were
given a complete tour of the Mars water bomber maintenance facility located on
a lake. The planes scoop up 7,000
gallons in their tanks each seven minute trip when they bomb the forest
fires. Friday's lunch found the
Wellburns and the Farrells eating lunch at Steamers Cafe' while all of the cars
were displayed at the Harbor Quay (the waterfront). The Friday evening's guest
speaker was the Mayor of Port Alberni.
Directly after his speech, Campbell River Mayor Lyn Nash gave the Port
Alberni Mayor a 1902 Rambler ride about town to show off his antique car. With flashing lights, a city policeman
immediately pulled them over.
Asking them where their safety equipment was, Lynn
quickly handed the policemen his fire extinguisher. The officer, thinking that Lynn
was being smart with him, then launched his full offensive about all vehicles
being required to have head lights, tail lights and etc. While Lynn
tried to explain that the old cars are exempt from the modern car equipment
requirements, the Port Alberni Mayor advised the officer that he was dealing
with the Mayor of Campbell River.
The officer responded with, "Whoopee"?! Lynn
then advised the officer that his passenger, who was partially hidden in the
shadows of the top, was the Mayor of Port Alberni. Being surprised, the officer then politely said, "move
along and have a good day."
The next tour that we go on; I want my passenger to be the Mayor of the
town that we are in. Works good,
doesn't it?
On
a damp Saturday morning, we layered our clothing to protect us from the cold
and damp elements. We toured out of town 30 miles to Winnie's Trout Farm and
Coffee Stop. Richard arrived with his
EX and he had just about run out of water. His piston rod stuffing box was leaking and it was
wasting his water. He had used
more to get there than we did. I
was pretty proud that our 606 did better on water than it did the day
before. Our next stop was at the
1926 McLean steam saw mill. We parked all of our cars there and then we took an hour
ride on a 2-8-2 1929 Baldwin
locomotive, which was pulling the Alberni Pacific Railway train into the 1912
Alberni Railway Station. After a
brief 20 minute water stop, we returned to the steam saw mill for a salmon
lunch which was cooked over an open fire by the local Indians.
After
Lunch, the steam saw mill was steamed up and they sawed the round logs into
flat 2 x 12 planks that were a special order for the rail road. The mill is all steam operated and is
powered by an 1890 Steam engine.
The only electrical things in the mill were the light bulbs. The workers said that the circular
blades could easily handle old growth logs between six to eight feet in
diameter. Leaving under wet skies,
our Stanleys left a steam vapor
trail so thick that people following the steamers, had to use their
headlights. It was so wet and
slippery that if our brakes didn't slip, our tires did.
The
evening's dinner of pot roast was excellent. Blaze Taylor
presented the people's choice award to Mayor Lynn Nash for his excellent
running 1902 Rambler. The trouble
truck driver presented the trouble truck award to Vern Wellburn for his 1899
Locomobile's misfortunate scorched boiler. To get his trophy, "only once" Vern had to forget
to check his boiler's water level.
In
spite of the rain, everyone, including Vern and Pat Wellburn, had fun!
We
wish to give our thanks to Blaze and Monica Taylor and to Vern and Pat Wellburn
for their hosting of this fine tour for us.
At the McLean Steam sawmill, the Farrell's
1914 Stanley stands in the pouring
rain. Photo by Fred Cruger