Historic equipment revived for organization’s reunion
MALDEN – Looking at the license plates in the parking lot at the 28th Annual Reunion of the National Pike Steam Gas and Horse Association, it is obvious that this is much more than a local festival. There are vehicles there from Ontario, Canada, as well as Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Florida, New York, New Jersey and more. There was even one young boy there from Sweden who has been visiting with a family from Illinois. Christopher Stanesa of Illinois said there was no question that his grandfather would be bringing the young Swede to Pennsylvania for the steam show.
“We’re staying here all weekend because my grandpa has a D-2 here,” Stanesa said.
Stanesa explained that the D-2 is a diesel crawler tractor.
“I started going to shows with my grandpa. It’s fun. My grandfather goes to two or three national shows a year and the miniature one in Peoria,” Stanesa said.
Dave Geis of Seward, Neb., is a past president and chairman of the board of the Historic Construction Equipment Association, which is having its annual reunion at the Malden site.
“This is the best place in the world to play in the dirt. This is really one of the best dirt shows in the world for construction equipment,” Geis said.
Geis got his start collecting construction equipment after seeing the 1993 show at the Malden site.
“My wife and I came to Pennsylvania for our annual summer vacation. We saw a small ad in the paper about a small construction show in Brownsville. That’s when it all started for me. Brownsville is like a second home for me. I wish we lived closer,” Geis said.
The first piece Geis bought was a 1948 Caterpillar road grader. He now owns more than 100 pieces of historic construction equipment, four of them with him for this weekend’s show. He said he likes to get to at least one of the two shows held each year by the National Pike association.
Not everyone attending or displaying vehicles at the show is from out-of-state, though one southwestern Pennsylvania man did find the love of his life in Canada: a 1913 Thew steam shovel, believed to be the last of its kind.
Bob Kelly of McDonald said he first found out about the 1913 shovel in 1999.
“It was up in Canada and we went up to look at it and I knew we had to have it then,” Kelly said.
Kelly purchased the old shovel in 2000 and brought it back to Pennsylvania. Its restoration had to wait for his retirement though, and was just completed last year.
“It took two full years to restore it. My son and my grandson did most of the work on it,” Kelly said.
Kelly said the shovel had been sitting in the owner’s yard at the end of a dead end street, so it still had all of its parts, though the wooden ones were rotting away and all the mechanical parts were stuck. The shovel had originally been purchased by the city of Branford, Ontario, new in 1913. A man named Paddy Greene purchased it from the city. Greene died in 1959 and the shovel has been in his yard ever since. Kelly said it probably hadn’t been operated since the 1940s.
“That’s what I love, taking something that hasn’t run in that long and bringing it back to life,” Kelly said.
Bill Litton of Richeyville is a regular at the show, with his two Farmalls and four grandsons. Three of the grandsons came into town with Litton’s daughter, Carrie Raab, specifically because it is the weekend of the steam show. Although Litton displays farm equipment, he and his grandsons enjoy watching the construction equipment.
His 11-year-old grandson Brandon Raab’s eyes light up as he watches the steam shovels working and he contemplates the possibility of running one some day. Another grandson, 7-year-old Richie Stimmell of Richeyville, also declares the shovels his favorite, but is willing to leave the operation to others. Michael Raab, 9, is more partial to the construction cranes.
“At the steam shows you get to see vehicles that you didn’t see before,” Michael Raab said.
“I’m at an age when I remember most of this stuff working when I was a boy, so I like to come out and see it,” Litton said. “At a lot of places you’d see this equipment lined up with a name on it. Here you actually see it working.”
The show runs through Sunday afternoon and includes entertainment, crafts, food booths and a flea market area as well as the antique equipment and vehicles.