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Looking is as much fun as findingBy Doug Rich Glen Wright, Cushing, Okla., has been collecting and restoring steam engines, tractors, Model T and Model A cars for most of his adult life. Along the way, he has collected some interesting stories, too. Mary Lou Wright knew from the beginning that she had married a collector. On their honeymoon her husband, Glen, stopped to look in every pawn shop they happened to come across. At that time, Glen Wright was collecting guns; but, in the late 1950s he began collecting and storing bigger items like steam engines, old tractors, as well as Model T and Model A cars. Wright said he became fascinated with steam engines as a kid, watching his neighbor thrash grain with an old steam engine. Since 1959, Wright has purchased, restored, and sold many of the big steam engines. "I don't keep them," Wright said. "I get them running, fix them up, and pass them on for someone else to enjoy." Steam engines Wright does not haul any of his projects to the many steam engine shows held across the Midwest every year. Wright said that is not his thing-to show them off-although, the first engine he restored is on display at the Shawnee, Okla., steam engine show every year. "We enjoy the looking more than the finding," Wright said. Wright bought his first steam engine from a man in Kansas. Usually, the first thing that needs to be replaced on these engines is the boiler, which is getting harder and harder to find. Prior to the Internet, Wright would advertise for engines or parts in magazines like the Iron Man Journal. When asked how far he would be willing to go to buy an engine or part he was looking for, Wright said anywhere in the U.S. Mary Lou was quick to remind him that they once traveled all the way to Canada to pick up a boiler for one of his steam engines. "Boilers burn out or rust and need to be replaced, usually," Wright said. "You can find an engine worth the money but it probably does not have a boiler." Wright owned the Case dealership in Cushing, Okla., for several years and prefers to restore old Case steam engines and Case tractors. He restored one Nichols-Shepard and now has a Rumely oil pull engine from Plymouth, Neb., that he is restoring. Sold Wright has several old Case tractors at his place waiting to be restored but the most interesting story has to do with a B John Deere he bought near Austin, Texas, several years ago. The tractor was not in very good shape; so, he decided to advertise it for sale. A man from Alaska called him and bought the old John Deere but said he wanted it delivered to his brother in Tyler, Texas. The man told Wright that his brother was not in very good shape and would not be able to help him unload the tractor. "We finally found the place, but there were newspapers and dirt up around the door and I could tell no one had lived there for a while," Wright said. Neighbors across the street told Wright that the man lived in a trailer behind the house. They said he was pretty deaf so just go in and yell real loud. Wright did just that but got no answer. "I could hear a TV running in the back of the trailer, so I went on and there was the fella sitting in his chair just as dead as he could be," Wright said. Model A Wright has a fondness for Model T and Model A cars and said he has bought and sold cars to just about every state in the union. About two years ago, Wright sold a 1931 Model A that he purchased in Arizona to a man from California. "I bought it sight unseen, which was a mistake, because it was nothing like they said it was," Wright said. "We spent hours working on it-but finally got it going before we advertised it for sale." Wright rebuilt the steering box, rebuilt the front end, put on new tires, shocks, and upholstery. "The man was an actor in commercials and said he always wanted to drive a Model A from Oklahoma to California following Highway 66," Wright said. "I told him I was not sure it would make it as far as Texas." Three months later, the actor and his daughter flew to Tulsa, took a cab out to Wright's farm near Cushing, then took off for California in his Model A. The next morning Wright got a call from the man who said the car would not start. Apparently, he flooded the engine. "A week later he called and said he had no more problems once he learned how to start the car without flooding it," Wright said. "I would rather work on tractors but there is a better market for the cars," Wright said. "There is so much work on them that I can't do." Wright said the easiest tractor to work on is a B John Deere because there is not much to them. But they are getting hard to find. However, steam engines are still at the top of his list and he hopes to have the Rumely oil pull finished very soon. Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com.
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