Sunday, September 1, 2013

H is for Hardie-Tynes


SmugMug Daily Link

Donnie spotted  an ad for the Silk Hope Old Fashioned Farmeprors Day event in our local paper, and we decided to go check it out today.  What a gorgeous ride over back roads from Wake to Chatham County past Shearn Harris Nuclear Power Plant and over Jordan Lake. Tad hot but who can complain when we've barely gone over 90 all summer and actually had a rain free week.

We mainly went to see the old farm tractors, but we were treated to watching several steam engines in operation to mill wood, bale cotten, and run other word working equipment.  It really was interesting and filled with cool history.

I am trying to keep up wtih Donna's alphabet challenge each Sunday.  I admit to not giving it quite as much time as I should during the week, so today I was scrambling to find a shot.  I thought this Hardie-Tynes steam engine would work.  What an impressive piece of equipment!  Here's a wider view.


SmugMug Link

"Hardie-Tynes Co., Inc., founded in 1895, is a manufacturer of large-scale engineered industrial parts, including water control systems, mining equipment, steam turbines, pressure vessels, bridge sections, and industrial and defense equipment."

Watching trees be made into usable boards was truly fascinating not to mention loud and creating huge amounts of saw dust:-)  This collage shows most of the equipent and the process.  They would move a pine tree log onto a moving platformm that would push the wood through the blade.  They'd take off the bark and get the piece reasonbly square and then trim it to nice boards.  The scrap and bark would be burned to provide the steam to run the equipment.


SmugMug Link

My favorite shot of the day was Johnny up on a John Deer tractor.  We asked the owner of this 1971 beauty for permission, and he was happy to oblige.  Johnny has always wanted to do that!


SmugMug Link

Johnny wanted me to show you how big the wheels and tractors were by him standing beside them. Cute!


SmugMug Link

There was a 92 year old gentleman who had a 1925 Model T? car at the event too.  He was encouraging everyone to sit in it and take pics.  Really?  Wow!  Sure!


SmugMug Link

All in all, a very informative and fun way to spend part of our day.




No comments: