The Passing of the Winch.

by Joe Mahaney

This picture is the last one I have of Wes Stratman, a friend of over 45 years. He was a big part of my life as well as all of the Southern Chapter of FRAPA. I can say without reservation that he was the most interesting person I have had the privilege to know. The winch shown in the pictures came into Wes’ possession as a result of CF&I Steel scrapping numerous tons of scrap steel for feedstock into their electric furnaces. It came to the water department to be mounted on a raft to hoist divers and equipment repairing outlet valves for one of the reservoirs at Stem Beach. I was in the water department at the time and was told to take all the old machinery to the scrap yard. Wes had gotten me hooked on collecting antique farm machinery and we “just couldn’t let” some of those machines go to the scrap yard. Instead I had Wes come out to the West Valve south of Pueblo to see if he was interested in purchasing any of the things destined to be scrapped. He particularly liked the winch/Novo and a Fordson tractor with a road grader mounted over it. I felt that as long as he paid more than scrap value the company would be ahead since we would not have to haul it to the scrap yard. He loaded the items and we went to the truck scales to verify the weight. He paid more than twice the scrap value and yet got what he considered a real value. The water dept. crew had cut the mounting bolts holding the Novo to the frame which resulted in it falling off and shattering on the way to Wes’ property. There it joined numerous other machines to be preserved for posterity. Wes often spoke of giving the Pueblo FRAPA group its own identity; Puebloans For the Preservation of Things for Posterity—PFTFP. When trying to pronounce the acronym, Wes would sound like he was trying to spit tobacco, which like so many other instances gave us a good laugh. (Wes did not chew tobacco) Wes is gone now, but like his Dad John Stratman, he was instrumental in saving numerous items for the edification of future generations. The wench has gone on to John Lange and has been restored to working condition utilizing all the parts he could to be reassembled to a similar Novo engine. Thanks to Wes, this fine old machine and so many other items did not become part of a railroad rail.