Stationary Engines - talk to me

[ChinaTom]

A friend of mine used to work for a bank in the City and once got a glimpse of the big diesel engines in the basement that ran the emergency supply. No details, but he thought they were big V18 jobs at over 1000 cu. 3 of them in a line. I expect they were marine engines. On the other end of the scale, I had a load of single cylinder Kubotas running irrigation pumps on my plantation in Laos - now being replaced by solar pumps. Still hear the old units being used to power villages when there is something good on tele.

 

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

[forddeliveryboy]

I had ideas on this sort of thing, our lass wants to move us to some random field somewhere where there's no electric.

 

Obviously generators make a right old racket, so I was thinking of something like a little old diesel (PSA TUD?)  running on veg with a load of alternators charging up a battery bank, you'd only have to run it for an hour a day. You could use the heat to warm a hot water tank too.

Better to use an engine designed to run as a genny power source and matched to the electrical bit, but yes it would work, sort of.

[holbeck]

A friend of mine used to work for a bank in the City and once got a glimpse of the big diesel engines in the basement that ran the emergency supply. No details, but he thought they were big V18 jobs at over 1000 cu. 3 of them in a line. I expect they were marine engines.

 

They could have been loco engines. A lot of engines taken from scrap loco's were resold.

 

This MAN lump did 30 years as a standby generator.

 

 

Having previously been fitted to one of these

 

[puddlethumper]

Every day is an education. I now know 100% more about these machines than I did an hour ago. Excellent!

This site, ay?

[phminiman]

I bought one several years ago. Having dismantled it thoroughly, I set about acquiring important parts for the rebuild; primarily some Lister transfers. It has languished in the garage for 8 years now. Prior to that, it languished in my previous garage for 2 years. The removal men were very enthusiastic about moving it. 

 

[michael1703]

Loling at the stereotyping of stationary engine displayers in this thread

 

Generally black jogging bottomed with hairy arse hanging out, dirty Hi viz nicked from work, scowling behind plastic netting with large wife supplying bacon butties from eldis caravan. You forgot fat ginger son though 8/10 for character generalisation

[cros]

I grew up on a mixed farm and had to learn how to shear sheep. (That's shear, not share which is a different thing altogether) Anyway, the Wolseley shearing machine was powered by the ubiquitous Lister 'D' and looked like this:

Like most things in the past it was massively over-engineered, there being two lots of clippers driven via flexible shafts with separate clutches so that each operator could disconnect their handpiece independantly when it was time to catch another sheep.

This engine would run fairly quietly all day with an occasional top up of coolant water which evaporated slowly giving off a little steam.

The set we used was new in the late forties and got sold when my father retired in 1991. Three days work each year and the rest of the time stored in a shed, I'm not aware that it ever needed attention in all that time. The spark plug could be dismantled for cleaning so it's possible that this was original too.

Personally I left the farm in the early 70's and haven't bothered sheep since.

I think they now use electric clippers similar, but heavier, than those in a barbers shop, but I can't see there'll be so much fun in displaying them at a steam rally.

[richardthestag]

big diesel you say

 

 

on my fav youtoob list

[DSdriver]

After WW1 we had a few German submarines that had been captured. Three (I think) were bought by a cement works on the River Medway and the engines were removed to be used for generating leccy. When I made enquiries to see if they were still skulking in a shed somewhere I was told that they were long gone. A pity.

Meanwhile the hulks of the submarines were towed back down the river to be taken somewhere to be broken up. They broke loose from the tug in a sudden gale that sprang up and ended up on the saltings near Stoke. One of them is still recognisable and I have a bit of a tooth from the anchor windlass somewhere. The other two ended up in a place where they could be successfully dismantled apart from the bottom plates which can still be seen at low tide.

[UltraWomble]

Just put in for a 6 month sub to the Stationary Engine Magazine - top lavatory time reading material I feel

[AMC Rebel]

I bought one several years ago. Having dismantled it thoroughly, I set about acquiring important parts for the rebuild; primarily some Lister transfers. It has languished in the garage for 8 years now. Prior to that, it languished in my previous garage for 2 years. The removal men were very enthusiastic about moving it. 

