STL TIKN
By Richard Backus

Thirteen years ago, a freak accident left Don Dougherty in the hospital and in a coma. When he came to, a new life began, both for him and the machines he restores.

The 1916 20-35 Yuba Ball Tread at the 2002 EDGE & TA show in Grass Valley, Calif. The front wheel axle is set behind the wheel's vertical point of rotation, making it instantly follow any shift in direction. Photo courtesy Floyd Schmall.

On a September day in 1990, Don Dougherty was getting ready to help his mother move out of her rural Colfax, Calif., home when a fire in the adjoining trees grabbed his attention. That summer and early fall had been devastating for the area as fires, sparked by lightning and fueled by drier-than-normal conditions, broke out spontaneously across California. It was, Don says, "a little fire," and he immediately went to work putting it out.

What Don couldn't see was what caused the fire; a high-voltage line had snapped when a dead tree fell across it, momentarily jumping to ground before bouncing back up, only to hang some three or four feet from the ground. Putting out the fire, Don stepped back, contacting the line with his shoulder and the left side of his face, creating .. an experience that changed his life in every imaginable aspect, and that drives him in everything he does.

The machines Don restores are, like himself, unique. Their restoration and survival are somehow inextricably bound in Don's own sense of survival. Had Don never stepped into that line that September day, his life might have followed a very different path, and he might never have turned his full attention to restoration. And if he hadn't, the old iron community would be that much poorer.