n THE CARILLON STEINBACH, MAN. C2
n www.thecarillon.com THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025 Agriculture Now
Bob Giesbrecht helps line up a belt on a 113-year-old steam engine.
MATTHEW FRANK THE CARILLON
Tapping into the power of the past with steam
MATTHEW FRANK THE CARILLON
Steam shoots out of the sole piston on the steam engine.
thing is done visually, Peters said. There’s no flashing lights or beeping alarms if an issue pops up. Peters wishes he could run the steam engine more often, but he often only has a couple chances each year because there’s not many in Manitoba. “It’s not like learning to drive a car where you can go out every weekend with your parents and learn how to drive it. This is an once or twice-a-year thing, and that’s that,” Peters said after he noticed some extra steam needed to be released from the boiler. With a lurch, the lumbering engine inches close enough to wrap the belt around both the threshing machine’s wheel and its own. Beside the waiting pile of grain stands Peters’ father, Conrad, helping guide the engine. Conrad, a Winnipeg school teacher by trade, gives a thumbs up to his son perched on the platform once the two machines are connect- ed. “I’m just proud he’s taken an interest in his- tory. It’s not always a popular thing to do,” he said.
mind something like this. It’s something that’s being lost,” Peters said while pitching logs into the engine’s hungry furnace. “It’s not all fancy electric cars. We’ve come from steam engines that are dirty. You have to put in a lot of effort.” Steam engines are provincial regulated vehi- cles in Manitoba, through the labour and im- migration department, which classifies them as a “Historical Steam Traction Boiler.” To get behind the wheels and levers of a steam engine, people must pass written ex- ams, gather 120 hours of experience operating an engine and complete a driving test. Peters has all of his mandatory hours com- pleted and hopes to take the driving test in the fall to become fully certified. The hardest part about operating the steam engine is how to maintain it because every-
It’s hard to ignore its piercing whistle. One ear-thumping scream from the 113-year-old Case steam engine’s whistle means it reached its max for pent-up steam. Two in a row alert everyone its wheels and belts are moving. Peters’ love for steam engines sparked when he was 12 years old after spending time with his grandfather, who restored old tractors. When the opportunity to hop on a larger, nois- ier machine came up, it immediately hooked him. Now 25, he’s been coming back to the mu- seum ever since, making the trek from Winni- peg to keep his love for steam engines rolling. The historical significance of the engine has pushed him to pursue getting provincially cer- tified in running the machine. “There’s definitely not a lot of people who understand even a little garden tractor, never
by MATTHEW FRANK F or Dylan Peters, operating a steam en- gine is more than driving a machine – it’s a whole-body experience. When the engine is in full swing, it can be felt in your bones, he said. “You can smell the heat coming off of it. You can smell the steam, the oil. It just smells pow- erful,” Peters said. Peters is part of a group of steam enthusiasts who put on a full demonstration of the Men- nonite Heritage Village’s steam engine on Sat- urday, as part of Pioneer Days. The engine roves around the museum grounds, powering both the sawmill and the threshing machine. It only runs three times a year.
MATTHEW FRANK THE CARILLON A load of grain waiting it’s turn for the thresher.
MATTHEW FRANK THE CARILLON Dylan Peters watches the threshing from his seat on the steam engine.
MATTHEW FRANK THE CARILLON
The steam engine connected to the threshing machine by a belt.
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