The Restoration Chronicles of 721

The Restoration Chronicles of 721

I purchased this engine at Leonard Rynda’s sale in May of2004. The engine’s number is 721, built in 1893. I have been told by a reliable source this is the oldest know Minneapolis engine left, but I have no way to verify this other than someone telling me my claim is incorrect, which I encourage anyone to do.

I received a lead about an engine # 512 thought to still exist. The engine showed up on the steam-tractors web site. After making several calls and one trip I discovered that all that remains of #512 is the cylinder with its name plate. I consider this as a remnant and no contest for my claim that #721 is the oldest surviving Minneapolis steam traction engine.

Here is a picture of the engine (copied from the steam traction site) as it sat for over 50 years at Montgomery, MN.

I will attempt to provide a chronicle of the restoration on this page, updating the page as the restoration process continues. The work is being done at Heritage Park of North Iowa. This year’s mild winter has allowed the work to proceed in the large unheated machinery building. You will notice partial pictures of other units stored in the building.

Date (Click on Date to see Detail)	Work Completed
December 3 & 4, 2005	Removed smoke box ends
December 11, 2005	Removed piping
December 17 & 18, 2005	Removed rear smoke box and all engine levers
January 4, 2006	Construction of new boiler decision
January 7, 2006	Removed engine
January 14, 2006	Removed traction components
January 15, 2006	Delivered boiler to shop
February 19, 2006	Polishing Brass

Date	Work Completed
December 3 & 4, 2005	With the help of Brian Patterson and Eric Bremer, we removed the smoke box ends on both the front and the rear. Had to torch most of the bolts. This allowed a thorough visual inspection of the boiler to be completed. These initial set of photos were taken after the smoke box ends were removed. I plan to do a detailed ultrasonic thickness test this weekend and assess my options further, but based on the visual inspection, I may need to have a replacement boiler constructed. To that end I am currently in the process of making some inquires.
	Click on Picture for larger View





December 11, 2005	The goal today was to remove all the piping from the engine. I only had about three hours to work on the project. I first took pictures of how all the existing piping was plumbed so I can use it as a pattern when I get to the piping point later in the summer. I know it was not the original pipe, but from factory photos I was pretty confident it was plumbed the way it came from the factory. Click on Picture for larger View



	As I removed the pipe, I put all the fittings back together to use as a pattern when I installed the new pipe. I was a little surprised to find that a mouse had found his way to the cross head pump. Click on Picture for larger View

	A problem presented itself as I went to remove the bottom valve for the water column. To remove the valve I discovered I will first need to remove the gear guard. That project will need to be left for another day. My three hours was just about up. Other than that problem though, I did manage to remove all of the other piping. As you can see, it required a little heat to remove some of the fittings. Click on Picture for larger View

December 17 & 18, 2005	Brian Patterson decided to come over from Emmetsburg, IA to help out a little over the weekend. We continued with the dismantling. Got the rest of the rear smoke box off, removed the piston for inspection and removed the preheated ends for inspection. As you can see, we disturbed another cozy mouse home in the preheated. I was really surprised to see what good condition the cylinder, piston and rings were in. Front tank will need some help. Click on Picture for larger View


January 4, 2006	Over the Holidays, I made the decision to essentially have a new boiler constructed. Craig’s Restoration Services from Durant, IA was given the contract to do the work. That decision being made, I will now need to remove the engine and traction components from the old boiler and deliver the old boiler to Craig so the boiler work can be started.
January 7, 2006	The goal today was to remove the engine. I wanted to remove the engine intact if possible. This would greatly simplify the reassemble project. Removing the engine would consist of removing 36, ¾” cap screws that held the engine mounting castings to the boiler. I am sure they had not been removed since installation at the factory in 1893. Most of them were rusted in pretty good. We had to use some pretty heavy duty brut force to get them out. We broke only 4 of the cap screws. The rest of them came out but we ruined the threads in about 90% of them. I’ll need to get all new ones mode. I had several friends stop by to help out. My thanks to Dave Hill, Chuck Holland, Wyndham Sellers, Bill Haun and Norman Taylor for their help. It took us right at 8 hours to get the engine off. Click on Picture for larger View



January 14, 2006	The goal today was to remove the traction components and get the boiler removed and loaded on the trailer for transport to Durant, IA. Things went relatively straight forward. The cap screws still came out hard, but we had perfected our procedure for removing them. We had to remove the rear wheels to get access to the rear axle mounting brackets. Thanks to Eric Bremer, Brain Patterson, Wyndham Sellers and Chuck Holland we had all the cap screws out by noon and the boiler loaded on the trailed early in the afternoon. Turned out to be a short day. Click on Picture for larger View



January 15, 2006	Today we delivered the boiler to Craig’s Restoration in Durant, IA. Craig Dobbins and Gary Flack gave us a tour of their shop and some of the other work they have in progress. Sounded like my project would be started almost immediately. That sounded really good to me as my goal to have the engine up and running at Heritage Park’s fall show seems closer and closer each day. Here we are unloading the boiler at Craig’s shop. That is Craig on the JD tractor. Click on Picture for larger View

February 19, 2006	Brian and Eric were over this weekend to help out on the 15 Rumely restoration. We completed what we wanted to accomplish on that project on Saturday, so we decided to work some on 721. Didn’t have a lot of time so we decided to polish some brass. Eric took on that project. As you can see he has most of the brass look’n good. Click on Picture for larger View

Contact Me
Home	My Christmas Card
Heritage Park of North Iowa	Heritage Park of North Iowa Animation Site