The Sweetest Music I Ever Heard

By Staff
Published on April 1, 2000
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7669 Old Highway 76 Morganton, Georgia 30560

In the fall of 1998, while walking through the fairgrounds at
the Georgia Mountain Fair, I heard the sweetest mechanical music I
had ever heard! I had to go down to the exhibit area to see what
was going on, and I discovered a Fairbanks-Morse hit and miss
engine pulling a grist mill. After listening and watching for a few
minutes, I spoke to my wife and said, ‘I gotta have one of
those!’ I have done mechanical work all of my life and this was
an instant attraction to me. I met a gentleman (John Stanley) set
up in the same area who had several engines on display. I struck up
a conversation with him and we discussed engines for about an hour.
He gave me an address to subscribe to GEM and invited me to the
next show that the Georgia Antique Engine Club was sponsoring in
Jasper, Georgia.

I attended the show in Jasper and met a lot of very friendly and
knowledgeable people there. I purchased my first antique engine at
that show and I have been hooked ever since. I also joined the
Georgia Antique Engine Club that day, a great bunch of folks!

This Galloway was my second restoration project. It started off
as a simple restoration project, but the more I worked on it, the
greater was my desire to make it as close to original as possible
and to do a topnotch restoration. I disassembled the engine
completely and sandblasted the entire engine. Once cleaned, I
applied the finish and reassembled the engine with a few new parts
purchased from GEM advertisers. I built and finished the
oak skids to the original scale and hand painted the Galloway and
Boss of the Farm insignias on the hopper and battery box. I added
wheels and axles for portability. The engine starts with a flip of
the wheels and runs very well. I have shown it quite a few times
and it’s always an eye-catcher!

Since this restoration I have completed several others,
including a 1? HP IHC M, 5 HP Plessisville, 1 HP hopper-cooled
Famous, 1? HP Fairbanks ZD, and an antique shallow well pump that I
use on my show trailer. I am currently working on a 2 HP Fairbanks
‘T,’ a 4 HP Cushman binder engine, a 2 HP Jaeger engine,
and an early 15 HP Fairbanks Morse Z.

I would like to sincerely express my thanks to the following
people for assisting me during the last year and a half with my
restorations and questions. One thing I have discovered about this
hobby is the folks who collect these antiques are the most friendly
and helpful people on the face of the earth. Anyway, thanks to:
John Stanley, Lowell Pilgrim, and W.C. Quarles, and a special
thanks to the Georgia Antique Engine Club for all the hard work
putting on the shows throughout the year!

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