Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: steam engines

A waiting photo (sort of) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park with three men posing and waiting for the photographer to snap the picture. It's also a men on machines photo for the VPTP monthly free-for-all topic (submit as many vintage photos on any topic as you'd like). The photo shows a couple of guys posing on top of a steam engine while a fellow down below—with his sleeves rolled up and a shovel in his hands—does the dirty work. It looks the steam engine is in working order—there's a belt around the flywheel on the other side—but the boiler obviously isn't hot enough to prevent the guys from positioning themselves above it. For another photo of men on a machine, see Steamrolling over the Waves .

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A that could lead to trouble / danger photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten note on the back of this photo: "Eng. No. 5. Dan rebuilt. Jerry in front." Stamped on the back: "This is a genuine Border Fox Tone Picture, made by Fox Company, San Antonio, Texas,...1927" ("Fox Co." also appears on the front in the lower right- and upper left-hand corners of the decorative border). Jerry precariously perches at the front of steam engine no. 5 as Dan (or someone else?) stands next to the cab at the back of the locomotive (mouse over the image above for a close-up view of the engine ). Judging by the smoke coming out of the smokestack, the engine is building up a head of steam, and it even appears that the train whistle is blowing, since steam is escaping from it. I hope that Jerry didn't lose his balance at the sound of the whistle or that his precarious pose on the locomotive didn't lead to any other trouble for him.

Perry County Sesquicentennial Parade, photo taken at the intersection of West Main and Apple Streets, New Bloomfield, Pa., 1970. Sign hanging below the canopy on the steam engine: "Bolze's Steam Engine Club, Landisburg." According to Michael R. Zeigler's article, "The Bolze Family Steam Engine History," which was originally published in Farm Collector , March-April 1999, "This steam engine is an Emerson-Brantingham Peerless TT model, serial #17544, 50 HP, the 200th built in 1916. It was bought in 1918 by the Bolze Brothers for their threshing and sawmill operation setup at R.D. Landisburg, Perry County, Pennsylvania . . . . During the Perry County Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1970, [Frank Bolze, son and nephew of the original three Bolze brothers] formed the Bolze Steam Engine Club and toured the county with it and an old threshing machine. This was quite a sight at all the parades." For a more recent color photo of this steam engine, see 1937 D-35 I/H & EB 17544 @ Shermans Valley Heritage Days 2003 on SmokStak.com. For other photos from this parade, see:

The dealer from whom I bought this real photo postcard identified it as a North Dakota scene, and I'm guessing that it shows a threshing crew. I'm not sure what kind of steam engine they're using to power the threshing machine (which is presumably connected to the other end of the belt that extends beyond the left-hand side of the photo).