1919 Fairbanks Morse 2 cylinder 2 stroke diesel engine

75HP Fairbanks Morse diesel engine that was on display at the 6th annual Ione Railfair in Ione California Memorial Day weekend. The engine weighs 24,000 pounds, it is started with air that is produced from the smaller green engine and air compressor. A torch is used to heat up the glow plugs on each cylinder in order to get the diesel combustion proses going. It was used in a gold mining town, Unionville Nevada, to operate generators, air compressors, and rock crushers there in the town and the mine. The engine is towed around behind an old nicely restored Mack truck. I was told that the engine had been sitting for about 10 years prior to it being on display in Ione, it took very little work to get it running for the Railfair.

[@deksea]

That entire rig is just gorgeous. A lot of man hours went in to that project, pretty obvious. Superb attention to detail.

[@jimmybritt9537]

That sure is one beautiful display from one end to the other 😉👍👍🇺🇸

[@gregwarner3753]

The Fairbanks Morse Company was beginning to master the 2 stroke Diesel technology. There are videos of 6 and 8 cylinder versions of this engine. They were used for 'town's power before the Rural Electrification Agency developed the electrical grid.

[@madmanmapper]

When your engine's so big, it has little baby engines around it to make it feel even bigger.

[@michaelvrooman5681]

The green engine powers an air compressor that starts the huge engine...takes a John Deere to start a Fairbanks Morse......

[@UnitCrane514]

Sounds good!

[@plattforminternationalismu1690]

Gefällt mir. Fairebanks flößt mir vertrauen ein. Schaut nach qualität aus. Meine anerkennung den konstrukteuren und erbauern! Lg.ff.

[@jacquesblaque7728]

Seems almost like F-M was trying to anchor such engines by their own weight, with separate cylinder castings and all that other superfluous iron- most every bit of such engines was of cast iron. Took a few more iterations of evolution before diesels were viable for subs and locos. Major progress there in power/weight. (What's a "proses"? Sure it's not a hot-bulb?)

[@Manorfarmdenton]

I think he means process!

[@jimmybritt9537]

@@tripplefives1402 wish you had got that on tape , that was one angry engine 😉👍👍🇺🇸

[@holysirsalad]

This looks like a Model Y engine which is a semi-diesel. Although Rudolph Diesel's patent expired in 1908 FM made hotbulbs for a few years. I think the Model 32, a revamped (mostly higher-pressure) version of the Model Y was their first commercial Diesel, aka fully compression-ignition.
Aside from metallurgical limitations of the time the separate castings have some specific technical merits. These engines have more in common with the modern chainsaw than modern diesel engines: They are valveless two-stroke with crankcase scavenging, in which the downward movement of the piston compresses the air charge. Each cylinder has to have its own crankcase in order for this to work. You can't see in this video but there are large reed valves on the other side of the engine.
Another advantage of the modular design is parts commonality. These engines (well, the Model 32, anyway) were available in configurations from 1 to 6 cylinders, and everything above the base is identical no matter the configuration. This saves a lot of money in manufacturing and stocking. GM continued this practice for a long time on their (much smaller) Detroit Diesel engines where many parts were identical across various configurations. Some engines, like V16, were just two V8s bolted together.
Also, with such huge rotating mass comes a lot of momentum, which gives primitive governors a chance to adapt to changing engine load with limited RPM fluctuation.

[@acersalman8258]

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