DARNDEST THING

By Staff
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Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
2 / 9
Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
3 / 9
Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
4 / 9
Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
Courtesy of Carl Bergman, 723 West Ave., ''I'' 62B, Lancaster, California 93534.
5 / 9
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer L. Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer L. Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
6 / 9
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer L. Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer L. Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
7 / 9
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer L. Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer L. Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
8 / 9
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
9 / 9
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.
Courtesy of Mrs. Elmer Ritzman, 808 Wertzville Rd., Enola, Pennsylvania 17025.

723 West Ave. ‘I’ 62B Lancaster, California 93534

Reprint from Sportsman’s Corner — by Charlie Meaning. The
Oildale News, Oildale, California. March 18, 1970. — Thanks
Charlie – Anna Mae.

It was the darndest thing you ever saw. Pretty girls, dressed in
not much of anything were all around. There was a gold panning
contest taking place; some young men, mounted on burros, were
racing, and a lot of other things were going on. But off to one
side, many men and boys were not paying any attention to these
things. They stood or squatted and stared at 40 or 50 various sized
gasoline engines.

The engines were running ‘Chug-uh-chug-uh . . . Chug!’
they said, over and over. The men just stood or squatted and looked
at the engines and the spinning flywheels and belts, and they
raised their eyes to watch the smoke come out of the stacks and
turned their heads once in awhile, without taking their eyes off
the engines, to spit on the ground.

This was at the Tropico Gold Mine near Rosamond. Hundreds of
people were watching the other events, but as far as the little
group around the engines were concerned, there might as well been
nothing else to look at. Now and then the groups changed. That is,
a man or two would go from one engine to another, squat or stand,
depending on the size of the engine, and study it. Usually the men
didn’t talk to one another or to the man wearing the train
engineer’s cap and carrying an oil can. This man stepped
forward now and then to squirt a little oil or make some
adjustment.

I went up to one of the ‘engineers.’ He was tending a
big, long engine that had two great wheels on each side. A long
belt ran from the hub of the axle that held the wheels back to a
smaller wheel, and just behind that was a tall plastic tube that
was spouting water. The water ran down a trough and into a tub, and
from there it was channeled into a sump from which it was sucked up
again.

Surprised at Interest

The ‘engineer’ was H. Scott Rawlings of the Rawlings
Construction Company at Lancaster. I yelled out over the chugging:
‘I’m surprised at the interest so many people show in these
engines. Do most of the men use engines like these, or
something?’

Rawlings shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Except as a
hobby, a few of them.’ As for the men who owned the engines, he
said, well, there were even gasoline engine clubs. He belonged to
one. ‘Old engines like this fascinate a lot of people,’ he
said.

I hadn’t even thought of anything like that. But I should
have. I went around, squatted and studied some of the engines
fascinatedly myself. I stared while the wheels spun, the belts
clap-clap-clapped against the wheels, arms like those on old train
engines jerked back and forth, smoke came out of the stacks, and
the engines went ‘Chug-uh-chug-uh . . . Chug!’ over and
over.

The engines appeared to be old, but they all stood out in
various shades of bright new paint. Some were very small, others
large. One drove a miniature tractor, a copy of an ancient awkward
monster; but all the others were ‘working’ engines. The
makes included Fairbanks, Morse, Cushman, Worthing-ton,
International and Rumely. When I got around to Rawling again, I
asked him what some of the engines had been used for. He pointed
out that one had run a tree spray rig on the Carl Bergman

left: Rosamond and Tropico Mine, site of the Antelope Valley
Gas-up during the ‘World Championship Gold Panning
Contests.’ Held the first Saturday and Sunday of the month of
March each year. Top right: Scott Rawlings in center, facing the
camera is the engineer and restorer of the engine mentioned in the
story. Bottom left: This small scale model of a Rumely Oil Pull
Tractor is built entirely by Walter Geiser. The model is 15 inches
high and about 18 inches long. Bottom left: Another view of the Oil
Pull. Note the riding trailer and the extended hubs that are used
for foot rests. It is always a center of interest.

Picture at left is the vertical shaft water wheel at Bomar
Gardens. In center is a view of overshot wheel showing line shaft
and mills. At right, the overshot water wheel operating oil well
pump at Bomar Gardens, Cheraw, South Carolina.Mrs. Ritzman attended
the show at Bomar Gardens this spring. Mary and Dave Egan were
along and Dave took the pictures.

Ranch; the big red one over there was used on a horse-drawn
wheat binder, the blue and yellow one had yanked a big saw blade
back and forth, and that one in the corner had powered a mine pump.
At this moment, one engine was spinning a big grinding wheel,
another worked a clanking cement mixer.

Meets President

A big man with blond hair came up and Rawlings introduced him.
‘This is Bill May,’ he said, ‘president of the Early
Day Gasoline Engine and Tractor Association.’ May., of El
Cajon, said the association, organized last June, has about 80
members. They meet once a month, have a potluck and set up
newly-acquired engines. Then they all stand around, or squat, and
watch them run.

Most of the members of the Early Day Gasoline Engine and Tractor
Association live in the San Diego area, handy to the meetings, but
several reside at some distance. Rawlings, of Lancaster, is one of
these. He makes a meeting once in awhile and gets together with
other members on such occasions as the display at Tropico.

I asked him how the club got its start. ‘How did you find so
many people who liked to tinker with, and sit around and stare at,
these old engines?’ He shrugged. ‘I fixed one up and used
to run it in my garage,’ he said. ‘Pretty soon men were
stopping in from two or three blocks away, and then from other
towns. All of them couldn’t get in the garage sometimes.’
So he decided to start a club. He wrote some organizations in the
San Diego area: to sportsmen’s clubs, antique collector groups,
horseless carriage clubs, asking whether any of the members were
interested in organizing a gasoline engine association.

At left is a line-up of gas engines at Bomar Gardens. At right
is a 2 cyl. horizontal opposed Advance engine made by H. F. Boc
& Co. of Antioch, III. It is owned by R. R. Varner, Jr., R. D.
5, Box 386, Asheboro, North Carolina. Mr. Varner would appreciate
additional information on this engine.

‘I got letters from 40 people,’ he said, ‘and we
were on our way.’

I would have asked Bill May and Scott Rawlings more questions
about the Early Day Gasoline Engine and Tractor Association (such
as: what about the ‘tractor’ part of it) — how people here
could start up such a group, and more about the fascinating rigs
themselves — but it was doggone hard work to talk against the
‘Chug-uh-chug-uh …. CHUG!’ If you would like to know
more, write to Rawlings at 44914 Third Street, East, Lancaster,
California.

  • Published on Jul 1, 1971
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