Advanced Steamer

I just stumbled across this while looking at some Rumelys. Who can ever get tired of watching an Oil Pull start up? Anyway I stumbled across this. Not the biggest Jay Leno fan, but he's got himself a propane fired Advanced Steam. It's his money, so he can modify it anyway he wants. But it is comical to watch. He is having a good time with it.

First time I ever ran into one of these guys, an Amish fella had one down at the cousins in Bremen. Was a little Sinclair gas station near their house that when we were about four or five years old we used to go fill our pockets with penny candy. I did one time, was filling them good as I was walking out of the store and the Amish fella came tooling right up near me as I rounded the corner. This was back when all of the farmers had Deere 60s, 70's and Harvesters, Cases, Olivers, and you get the idea. I walked out the door, rounded the corner stuffing my pockets, and up through the gravel came one of these guys right at me. I never seen or heard anything like it before. I dropped my candy, ran across the gravel parking lot and road, between the barbed wire and through the corn field all the way to my cousins and almost didn't stop when I got there. To a four year-old that barely came up to the top of the front tire, that thing breathing fire and steam..."RUNNNNNNNN".

Jay Leno and his propane steamer, but at least its still a steamer.

Mark
Leno enjoying his Advance Steam...its funny

I agree on the Oil Pull starting!

wow thank you for posting the steamer mark, that tractor is amazing! like one person commented only 25 hp but a million ft pds of torque! I have a much better understanding of members here that restore old steam tractors and why they do it!! AMAZING!

I have watched Jay's videos countless times. He has a VERY vast knowledge of pretty much anything with an engine - and his favorite is steam. He has other videos with Stanleys, and some very old stationary steam engines (actually I think one is one of the oldest known to exist with a wooden flywheel)... He really does have a vast knowledge of a lot of things - and he brings a lot of good humor into it.

Cool Video

Neat idea to burn propane in case the fire has to be "dumped" quickly. Maybe not allowed to burn coal in traction engines on the west coast. I thought that is what I was told a few years ago at the Brooks Oregon "Great Oregon Steam Up".

A controlled explosion on wheels. One really has to be good with one of these to operate it because nothing on it is automatic or auto-pilot, and forget to open or close the wrong valve and its over. No excuses here. I noticed that the oiler is the same as a Rumely's.

Mark

In California ya gotta burn LP or nat gas in your steamers.

(quoted from post at 21:23:11 01/17/18) A controlled explosion on wheels. One really has to be good with one of these to operate it because nothing on it is automatic or auto-pilot, and forget to open or close the wrong valve and its over. No excuses here. I noticed that the oiler is the same as a Rumely's.

Mark

Click to expand...

Actually, steam traction engine safety is pretty basic.

As long as the safety valve is functioning and you don't let the boiler water get so low the crown sheet is exposed, even for an instant, an explosion is pretty unlikely, IMHO.

And keep the fusible plug in the crown sheet intact.

If water gets low, fusible plug melts, dousing the fire. NO explosion!

You HOPE...!! If the Fuse plug is old, it very well may not melt out...

Pretty ugly things happen when they explode...

Filling a modern tractor with gas and your cigarette falls into the funnel.......boom !

Drive a modern tractor in road gear at speed and take a sharp turn......roll over !

Get too close to an unguarded PTO shaft and get tangled in your clothes ........ major injury or death !

Run a modern diesel out of oil at full throttle and a piston blows thru the block ..... schrapnel injury !


Steam engines and modern tractors are only as safe as the operator in control and how he maintains his equipment. I'll stand by my steam engine all day long in great comfort, and a lot of respect for it.

(quoted from post at 18:55:44 01/17/18) I have watched Jay's videos countless times. He has a VERY vast knowledge of pretty much anything with an engine - and his favorite is steam. He has other videos with Stanleys, and some very old stationary steam engines (actually I think one is one of the oldest known to exist with a wooden flywheel)... He really does have a vast knowledge of a lot of things - and he brings a lot of good humor into it.

Click to expand...

I agree!He does know an awful lot about cars and trucks.I watch all his videos that I can call up as well as his TV shows(Jay Leno's Garage) when I can catch them.Strange that many people don't like him.

You might find a day trip to Cincinnati to see the Cincinnati Water Works triple expansion pumping engines interesting.

