Lewiston tinkerer, now 92, still building model engines from scratch

Down a narrow flight of steps into a low-clearance dugout basement lies one man’s testament to the engineering feats of the past.

Amidst shelves of old coffee cans filled with tools and paintbrushes, spools of tape, spray paint and assorted machinery is a collection of 38 miniature antique gas engines Francis Wittman modeled from scratch.

Wittman, 92, of Lewiston, pulled one of them from a wooden cupboard and placed it on his work table.

“Now this is really a nice engine. It’s my favorite,” Wittman said, using a power drill to crank the ignition on a tiny propane-fueled six-cylinder that caught on the first try with a rumble.

Wittman revved the minute throttle a couple of times with his finger and smiled with pleasure.

“All the rest of them in there are the same way. They all run. If I can’t make them run I won’t make it.

“I do know some modelers who only make for the shelf. They’re pretty, but they don’t run.”

Wittman, who retired as the director of building maintenance for Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, began his hobby of creating old engines only a couple of decades ago.

With no particular training and working mainly from photographs and memory, Wittman re-created a 1918 steam traction engine his father had used on the family farm back in the 1930s.

It took him two years to build.

“I always wanted to build a steam engine. Dad had a couple of engines when I was a kid and I always wanted to build one and I got bit by the bug. In 1992 is when I decided to go ahead.”

The engines in Wittman’s basement are replicas mostly of those built in the late 1880s and early 20th century. Most of them were used to power farm machinery, such as threshers, logging machines, compressors and other equipment before the automobile was developed.

Wittman has studied the design of the old engines and makes every component from scratch. Often he makes a wooden cut out first and then uses it to craft the metal pieces that make up the finished product.

Like other enthusiasts, Wittman has sometimes traveled to Oregon where other vintage engine modelers gather to compare notes and marvel in one another’s creations.

He’s also entered his engines in the Nez Perce County Fair. But he’s never sold one and said he eventually plans to bequeath his collection to the Eastern Washington Antique Farm Museum in Pomeroy.

A year ago, his granddaughter persuaded him to publish a book of his creations.

With the help of a couple of friends who photographed and designed the book, Wittman published 50 copies of “Patience and One Piece at a Time — 20 Years of Model Engine Building.”

The book features machines such as the 1883 Atkinson cycle gas engine; the Sterling cycle hot air engine; Walls Wizard 45 cc gas engine and the Jerry Howell vacuum engine.

“They’re all operational,” Wittman said, taking another model out of the cupboard and placing it on the work table.

As he prepared to start it he gave a short course in engine mechanics, explaining the function of each tiny piece.

And then he plugged in the power drill once again to turn the ignition switch.

“Models are notorious for not running when you want them to,” he said apprehensively. “Models are temperamental. All the modelers will tell you, as soon as you want one to run they will decide they don’t want to run.

“Hope it runs.”

A short pause, a pop, and then it roars.