Behemoth Hit & Miss

[Digger 66 3,478]

Jim ( pictured ) estimates this to be in the 60HP range , biggest we've come across yet !

 

[Maxwell-8 4,275]

Crazy to see those enormous machine just laying there in the forest.

[WHX?? 48,795]

 yeah how would yah like to be the guy that got them out ther or the guy that ran them. Any speculation on what they were doing?

[squonk 41,038]

Come to the Steam Pageant in Canandaigua in August and you'll see some bigger than that running! 

[Digger 66 3,478]

22 minutes ago, WHX24 said:

Any speculation on what they were doing?

 

Judging by the other items within its proximity , I'd say this one was driving several pump-jacks ( oil derricks ) which would force crude oil into wooden holding tanks nearby . The crude would then be hauled to a local refinery for processing and sale . 

There are still a couple scattered about that are being used to generate electricity for electric oil pumps .

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by Digger 66

[Digger 66 3,478]

4 minutes ago, squonk said:

Come to the Steam Pageant in Canandaigua in August and you'll see some bigger than that running! 

 

It's not just the size of these things that interests me , It's their simplicity & the fact that with a little oil , few odds & ends & some TLC these things would fire back up after being left to rot for 70+ years . Like a moment frozen in time.......

[Handy Don 12,163]

Just now, Digger 66 said:

 

It's not just the size of these things that interests me , It's their simplicity & the fact that with a little oil , few odds & ends & some TLC these things would fire back up after being left to rot for 70+ years . Like a moment frozen in time.......

Some parts for sure. The challenge is being able generate enough steam at the right pressure to move that giant piston! The steam manifold on that one is at least 12" in diameter.

[Stepney 2,325]

That's a compressor engine. Side shaft. The front cylinder actually runs the show, that massive pipe off the top is part of the secondary 'top hat' piston. That end is a compressor. ..From what I can read anyway. My book doesn't give a whole lot of info. 
Interesting that it almost seems to have a steam chest on one side. But it's clearly a water cooled cylinder.. that's an oddball. And she looks pretty far from simply oiling up and hitting the air starter. Shame. But there's a handful of such engines, or older, rotting away. General lack of interest in that sort of engine does them little for favors. That one likely dates 1930s. Can pretty easily see that the side shaft was enclosed end to end once upon a time. As well as the entire rear. 

[WHX?? 48,795]

Stupid ? her fellas but why wouldn't the scrap guys want that kind of weight?  

[8ntruck 6,991]

The scrap guys want that kind of weight, but they want it delivered to them.  It is likely the price to dig that out of the woods and move it to a scrap yard is more than the scrap value.

[gwest_ca-(File Mod) 11,033]

http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=179

 

Bit of history on the company

 

Engines up to 1500 hp at the end of catalog

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=18399

[dkg520 509]

I was raised in Olean, NY and back in the day Clark Brothers was the main industrial plant there. Oil in the area was also big so I’m sure that motor was used to run the wells.

[c-series don 8,668]

The whole engine is long gone I guess but this is about 45 minutes away from me