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Well, would you believe that it all started out like this?

In case you can't tell by the picture, that is about 50 years of rust and dirt compounded on a machine built in the early Nineteen Hundreds. Everything is intact (more or less) underneath the layers. Needless to say, they must have had some idea about what they were doing, I don't know many other things that are 95 years old and look this good!

After a long and very tedious sandblasting process, we are greeted by a new and improved machine. It is amazing what a coat of paint will do. Notice that the smokestack and the water tanks are missing. Well, unfortunatly, sheet metal does not go up against time and weather like cast iron, go figure. Luckily we knew some talented sheet metal workers who were more than happy to help out!

May 11, 1997. After three and a half years of hard work...it's alive! With the help of a few friends and family members, the 1903 Peerless steam engine moves out of it's garage and into the afternoon sunlight. Notice in this picture the shock absorbing system that Peerless had on the center of the front axle. This Steam Tractor was one of the very few made that had a steerable front end.

Here are Herb and Henry Shelor, they were the operators the last time the engine was fired in the 1950's. They must have remembered how to do it, because the engine ran just fine on the first Firing Day.

Now owner/operator Warren Shelor takes the wheel. It ain't a Caddy but it'll do!

Here, brother Steve Shelor works to fill up the water supply with a compressed water bottle.