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October 2, 2000
Photos and Report by John Johnson
A report on the 2006 school is available here.
Our Photo Albums section has photos of R&T's popular Steam School since the 2000 school, for which we have considerable descriptive material as well as over 100 photos.Since the 2001 school, John Johnson has generously provided photos of each year's school. All are linked by year from our Photo Albums page.Click on any link below to see the photo, or Start Here and click the "Next Photo" link on each page to page through all 30 photographs of the 2006 school in order.You can return to this page from any of the photo pages.
Remember our Tips on viewing Photo Albums
- Chief Instructor John Geib starts off the first day's classroom session
- Students spend approximately a half day in the classroom
- On the first day, several engines are already fired up and ready to go
before the students get to them - Professor Geib uses the cut-away boiler visual aid to help explain
principles to the students - R&T's Baker has been pulled out for some hands-on maintenance
- A student removes an inspection plate from the Baker's firebox
- You'll see a lot more of smiling faces in the photos to follow
- Amos Zimmerman's Frick with a group of students
- A (tall) driver's view from an engine
- Butch Biesecker watches as a student takes this home-built for a spin
- R&T Treasurer Steve Flick looks like he's getting his money's worth from the school
- Two students tour the grounds on Dave Adams' Frick
- Assistant Professor Megan Glenn with two students on a Frick
- Jim Conte (left), already a stationary steam expert, with two other students
on the Buffalo Springfield roller - There are at least five student-driven engines in this photo
- The 2nd day, students start with cold engines, cleaning flues and
oiling bearings and building fires - Building fire the second day with kindling from R&T's saw mill
- Megan Glenn instructs a group of fire builders
- Another group of students with their small Frick
- Even Little Toot was available for students on the second day
- Shoveling coal into the firebox
- The Buffalo Springfield roller was a popular engine with the students
- One of the skill games was to back up and touch a post, without knocking it over
- Jim Conte tries his hand at the game with the Baker
- Jim and two other students on the Baker
- This lucky group got to drive the Shay, with instructor Scott Tasso (on right)
watching over them - "Dean" John Geib hands out the diplomas
- It almost looks as though the dirtier you are, the happier you are
- The graduates line up for a formal portrait
- The lead instructors also had their portrait taken
Steam School 2006 filled up quickly this year. Our registration form for 2007 will be posted on our web site around our "Time of Harvest" show October 13th and 14th and our classes always fill by January. The Steam School at Rough and Tumble is unique because students have an opportunity, conditions permitting, to operate a wide range of equipment. This is a rare chance for our students to operate antique steam equipment of historical value since the school was formed in 1994.School starts on the morning of the first Saturday with Head Instructor John Geib instructing on operation, safety, and maintenance of equipment at Rough and Tumble. Students learn the mantra of "water, water, water" preached by all our instructors. The afternoon is spent operating fired equipment around our beautiful Lancaster grounds. Operators quickly learn what is like steering a 22,000 pound steam traction engine with a boiler of 600 gallons of boiling water, and a running pressure of 120 psi around turns. They do take an art to maneuver, especially at busy shows like our "Reunion" in August.The second Saturday, students start with cold engines, cleaning tubes, making the fires, and performing necessary maintenance on operating equipment. We never said operating coal burning engines would be clean. Students then participate in steam games and finish receiving diplomas for their achievement. We always finish with exhilaration and lots of smiles! I still remember when I took steam school a number of years ago; it was two of the best Saturdays of my life.This year, we had the largest amount of equipment for students to operate of any school offered. We had 6 steam traction engines available for students to operate. We also had our railroad engines, "Little Toot" and "The Shay", available for students to learn as well as our Buffalo Springfield steam roller and an unusual home built tractor with a vertical boiler. Our goal is to pass along the art of operating, maintaining, and preserving our heritage of antique steam equipment and Rough and Tumble and to increase our volunteer base. Tips on viewing Photo Albums
Since our album for Day 3 of Steam School 2000, we have been using a "load ahead" feature in our photo albums.
If you use the "Next Photo" link at the top right corner of each photo, then it will pay you to continue looking at the current photo until the activity display in your browser indicates the browser is done loading images. Then, when you click "Next Photo", it will appear almost immediately, and the browser will start loading the next sequential image. To put it simply, wait for the browser to complete loading images before clicking the "Next Photo" button.
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