Pump'g It Up with a BIG TOY This Month

[Lightningslinger]

Don't forget the BIG TOY fire engine event in Baltimore on the 28th instant.

With riveted leather hose, the bell, intake hoses and brass couplings, it all adds up to make the iron-framed four-wheel'd apparatus a wee bit heavy. It was somewhat of a lug on the cobblestones and rougher McAdam inclined roadway of Harpers Ferry's Shenandoah Street with about 10-12 - or maybe a few more stalwarts. Our own Bob Denton was in the fire party, Watchdog's Bill Christen, his buddy Mac and others were working the hand-ropes there too.

From another thread....

Hank,

You may well be describing the elephant to a blind man, but in any case the overarching suggestion reenactors are entertainers and nothing more is heading in a familiar direction. ...this notion of something about the size of a buckboard as a "big toy" is bothersome. Let's look at some living history in the form of "big toys."...

Some of these Big Toys Cruise

Look up to see these Big Toys

Furthermore, the big toys at the National Transportation Museum in St. Louis and Steamtown in Scranton have some wonderful big toys...and some of those stinky diesel thingamabobs. Woo woo!

Indeed you are correct. Non-standard BIG TOYS at events are a marvel from whatever period they may come. As you seem to be showing maritime links let me offer another:

The Steam Tug BALTIMORE would have readily fit into your bill of URL's Rog -- ST BALTIMORE

... it being the last representative BIG TOY piece of 19th century operational coal-fired steam tugboat design-technology. I co-ordinated the tug's 100th anniversary event - see site for details.

Now our re-enacting community could stand to see some encores of past BIG TOY outings as well as some that have never graced the event site paths before.

Did I mention my friend's original 1864 Albion letter press? What about Stan Nelson's original Adam's Cottage Press - thought to be once used at field hd.qtrs. with the armies?

Events like we'll be doing on the 28th could be classified as what Daddy Did prior to or after the war but I've also seen wartime image of such nearly exact fire 'injines' at Hilton Head, Washington City and elsewhere.