Landed Just A Little South Of Moline

Okay, so it's been months. Whatever. It's time to post my photos from Portersville. Don't worry though - even though my camera battery died well before the tractor pull itself, there's plenty to see!

I'd never seen a traction engine do a load test before. This was pretty impressive when he had it up to full power!

On the day we visited, the sawmill was powered by steam, instead of the diesel motor in the center background; you can just see the boiler in the far right of the photo. The sawmill is fully functional, and I believe they actually do use the wood they cut for exhibit construction and repair. 

A working - working! - Linotype machine in the print shop. One of the Portersville organization members who had some experience with on of these machines demonstrated how the machine worked. He also explained that the Linotype machine was far from obsolete; many smaller newspapers and other organizations rely on them. As a result, there's still money to be made from repairing them; and a gentleman had just been in to check the association's example over. I wish I'd taken video of it in operation. 

Some more printing miscellania. I really like how nothing modern appears in this photograph. It's perfectly vintage.

A very nice Ford. 

I really like this Oliver Super 88. I was hoping 'Injun Joe' would bring his ridiculous (and loud!) Oliver 99 to the pull, but he's been absent for a year or two. 

Hey Mike - you still want one of these? This is a Rokon all-wheel-drive off-road motorbike. There's a unique chain system driving the front wheel; and I believe both wheels are hollow, but I do not recall offhand for what purposes - either buoyancy or liquid storage (such as fuel?).

An interesting later model Farmall. Can't say I've seen one from this era, that I know of. 

Case row. The second tractor from camera did pretty darn good in the early rounds of the pull. 

A World War II Jeep.  It's been restored very nicely. 

This Dodge pickup, whose stakebed was inexplicably full of Lawn Boy lawnmowers. 

The Portersville group also displays some preserved steam and natural gas stationary engines. This photo is in the steam building. These would have seen use in their heyday in factories or workshops with an overhead pulley system. The museum does have a tool shop that is powered just so, but my camera battery had run out by the time we popped in. Also not photographed: tractor-powered ice cream!