The engines pumped water from the Ohio River to the Cincinnati Water Works reservoir from 1906 to 1963 and have been maintained in operating condition since. Tours are available but reservations are required.

Dean
CWW Triple Expansion Steam Engines

Unlike an internal combustion engine, a reciprocating steam engine creates maximum torque at stall.

I grew up near the B & O Railroad and am old enough to remember the steam helper engine stationed less than 1/2 mile from our house until the fires were dropped for the last time in 1957. The helper engine was needed to help the heavy freights up the 12+ mile hill out of the Ohio River valley. The freights, pulled by a couple of heavy steam freight locomotives or a consist of 3 or 4 diesel F units would stop with the caboose about 1/2 mile from my bedroom window. The helper engine would then follow and couple to the caboose.

Starting a heavy freight with a steam locomotive is a bit of an art as the torque is difficult to modulate at stall and the wheels were prone to slip. After coupling, and a couple of whistle signals between the engineer(s) in the head end locomotives and the engineer in the helper locomotive, they would push off. Generally, after a couple barks of the exhaust,, the wheels would slip, the side arms flailing wildly, until the engineer could pull back on the throttle and pour on the sand. Usually, on the second effort, there was enough slack in the consist, that the locomotives could accelerate the train.

Wonderful memories, no doubt responsible for my fascination with reciprocating steam engines of all types.

Dean

I think the warped mindset in the entertainment industry and their trolls in the mainstream media helped fuel dislike for Jay. My favorite late night talk show host was Johnny Carson, who had set the bar so high, no other late night talk show host will ever surpass him. Carson was bright and very quick witted. Johnny poked fun at each president as they were all fair game, and I can only imagine the hey day he would have with the California governor, Jerry Brown, who is now in his second tenure in the executive role for that state. I enjoyed Leno, though, as he wasn't necessarily trying to imitate the legendary Carson. One reason I like Leno over others stems from what appeared to be an impartial neutrality towards political figures. Any politician who screwed up or needed to be "roasted" was fair game, no matter what party affiliation.

I also think Jay was on the receiving end of a great deal of criticism, which I feel he was not deserving of, from the fallout and failure of being replaced by Conan O'Brien. I feel Conan is a gifted and talented individual, but he is not someone whom I look forward to watching every night. Carson was. Jay, too, but not quite like the draw to Carson for me. Growing up during a time when we had 3 television stations covering 2 networks, what we had to watch was limited. As I grew older, we bought a UHF antenna and were able to tune into nearly 20 channels, but I still kept watching Carson. After Carson retired, I switched back and forth between Leno and Letterman. I liked watching Dave's Top 10, stupid pet tricks, Larry Melmon antics, and the bits they did with the deli across the street. After those, I went back to Leno. I preferred Leno's monologue to Dave's.

I must add that Carson was also from the Midwest states of Iowa, and more notably, Nebraska. Someone who came from rural farm country probably has an "in" with the members of this forum, as compared to some "wise guy" who grew up in the city, did the stand up comedy routines in the night clubs, and the like.

I also think Jay is one of the very few in that industry who possesses humility and humbleness. I feel he can connect with the working class citizen. His interest in classic cars and machines makes him more in sync with those who have and do work with their hands. Why else would his name come up in discussion on this forum? I really don't know if the likes of Stephen Colbert, Carson Daley, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, James Corden, and Jimmy Kimmel have even a remote connection to those of us who are on this forum. I feel Kimmel and Colbert think of the citizens from the middle section and rural parts of this nation as "deplorables," a terms used widely in the final part of and the fallout from the 2016 election, especially by the mainstream media.

I hope this comes across as less of a rant than I think that it is. It was not my intent. I didn't care for either side in 2016, but I disliked one even more than the other. I think most of us are probably more "middle of the road" independents in our politics, and we probably have modest leanings towards one side of center or the other. I don't think we are worlds apart. I hope my thoughts are okay with this group, though.

That propane conversion makes a lot of sense for the reasons he mentions. Plus He doesn't want coal soot all over his collection ! lol.
And I also wonder if CA would not let him run it on anything but LP ?

Maybe I should try and contact Jay to see if he wants to start collecting JD 2 cyl. I could fix him right up !

STEAM .. Is what Should be moving our Moder n TRUX across Couhtry