Keith Sternberg

I’d like to invite all 4th Division members to the annual Anacortes Antique Machinery Show this Saturday, September 13, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at 6th and Market, near the old Great Northern depot and the sternwheel steamer “W T Preston.”

Keith Sternberg's model 4-6-0

Keith Sternberg’s model 4-6-0

There will be exhibits of steam power (both stationary and marine), antique tractors, model builders with engine models, and a handcar operating on the old Great Northern track along Market Street. I will have a temporary short-line railroad of 7-1/2″ gauge track alongside of the steamboat “W T Preston.” My coal-fired ten-wheeler will be in steam with a single-car train. There will be several steam launches on display, wood-fired and oil-fired boats of 18 – 25 foot length. The “W T Preston,” a fine old steamboat built for the Army Corps of Engineers in 1914, will be open for visitors. She has cylinders about 14″ bore and 6-foot stroke, and a locomotive-type boiler.

Admission to the show is free. Admission to board the “W T Preston” is $3.

I built the locomotive using castings from Allen Models. It is 9′ long overall and weighs about 600 pounds. The boiler is state-inspected and allowed 150 psi. Cylinders are 1-3/4″ bore and 3-1/4″ stroke. I often pull a passenger train at the Great Northern & Cascade Railway at Skykomish. I have fired with several types of coal, lately a mix of Pennsylvania anthracite and Utah bituminous. A full head of steam is easily maintained all day, no matter how heavy the load.

I hope you come by Saturday for some really large-scale model railroading!