Stationary Engines

HTN 104 - French engine discovered in a scrap yard in Petit, France

Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

8th June 2006

David and I have been having some fun and games with a French engine we discovered in a scrap yard in Petit. It is a TRAIN JT 175 2 stroke all aluminium alloy engine made by E Train et Cie Constructeurs, Paris. Dated probably about mid 50s as the bolts are both BSF [ 3/16 " BSF can you believe it!! ] and metric.

Stationary engine news from the Western Cape

Heritage - News

13th November 2007

In January 2001, the SWAT team of the Cape Vintage Engine & Machinery Society visited Kersefontein, near Hopefield, to meet owner Julian Melck. We were following up leads on old engines, and we were not disappointed. On the farm were two Fairbanks Morse YH engines. One, a 14HP model is still standing on a concrete block where it used to run a centrifugal pump, drawing water out of the Berg River. 

This engine is badly rusted from standing out in the weather and has parts missing from it. It would take an enormous amount of work to restore. However, there was another, of 10HP, stored in a shed, lying in pieces, along with the generator which it used to drive. Julian persuaded me to restore this for him. This included making new main bearings and a combustion chamber. These jobs were done over the following two years or so, and then an attempt was made to start it. The bearings were still too stiff to allow the operator to swing the flywheel rim against compression, which, like with a Lanz tractor, is the normal way to start it. It needed to be 'run-in' by another engine or tractor, using a belt.

Follow up to Uniporn Diesel Engine article

Connection between Uniporn and Daimler

 It is most pleasing that Peter Dyer has handed this extremely interesting historical document concerning the manufacture of Uniporn H10 and H12 diesel engines to the Sandstone Heritage Trust. The pictures are available on the website for all to see and marvel at! In it, there are several references in it concerning a tie-up between Porn & Dunwoody and Daimler, for example:

Uniporn Diesel engines photographic album

Fascinating photographic album supplied to Sandstone on Uniporn Diesel engines.
Peter Dyer in the UK sent the Sandstone Heritage Trust a fascinating album covering the manufacturing of the original production lines etc. of the manufacturer. Peter goes on to comment as follows:

"Briefly, I worked for Porn & Dunwoody from 1980 to 1988 selling their range of Diesel Injection Spares to suit many makes of engine. At that time the Uniporn Diesel was a forgotten animal, although I was involved in the last two large spares orders that went out to Aden for the engine. During the mid 80's Porn and Dunwoody decided to scrap all the old stock of spares for the H10 to make way for a stockholding of Lift spares which was becoming a major part of their business. As such all the old photo albums and manuals etc were either given away to interested parties or dumped. This is how I became the owner.

As you may know the H10 was a copy of a Deutz which Porn & Dunwoody used to market in the UK until the outbreak of the Second World War. At this time all ties were broken with Deutz and aerial photographs that Porn & Dunwoody had of the factory in Colgne were commandeered by Bomber Command to raze the facility to the ground."

 

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1932 40HP Crossley Horizontal Single-cylinder Stationary Engine Saved and Restored!

Members of the Villiersdorp branch of the West Cape Tractor & Engine society are busy with an interesting project, and they're working to a deadline! Just on 13 months ago we decided to make the recovery and restoration of a 1932 40 HP single cylinder horizontal Crossley diesel engine a team effort, and we have advertised that it will be ready and running on 21st June 2008!

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Engine Day at Piketberg

Pieter Fourie, organiser of this event, summed the history of Engine Collecting in Piketberg in a short speech he gave to open the proceedings.

 

About 10 years ago, he attended an Annual Show of the Tractor and (then fledgling) Engine Club at the Brandvlei Prison Farm near Worcester. There, he met Philip Gray-Taylor and me, and expressed an interest in buying a collectable engine. In the end he was given an engine from John McGregor, a Wolseley. About then he moved from Greyton to Koringberg near Piketberg and started to instil an interest in Engine Collecting among the Tractor Enthusiasts. It has been an uphill battle, but about two years ago, he invited Philip and me up to give them some encouragement, with a technical talk, followed by Questions and Answers. Several engines were brought out of sheds for the occasion, but all along Pieter had the idea of a dedicated Engine Day.

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Cango Caves Crossleys

 Most engine enthusiasts in the Cape know that there were generator engines outside the mouth of the world-famous Cango Caves at the Ostrich Capital, Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo. In fact, many actually remember hearing them running! But until recently, nobody knew what had happened to them. Even well known Cango Caves historian Dr Steven Craven, who I have known for many years, couldn't help. He has written much from his detailed research on the Caves' history, on which he has done a second Doctorate. A paper he delivered goes back in history to 1899 when electrification of the huge caverns was first mooted, and covers all the deliberations until the purchase, from Mangold Brothers of Oudtshoorn, of two engine-driven generators in 1928. We knew that two unspecified engines were delivered to the Cave on the 5th or 6th March 1928 and that in April of that year, the Municipality advertised for an 'Electrician Driver' who would be required to operate 'two 20kW Crossley crude oil engine (sic) 220V DC sets'. Then, after the Caves were connected to the Escom grid on 24th October 1963, we have a reference dated 19th December 1964 which says that 'the two generating sets, both DC, will be sold'. There is no reference to the amount of money received.