 

 

When  I moved house the removal bloke asked me point blank why I was moving "all this stuff" and said "it's just shit, innit?"

[AMC Rebel]

Those aircooled lister diesel engines were used in canal narrowboats when I worked at the boatyard.  They are modular so the smaller boats had two cylinders and the larger ones had three - I see from ebay that they can be had as a single cylinder too.  We used to start them with a handle when the batteries were flat - open the decompressors, wind up to a good speed on the handle, then flick the decompressor levers and hope it went - otherwise rinse and repeat.  They were decent enough engines.

 

They are a very different animal from those earlier single cylinder petrol ones with water cooling resembling a tea urn used on a million farms though.

[AMC Rebel]

big diesel you say

 

 

on my fav youtoob list

 

I would love to take that to Islington or Hoxton

[seth]

You see that man there with the white hair and the sandals?

 

 

That's you that is.

[alcyonecorporation]

[alcyonecorporation]

CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF 

[ChinaTom]

Had a couple of these powering a pellet mill line and associated plants before rebuilding the site and using 11kV instead. An Irish chap rocked up in a brand new Overfinch and took them away in exchange for £30k.

 

[AMC Rebel]

How the feck did he get those in the back pf an Overfinch?

[ChinaTom]

Hah! No. The very very VERY capable Mr A W Blake rocked up with his awesome carry and lift kit and somehow managed to get the whole train through tunnel lanes that our lads used to struggle to get their Leyland Daf CF 8x4s through without scraping a pillar. Would upload a video but the site won't let me despite being less than the max file size.

[Justin Case]

A goodly selection here (plus bonus pictures of various vehicles at the end):

http://www.stationaryengine.org/detling_2005.htm

For top shite points the Amanco engines (horizontal cylinder, open crank and hit and miss ignition) are hard to beat (I know someone who has a couple) For bragging rights, a four mule team would put you at the top of the stationary engine tree, bit it might not be such a good idea to put it about that you have your own Chore Boy

[davidfowler2000]

I have no idea why, but I quite fancy one. Plumbed into an old alternator it could make quite a nice way of lighting the shed.

 

Anyone got one and can give me any hints / pointers?

 

 

Think big.

 

Think biggerer

 

[Bobthebeard]

That is very quiet and non dramatic! Was waiting for it to belch clag, noise and flames when it finally started...

[John F]

alcyonecorporation, on 08 May 2017 - 02:05 AM, said:

CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF CHF 

 

What's that in Euros?

[Bobthebeard]

What's that in Euros?

Or indeed in English...

 

Chuff Chuff Chuff?

[martc]

CHF = Swiss francs, a bit off topic and slightly groan worthy.

 

Although I would bet several CHF's that a good proportion of stationary engine owners are called Frank.

[Six-cylinder]

I am a little disappointed that there has not been a load of broken Listers offered, that I could dream about fixing. I am sure I could sleep very well in a warm field next to the rhythmic sound of a single cylinder engine!

[Arthur Foxhake]

I have stationary engines.

They are attached to vehicles though.

Does that count?

[martc]

A goodly selection here (plus bonus pictures of various vehicles at the end):

http://www.stationaryengine.org/detling_2005.htm

For top shite points the Amanco engines (horizontal cylinder, open crank and hit and miss ignition) are hard to beat (I know someone who has a couple) For bragging rights, a four mule team would put you at the top of the stationary engine tree, bit it might not be such a good idea to put it about that you have your own Chore Boy

 

To quote from the website above .... "An unusual engine was this 1930 15hp Porn and Dunwoody "Uniporn" Diesel displayed by M Broughton from Hadlow"

 

Clear your search history after looking for spare parts.

[sierraman]

Has anyone done anything remotely useful with one instead of pumping water from one bucket to another?

[Bobthebeard]

Has anyone done anything remotely useful with one instead of pumping water from one bucket to another?

What were they used for originally? Can't someone do that?