418 Creekside Drive Amarillo, Texas 79124
After seeing my first engine at a flea market in Canton, Texas,
in 1992, the hunt was on for one of my own! At that time I thought
this was going to be hard to find, because surely nobody would have
anything like that! (Little did I know at that time!) By chance, I
was asking about engines in an antique shop in Austin, Texas, in
November, 1994. The owner gave me the name of O. B. Maloy in
Austin, who collected engines. After I met with Mr. Maloy over
breakfast, he informed me I was not alone in the quest for old
iron, and that lots of people out there were also bitten by the
bug. WOW, after two years I was finally on the track!
O. B. took me to see his Krugers and now, more than ever, I
really needed an engine. Since I lived in Amarillo, O. B. gave me
the name of a man closer to my home, Paul Armstrong of Hart, Texas.
He told me to contact him, as he might have an engine that could be
bought. After I called Mr. Armstrong, I guess he could tell I
needed a ‘fix’ for the newly acquired disease, and he
invited me down to tour his collection.
A few days later I drove down to his farm and spent several
hours looking at all of his engines, and trying to absorb as much
information as possible on how and what made these engines run. He
said he had a complete engine for sale that needed restoring.
Well, it didn’t take long to load it up. My dream was now a
reality, I had my first engine. It was a 1919 Fairbanks-Morse 3 HP
‘Z’ (see picture).
Back home I go with my engine, now late in December, 1994. Paul
has a show on his farm every year on the second weekend of June and
I’ve got to have my engine ready by then. During the next
several months I restored the engine and was able to make it back
to his show in June.
The thing about engines is that one is never enough. It is now
February 1998 and my collection has grown to twenty in the span of
three years. The pictures show some of my other engines, both
before and after. I hope everyone enjoys them!
