Alan Crawford

I took advantage this past weekend of joining up with one of my college roommates and his wife while they are on their two-month cross country trip, to visit the Rough and Tumble Engineers Historical Association Museum in Kinzers, PA. This site is AMAZING! It encompasses 33 acres and houses an enormous collection of steam, as well as combustion engine, powered equipment! And these not just rusting, stationary relics from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s! They have been restored and work!

Their big fall show is this coming weekend, October 11 and 12, the Time of Harvest Show. Our schedule did not permit us attending, though we wish it could. The excitement of seeing many of these archaic machines move is beyond belief. I sometimes have difficulty keeping my Bobcat mower running. Just looking at the horse drawn combine next door while we were taking a tour was beautiful, allowing us to drift away to simpler times.

You might be asking why I am writing about this fabulous museum only three hours from Newburgh. They have a restored and working Coldwell Steam Lawnmower! Since writing the article about this unique piece of equipment manufactured in Newburgh, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see one first hand.

The craftsmanship of this mower is superb, nothing like the new buy, use, and discard every six years ones we have today. Engineering of this type provides something which can be maintained and repaired as needed. For example, this mower is still operating over a century after it was built and sold!

At the time of my visit a very large group of volunteers was putting everything together for the big show this coming weekend. They even have a small gauge steam train and tracks for a children ride and operating steam shovel.

Their graciousness was outstanding and we were invited to join them in their group lunch which was excellent. Open face, hot roast beef sandwiches, mashed potatoes, veggies, and apple cobbler. They even had homemade ice cream! It doesn’t get any better.

While I was there, we discussed the possibility of transporting the Coldwell lawnmower to Newburgh and demonstrating its abilities sometime next year. I’ll keep everyone updated and, if you would like to see this happen, let me know.