The vapor clouds have died down on the 2013 SACA Steam Clinic. It was an informative event with five steamers in attendance. They included John Kieper’s Model 735 Stanley, Bob Ullrich’s Model K Stanley, Ron Schroeder’s Model 63 Stanley and The Farrell’s whole Stanley collection. Our Model 62 Stanley ran a flawless tour with our biggest issue being a pilot that blew out once.
The big event of the tour was when Ron Schroeder turned a hard left and punched the steering rack right into his burner assembly. It created a fist size hole where you could look up from the bottom of the car and see a portion of the tube sheet. I ‘m impressed that Ron managed to run the car for about a mile before he realized what had happened because there would have been a lot of flames coming out of a hole that big. Lucky for Ron it was a clinic and everyone worked together to get his Stanley back on the road the following day. The issue turned out to be a result of the drag link length and a rack that wasn’t properly centered.
All in all it was a great clinic. Special thanks to the Farrell family for having all of us steam guys over and keeping us entertained.
