midget myth? 150

[Colin]

Well ive heard more than once that people think the famous picture of the 150 in the 1905 book had 2 midgets standing in front of the wheel. but i just think they were shorter guys. maybe around 5'9. I studyed the 150 picture and it was sitting up on cement or something. not sunk in the ground. so that maybe gives it a couple more inches. and this picture of dad by our 110, its sunk in the ground a little. and the 150 wheel is 1 inch bigger in dia.
im thinking dad is about 5'11. So if our 110 wheel was 3 or 4 inchs taller it would be pretty close. maybe it is a bad comparison but i thought id try

[survivingworldsteam]

What caught my eye when comparing the two pictures is not just the size of the people vs. the front wheels, but the height of the boiler off the ground.

In the top picture of the 150HP(?) Case, the bottom of the boiler is clearly higher than the top of the front wheels; the two gentlemen could walk under it with just a lowering of their heads.

In the bottom picture of the 100HP(?) Case, the bottom of the boiler is below the tops of the wheel. What's more, ColinCase's dad would have to duck real low to walk under it.

Unless the 150HP engine had smaller front wheels AND midgets standing to it; it is quite clearly a much taller machine. I do NOT want to get involved in the Case vs the rest of world conversation; but that is one big steam tractor. (Not that it was the way to go; gas tractors obviously went in the opposite direction of getting smaller and more affordable to operate a few decades later.)

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

[Chuck Sindelar]

The 150 did stand a full foot taller than the 32 at the time because the drive wheels on the 150 were 8 foot (does that make it a true highwheeler, and the drive wheel on the 32 were only 7 foot. With the rears on the 150 being a full foot taller than the 32, and the fronts mighty close to the same, They kept the boiler level by adding a 12?? inch extention onto the front boiler support pedistol. I wonder why they did that instead of just making the front wheel 12 inches bigger??? To get things into perspective, the fronts on the 32s and 150s were about the same as the drive wheels on my 9! I guess the 150 was the first Case engine to use a steel stack instead of the cast iron stack? I also have wondered why Case chose to switch to steel stacks on all sizes except the 60s and 75. It appears that the 60s and 75s used the old style cast iron stacks right to the end of productin for those sizes?
Chuck

[A Martinson]

Those guys must have been around 4'4. Compare them to the rear wheels, the guys head is barely past the rear axle.

[survivingworldsteam]

Read Chuck's quote below; the rear (drive) wheels on the 150 were a foot taller than the wheels on the 32-110. The front wheels are the same size; and they are a little shorter than ColinCase's dad, but not that much shorter.

And, as I stated, the bottom of the boiler is obviously higher in comparison to the tops of the front wheels. Chuck says it is taller because of the size of the rear wheels; you can also tell the front boiler support pedestal is taller by at least six inches.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

[A Martinson]

The front wheels are 54 inches on a Case 150, those guys are definately not average hight. When I said 4' 4" that was just an underexaggeration, I'd say those guys are more like 5' (60 inches) probably a little taller, but I wouldn't go past 5'2"

[LundMachineWorks]

Legeng has it the gentleman leaning on the front wheel is Link Laffamacher from Fairfax Minnesota, my home town. Unfortunately he died before I was really into steam. Link apparently helped to design the 150, another local legend.

An interesting story about Link is that he went to prison for try to kill his neighbor. Link put a stick of dynamite into a flue of the nieghbors steamer to settle a fued. The story went that the neighbor had cut the tails of the Laffamacher cattle.

Link was a brother to Harold Laffamacher, the guy who had the Six Fat Dutchman Band. Link probably had a physical size close to Harold.

[LundMachineWorks]

Danny Roen had mentioned traveling to Link place and staying overnight in the 1950's.

[Colin]

I thought Danny roen had talked to one of those guys but i couldnt remember the story. chuck i think dad and i figured the last batch of 75s made in 1922 had steel stacks. theres a few of them around and those engines are mint.
the 150s/110s seems to be a 1st for a lot of things, V lugs, gear pumps, steel heaters, steel stacks and butstraps. i always thought it was funny that the 9hp rear wheels where the same size as the 110 front wheels

[LundMachineWorks]

Colin, How much different were the hubs on the front wheel of the 150 compared to the 110? I did notice less spokes on the 150. What brought this question is the hole pattern just outside of the retaining cap.

[Jeff Smith]

With the smaller front wheels and the raised support, could that have been to allow the front wheels under the boiler more for when making a turn? Look at how the top of the wheel appears as if it could almost clear under the bottom of the boiler until the chains rub the rims. I could be wrong, but that is something to think about anyway.

Jeff Smith

[20 Reeves Highwheeler]

Colin,
I still think it would be a stretch to get John (Link) Loeffelmacher (sic) up to 5'9"? The other gentleman, maybe? The early 32's had 54" front wheels, just as the Road Locomotive did. The RL also had a Marsh steam pump. From the way you worded your statement, "150/110", maybe you didn't mean it had a geared pump, as the 32 did.

[MYaeger]

CollinCase,

"THIS" is not 6 inches. ;-)

Listen, those Dudes were SHORT!

Mike

[Craig A]

SHORT DUDES, notwithstanding (punny...eh? ), or not--the REAL question is: IS that a PHOTOGRAPH or an ENGRAVING? Engravers were known to take some liberties at times when "doing their thing" and in one of Chuck Wendell's books there's an example of an engraving gone wrong---the engraver got all fouled up on the perspective. The engine is in one plane and the wheels in another.
WHOEVER the manufacturer may have been, I'm sure the engravers were encouraged to make things appear BIGGER and BETTER. And if an actual photograph--those guys knew their way around in the darkroom too!!! Some of the OLD ridiculous joke postcards come to mind. Particularly the one with ONE ear of corn FILLING a wagon.
Craig

[ChadYelland]

the book i saw with that picture stated that those me were "short in stature" all of the case steps are the same to my knowledge, measure the steps in the picture as a standard then compare it to the men and wheels, simple as that as long as the picture isn't retouched, as many are. we do this lots at the museum,, we figured out out center crank case smokestack was 6 inches short that way, oh and in the new exhibit it says its a 12 hp its not its a 15hp with 2.5 inche tubes for strawburning, its in our 1895 catalogue

[20 Reeves Highwheeler]

Originally Posted by Chuck Sindelar

The 150 did stand a full foot taller than the 32 at the time because the drive wheels on the 150 were 8 foot (does that make it a true highwheeler, and the drive wheel on the 32 were only 7 foot. With the rears on the 150 being a full foot taller than the 32, and the fronts mighty close to the same, They kept the boiler level by adding a 12?? inch extention onto the front boiler support pedistol. I wonder why they did that instead of just making the front wheel 12 inches bigger??? To get things into perspective, the fronts on the 32s and 150s were about the same as the drive wheels on my 9! I guess the 150 was the first Case engine to use a steel stack instead of the cast iron stack? I also have wondered why Case chose to switch to steel stacks on all sizes except the 60s and 75. It appears that the 60s and 75s used the old style cast iron stacks right to the end of productin for those sizes?
Chuck

Chuck,
I have a couple of catalogs where this engine was called simply "Case Road Locomotive" and not "150 hp." If it "grew" that moniker after it was on the market a few years, perhaps it should "grow" the "highwheeler" Moniker? With an engine of this proportion, though, it likely should have had nine or ten feet tall wheels to be properly named highwheeler, as Dad's Reeves Highwheeler was a 20 hp engine with eight feet tall wheels... same height as the Road Locomotive had.