Hit Miss Engine

He will be dropping down south east of Montana until he hits I80. That will take him through Omaha Nebraska. He will then drop down around the bottom of Chicago and continue on I80 to Akron Ohio. He will continue on to I80 and go 80 miles into western Pennsylvania and stop at Brookville Pennsylvania on the evening of Friday December 5th. He has a tight schedule and can only deviate 20 miles or so north or south of his route. This is a tiny vertical steam boiler built 93 years ago back in 1927. The outside diameter of the boiler shell is about 20-1/2 inches not counting the rivets. The dome at the top is 20 inches in diameter and the shell is 1/4 inch thick. The base measures 24 inches across the flats and raises the boiler shell 6 off of the ground. The overall height with the shell setting on the base and excluding any fitting on the top is 45 inches. This boiler has no flues or stay bolts. The crown sheet is a dome at the top of a pressure vessel that extends downward where it is rivetted to the bottom of the outer shell to make the water leg. That is why you can see crabs all the way to the bottom of this boiler. The space for steam and water at the top of this boiler is only about 12 inches tall. Because of this rather unusual construction, this boiler will not produce as much steam as would a similar size of boiler that has flues in it for more heating area. I would estimate that this boiler weighs around 300 pounds at the most. The rectangular manufacturers tag rates this gem at 100 psi. The pop off and blow down valve located at the top is marked 100 psi as well. The rectangular tag has no name on it which is rather unusual. The only name is on the distributor’s oval tag on the firebox door which lists the J. Cherry Company as being located in St. An internet search for them mentioned that they distributed dairy supplies which makes sense considering this was used in a creamery. Nothing significant seems to be broken on this boiler. The blow down cocks do not match so one or more of them were replaced a long time ago. I kept this boiler inside from 1965 until about two years ago when I brought it from the home ranch to my warehouse here in Bozeman Montana. I have over 200 collectible vehicles to deal with so this little beast was relegated to living outside for a while. I covered the fitting at the top and plugged the pipe where the feed water entered the shell near the bottom. You can see the loose pipe coupling nut on that line in some of the photos. There was no feedwater pump near this boiler when I found it. Perhaps the creamery had no feed water pump and only filled the boiler from the city water system before they fired it. This cute little gem was used in a creamery in Denton Montana to sterilize the cream cans that dairymen used to bring their cream to the creamery. I found it in a shed in Denton in 1965 or so that was just west of Musick Implement that was owned and operated by John Musick. They were the International Harvester dealer that Dad did much business with back then. That dealership acquired the adjacent property to the west and was in the process of removing the old creamery building which was in tough shape. This boiler was in a small addition about the size of an out house that was on the east side of the building. I suppose they had it outside of the main building to keep the heat from the boiler making the creamery too hot in the warmer months. We may have had help from someone or a loader at the dealership. I would only have been 13 years old back in 1965 but I was already very interested in machinery in general and steam engines and boilers in particular. That was about the time when I received a Wilesco D-16 stationary steam toy engine for Christmas. I still have that toy steam engine. I would not acquire a full size steam engine until about 7 years later in 1972 or so. That is when I bought a small vertical steam engine from a student in my dorm at Montana State University where I was studying mechanical engineering at that time. I noticed him dragging the engine main frame into the dorm elevator and got to know him at that time. It was about a year later when I bought that vertical steam engine from him. It has about a 3″ bore and about a 5″ stroke and has no reversing gear or governor. At one point, I thought about using this boiler to make a very special floor lamp for use next to the couch in my living room. Since there is no chimney coming out of the top of this boiler, one could mount a small steam engine there that was belted to a small generator. One could then use air pressure from a compressor in the basement or another room to operate the model engine which would turn the generator. That generator would not have to be functional electrically. One could run the lamp off of household current. If you thought I might be crazy, now you know for sure. Something as rare at this tiny boiler generally comes along only once in a lifetime. I can store this for you for a year or more for free if you or a friend are planning a trip to beautiful Montana at some time in the future. The item “1927 Little Giant Steam Boiler Tractor Hit Miss Old Gas Engine Locomotive Model” is in sale since Saturday, November 28, 2020. This item is in the category “Business & Industrial\Heavy Equipment, Parts & Attachments\Heavy Equipment Parts & Accessories\Antique & Vintage Equipment Parts”. The seller is “toysanyone” and is located in Bozeman, Montana. This item can’t be shipped, the buyer must pick up the item.

• Part Type: Engine
• Model: Little Giant
• Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
• Model Year: 1927
• Compatible Equipment Type: Tractor