Engine Show Camaraderie
What keeps the antique engine hobby running over generations? How do new people become involved in the engine hobby? It all happens at engine shows.
From beginning to end, the engine hobby revolves around show season. Northerners hide away for the winter, have crank-ups on New Year’s Day, and work on one of the many projects they have accumulated over the years while spinning away the winter days until the next engine show. Others flee south where the shows take place during the winter because it is too darn hot in August to crank anything over, much less something like a 25hp Marion.
Why does the engine hobby revolve around the shows?
“In 1970, my dad and I were out driving, and we happened to drive past the Baraboo show [Badger Steam and Gas Engine Club, Wisconsin],” says Jon Rowsam, “and that is how it started.
“I took my girlfriend to the first Edgar Steam Show [Wausau, Wisconsin] in 1973. We went back the next year. I would wake up at 4 a.m. in Madison to get to Plainfield to go to the engine show [Tri-County Threshermen’s Assoc.].
“As I got involved with the hobby and got to know
