Steam Tractor Finds Home In Crane

Boys never grow up; their toys just get bigger and more expensive. Or so says Dave Vanek, Billings, who delights in acquiring old tractors and then restoring these antiques to working condition. Vanek recently sold one of his three restored ‘toys’, a 1912 Case Steam Traction Engine, to Jerry Satra, Crane.

“I bought this Case Steam Traction Engine (tractor) in 1987 from a family estate sale near Medicine Hat, Alberta,” Vanek remarks of the tractor now in Crane. “I restored it in 1989 and took it to its first threshing show in Lewistown in 1990 and I’ve taken the tractor to that show ever since. This particular tractor is the second of three that I’ve restored.”

He laughs and adds, “I’ve been interested in old tractors ever since I first crawled onto the seat of one near Geraldine, MT. when I was four years old. I own that one now, too! The restoration and use of these tractors is just so cool. It’s an antique tractor disease that you never get over. My dad calls it the ‘rust disease’ and claims it is terminal.”

Vanek points out that these old steam tractors, which have a top speed of 2.5 miles per hour, required a lot of work and several men to keep them running, but they still accomplished more in a day than could a team of horses. These tractors also made it possible to break more ground in the west. “These tractors were used for breaking sod, threshing, saw mill work, and any other chore requiring belt or drawbar power,” Vanek explains. “Western U.S. and Canada were broken up with these steam engines as these machines can easily pull an eight bottom moldboard plow, depending on engine size, of course.”

Farmers typically used coal to stoke these tractors, which work exactly like a steam locomotive, but farmers could also use wood, straw, oil, or any other fuel to build steam to power the machine. “Most farmers used coal or oil when farming because of the practicality of those fuels,” Vanek comments. “If the engines were used to run saw mills, then wood was the fuel of choice for obvious reasons, and at threshing time farmers often burned straw.”

Farmers needed both water and a fuel source to keep the tractors running. “You have to have water in the boiler, fill it to the proper level, then build a fire and heat it up,” Vanek says. “It takes about two hours to build up enough steam to run the machine. There’s a sight glass on the boiler to show you the water level. The engineer has to balance the fire and the water to get the proper pressure.”

He continues, “Once it is running, it needs constant attention, so farmers usually had a crew. It takes two people to run a steam engine, the fireman who keeps the pressure up and manages the fuel input, and the engineer who operates and maintains it. Another one or more people had to haul water and fuel from a source to the tractor.”

This model has a single speed, and goes the same speed forward or backward. Vanek says that some of these steam engines had a higher road gear for use as freighting engines.

Vanek enjoyed working with this tractor and attended the Lewistown tractor show with it, but eventually he decided to part with this machine. “I had a lot of fun with this tractor and so did my kids,” Vanek says. “We even paraded it down Main Street in Lewistown. However, I decided to sell it to pay off student loans.”

Jerry Satra, the new owner, first saw this machine at Lewistown and he promptly fell in love with it. When Vanek put the tractor up for sale, Satra heard of it through a friend and contacted Vanek. The result? The tractor now has a new home.

“This tractor was a delayed Christmas present to myself,” Satra comments. “I’m still thinking about what I’ll do with it. If I can find a saw mill, I’ll use the tractor to run that.”

He laughs and concludes, “I don’t think I’ll farm with it, but watch for black smoke this spring.”