Featuring live demonstrations of horse-drawn, gas and diesel-powered construction machinery, antique trucks, hit and miss engines, and much more, spectators will literally witness history in motion.The convention will be held at the National Construction Equipment Museum, located at 16623 Liberty Hi Road in Bowling Green. Many of the show pieces will come straight from the museum collection, with the rest being hauled in by HCEA members themselves.

Tom Berry of Toledo has worked as an archivist for the National Construction Equipment Museum for the past 11 years.“Everything in the museum will be outside of the building for the show and whatever can be working will be working,” explained Berry.“It's a lot of fun,” he said. “There will be a unique mix of machinery here that you won't find anywhere else — between what we have here and what people will be bringing in.””We try to cater to people of all ages, young and old alike — to let them see things that they just won't have the opportunity to see otherwise, to appreciate the work of building our roads and dams and so forth before everything went modern,” said Berry.

The Historical Construction Equipment Association is a non-profit, educational organization that has been around for nearly 24 years. With over 4,400 members in 25 countries, the world headquarters are located in Bowling Green.“In past shows, we've had equipment brought from up to 1,000 miles away,” explained Berry.Spectators will also travel from around the world for the convention.“We've got a guy coming in from Peru for the show and we have guys from Sweden each year and from Australia,” he added.

The convention was last held in Bowling Green three years ago in 2006. Since then, several machines have been donated to the museum.“Last time we held it here, we had 250 machines, including construction equipment, trucks, engines and so forth,” said Berry.The museum collection alone currently totals 60 machines, with 15 fully-restored machines in working condition.Furthermore, an estimated 7,000 people took part in the last show held in Bowling Green.As far as this year's projections are concerned, numbers are still up in the air.“Our only goal is to exceed what we had three years ago,” said Berry.“All of our shows are different; we never know what's going to show up as far as other people bringing their equipment in,” said Berry. “We had a locomotive here three years ago, of all things.”

Another aspect of the weekend-long event will be the digging of a one-acre pond. Scrapers from the museum's collection will team up with those of the HCEA members to complete this project. Spoil from this event will be used to create an enormous pile of dirt for shovels and excavators.

Among other events, an equipment and parts auction will occur on Friday evening.Also, a special vintage truck show will take place on Saturday, Sept. 19. Roughly 100 trucks are expected to be displayed by members of the Black Swamp Chapter of the American Truck Historical Society.An HCEA membership banquet will additionally take place on Saturday night. Tickets to this event are $20 for adults and $10 for children.

Owners seeking to show off their own historical construction equipment may simply bring the machines in and park them on site. However, if exhibitors wish to actually operate the machinery, there are a few stipulations to keep in mind.“If people want to operate their equipment, then they do have to become a member of the association,” explained Berry.

Potential exhibitors are encouraged to purchase the $30 one-year membership, but as another option, a show-only membership is offered for a reduced fee of $5.

To help ensure the event will be accident-free, anyone operating equipment must pass a brief safety class held each morning.“The equipment operation will also be under the supervision of instructors of the Ohio Operating Engineer's Apprentice Program down in Cygnet,” Berry assured.

A daily parade is yet another attraction slated for the convention. At this time, the pieces of equipment will be announced and the owners will be identified; anybody who wants to be in the parade can be in it.Along with the historical displays and demonstrations, the convention will include all of the trappings of a big outdoor event.Food vendors will be dispersed outside. Inside the museum building itself, vendors will be selling construction collectibles, toys, models, DVDs, books and much more.On-site, primitive camping will also be an option on a first come, first serve basis. The cost is $15 per night per space and the only utilities provided will be the port-o-potties.

Dave Shively of McClure, has been a museum volunteer for approximately 13 years, working on the equipment on a weekly basis along with other volunteers.“We want everybody to come and see history — to see how it was done then,” he said.According to Shively, the machinery will date back to the early 1900s to the 1950s, with the majority of the equipment coming from the 1920s to the 1940s.Although the convention tends to draw in a large crowd of men, Shively mentioned that there are a number of women also involved in the action.“A lot of men will bring their sons and their grandsons and watch pieces work,” he explained. “There are some women who will be there; one of the board members is a woman, actually.”“This is a live demonstration of equipment; people can actually see it working — I’m calling this an earth-moving experience.”“And the key is it won't be here next year — it might be three, four, or five years before it comes back,” he added.