Russell Steam Tractor
N 45° 33.176 W 122° 34.675
10T E 532945 N 5044463
This is an old Russell steam traction tractor.
Waymark Code: WM3K18
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 04/13/2008
Views: 128
The early Russell steam traction engines were prized for their simplicity and ease of repair. “All moving parts,” writes Jack Norbeck in Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines, “were in plain sight, and any parts needing adjustments were within easy reach of ordinary tools.”
Like so many of the steam traction engines, the Russells were behemoths: the smallest one they produced in 1912, the 8 HP, weighed 9,000 pounds without the 60 gallons of water it could hold.
Russell steam traction engines ranged from sizes of 6 HP to 150 HP. The 6 HP Russell offered in 1887 had self-adjusting piston rings, which would not require attention if properly lubricated. The 10 HP built the same year had patented features like a friction clutch, reverse gear, equilibrium valve and boiler.
The 10, 13 and 16 HP Russells of 1891 had the throttle lever, brake lever, reverse lever, steam chest, cylinder cocks and rod operating the blower all within reach from the footboard.
The 1907 Russells of simple single-cylinder type were built in cylinder sizes of 6-by-8-inch, 7-1/2-by-10-inch, 8-by-10-inch, 8-1/4-by-12-inch, 9-by-13-inch and 10-by-13-inch. Some Russells burned coal or wood.
Other sizes includes 8, 10 “old-style improved,” 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 30 and 150. It’s unclear whether there were sizes inbetween the 30 and 150.
The Russell steam roller was built starting about 1910, as a combination of a road roller and a hauling engine. Rear wheel cleats could be detached for rolling work use.
In 1909, Russell entered the gas tractor race, building a 3-cylinder machine that was not of its own design, but actually adapted from a British tractor. “Dubbed the ‘American’,” writes C. H. Wendel in his Encyclopedia of Farm Tractors, “its three 8-by-10-inch cylinders developed 44 brake horsepower,” although only 22 were delivered at the drawbar. Russell tractors were solidly built, like all of their products, but not particularly innovative and that perhaps cost them part of the market share.
They built tractors with some of the earliest cabs, mortised and tenoned wood of matched lumber, bolted together and costing $100 extra. The cab had windows and sashes.
Russell & Co. joined with Griscom-Spencer Co. of Jersey City, N.J., in 1912 to form the Griscom-Russell Co. It entered its final years in decline due to the rise of International Harvester, which had snatched away the market of the once-famous Russell threshing machine. The company limped on until 1942, 100 years after it had started, when its assets were sold in a sheriff’s sale.
Engine Type: Steam
Wheel Type: Steel
Make: Russell & Company
Model: Not listed
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