Author Topic: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?  (Read 23256 times)

Offline gbritnell

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Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« on: October 09, 2018, 01:17:35 AM »
 I have a friend who lives about an hour away. When I go to visit him the one route I take takes me through a small crossroads village named Homerville.
As with a lot if not most small communities in Ohio the original school buildings that taught from K-12 have been recommissioned or in a lot of cases demolished due to new larger schools that can accommodate students from a larger area.
 The school in Homerville has been turned into a community center and supports some of the township facilities. Many years ago as I passed by I noticed an antique road grader at one end of the building. The many years that I passed it I thought it would make an interesting addition to my 1" Case traction engine but just never took the time to investigate the machine. I kept promising myself that I would go and measure it up but we know how that goes, other things take precedent and it gets put aside.
 Early this summer I took that particular road out to my friends house and passed the old yellow road grader. This time I promised myself that I would spend the time to measure and take pictures before it was lost to time.
 About a month ago I planned my first trip, about 50 minutes away. I loaded up the tools that I would need, camera, tape ruler, plumb bob, sketch pad, pencils chalk and calipers. I knew pretty much what was needed as I had done this on several other occasions for my Case baler and Russell traction engine.
The day was a little misty so I took some light rain gear just in case, which turned out to be a wise decision.
 When the machine had been put on display the rear wheels were cocked over as would have been the case when using the machine to keep it from slewing sideways when scraping. Although the machine was on a concrete pad this made it difficult to accurately get height dimensions to the various horizontal shafts. I ended up measuring shafts on both sides so that I could calculate a mean dimension when I started making the Cad drawings.
 I knew from the start that no matter how many pictures I took or how many dimensions I wrote down when I got home I would be lacking hundreds of important facts and figures. Like I said I've done this before.
 I spent about 3 hours in the light rain getting as much as I could although a lot of the horizontal location features would have to wait for the next trip because I couldn't mark reference points on the wet concrete with the chalk.
 When I got home I started transferring my sketches and dimension to the computer screen, using the photos as a proportional reference guide. I was able to establish overall lengths, axle positions etc. but would need much more information. I made a list of features I would need on my next visit so that I could get them without duplicating what I already had.
 To condense the story a little I have since made 2 more trips and have the drawings pretty well along. I realize I could 'fake' some of the dimensions but having spent so much time on it already I'll make one more trip for hopefully the last remaining measurements of bit and pieces.
 The machine is starting to show it's age sitting out in the elements and it probably won't be too many years down the road when some of the pieces start to fall off. I have searched the Internet for this particular grader and have found very little online information. There are a few pictures of machines of the era but nothing like this one.
 If nothing else I'll be saving this one in model form for posterity. I'm attaching just a few pictures to show what a really neat mechanical beast it is. I think I took close to 95 pictures to this point.
gbritnell
Talent unshared is talent wasted.

Offline crueby

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2018, 01:22:51 AM »
Oooh, very interesting machine!
I had same issues on measuring machines, always needed another visit.  Or three. I liked to include the tape measure in as many shots as possible to let me get measurements for things I did not write down, if they were close enough to the tape to interpolate from.
Looking forward to seeing it modelled!

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2018, 01:32:46 AM »
Another project I will be looking forward to George. Certainly will make a unique model and as you say a nice addition to the case traction engine.

Bill

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2018, 02:30:51 AM »
I thought I had seen most variations of these old graders, expecially Galions, but I have never seen tilting rear wheels before. That feature must not have lasted very long. Most all graders have front wheel tilt.

Thanks for the pics!! Something new every day...

If you do model this I will be very interested in watching.

Pete
Craftsman, Tinkerer, Curious Person.
Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline gbritnell

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2018, 03:42:17 AM »
Pete,
There's so many adjustments on this grader. The front and rear wheels tilt, the rear axle shifts side to side, the tongue can be shifted off the centerline, the blade rotates and tilts, the blade can be raised and lowered from side to side and the blade frame can be shifted from side to side. It must have 10 universal joints.
I don't know if I'll be able to replicate every detail in 1" scale but I'm going to try.
gbritnell
Talent unshared is talent wasted.

Online Kim

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2018, 05:54:10 AM »
This will be fun to watch, George!

You find such fascinating things to model.  And you do it so well!
Kim

Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2018, 08:19:40 AM »
Hello George,

This will surely be a rewarding project for you to do, especially to save a beautiful piece of history. I will be following along on this project for sure.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Thomas

Offline ShopShoe

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2018, 01:04:48 PM »
George,

I've seen similar machines within a pleasure drive to where I live.

Can you post a side view of your example?  If I go by the ones I know I can get a quick check to see if they are close to yours.

--ShopShoe

P.S.: I think there was an episode of Antiques Roadshow (US) where a salesman's scale model of a road grader came up for appraisal. I don't know what year or location that episode was recorded, but maybe someone else has seen it.

Offline gbritnell

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2018, 02:39:53 PM »
Hi Shopshoe,
I don't have a complete side view, just sequential pictures. I took the pictures at right angles so I could calculate sizes and spacings.
gbritnell
Talent unshared is talent wasted.

Offline Don1966

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2018, 03:09:27 PM »
Awesome project George and I have seen this type grader before years back. Looking forward to another great project for your shop.


 :cheers:
Don

Offline gbritnell

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2018, 03:42:25 PM »
HI Don,
Good to hear from you! You had asked about the Fordillac flathead engine running. I posted a response over the weekend but it seems the weekend postings get shuffled quite quickly.
gbritnell
Talent unshared is talent wasted.

Offline Don1966

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2018, 04:04:20 PM »
Thanks buddy got it!


Don

Offline scc

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2018, 06:48:08 PM »
" and now for something completely different"     Looking forward to this one George.     Regards            Terry

Offline Craig DeShong

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2018, 04:10:25 PM »
You've been quiet for a while George, so i figured something was 'in the works'.  This is going to be an interesting project and with your skill I know it will result in a magnificant model.
Craig
The destination motivates us toward excellence, the journey entertains us, and along the way we meet so many interesting people.

Offline gbritnell

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Re: Horse drawn Galion road grader circa. 1913?
« Reply #14 on: October 11, 2018, 01:34:47 AM »
I made a short video with some still pictures. This gives a better idea of the size and uniqueness of this particular machine.
gbritnell
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPR19n_TwoQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPR19n_TwoQ</a>
Talent unshared is talent wasted.

 

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