Advancing a New Display
by Willy Vinton
We've made a lot of progress getting the 1905 Advance Traction engine prepared for display. We had to build a few items to make it complete, including a new smoke stack, fuel storage box and water tank. In this photo I'm fogging the entire interior of the boiler with Rust-X to seal it all up and prevent any further deterioration. Now we only have a few more final touches to address before she's ready for display.
These big "Iron Maidens" were used for many things, especially by farmers during the harvest season to power threshing machines. The large flywheel would run a flat belt that would then transfer power to the threshing machine, or whatever else they needed to power such as a pump or sawmill. In Alaska, traction engines (moving and stationary) were used to haul lumber, power pile drivers, run mining equipment, and pull road graders and snow plows. If anyone knows of other ways traction engines were used in Alaska, or better yet - has photos of any in early Alaska, we'd love to know more.
The Advance will be displayed outside the museum. Keep watching the blog - we'll post photos as we move her from South Fairbanks across town to the museum.
We've made a lot of progress getting the 1905 Advance Traction engine prepared for display. We had to build a few items to make it complete, including a new smoke stack, fuel storage box and water tank. In this photo I'm fogging the entire interior of the boiler with Rust-X to seal it all up and prevent any further deterioration. Now we only have a few more final touches to address before she's ready for display.We purchased this 16-HP straw burner from the LeMay Museum auction in Seattle in 2009. It's been a great addition to our vehicle collection, as traction engines revolutionized agriculture and load transportation at a time when draft horses were the main alternative.
The Advance will be displayed outside the museum. Keep watching the blog - we'll post photos as we move her from South Fairbanks across town to the museum.