RR #1 Lone Jack, Missouri 64070
My story begins on a Friday evening last January when a friend
of mine casually mentioned that he was going to an industrial sale.
It was to be held the next morning in an old foundry that had
closed down in the early 1960’s. ‘There will be everything
from submarine engines to you name it!’ he said. Saturday
morning arrived with three to four inches of fresh snow and more in
the forecast. My son, Trent, and I calmly ignored the minor 10 wind
chill to go ‘take a look’ at what was there.
When we arrived about half of the ‘good stuff’ was
outside and covered with snow, so we started our search inside. We
saw three big diesel engines about ten feet tall, one of which was
set up to generate electricity. In another area inside we saw two
big flywheels hidden in a pile of plywood. Since there hadn’t
been any engines listed on the sale bill, I was ‘surprised’
to say the least. Everyone who passed thought it was an air
compressor (since it was almost completely covered up), and there
was no name on it anywhere. Ten minutes later after I took ‘too
long of a look’, it was mine. We guessed it to weigh 12,000
pounds, as the flywheels were eight inches wide, five inches thick
and sixty-four inches across. I also bid on another four-cylinder
Weber vertical diesel and a Fairbanks Morse Hopper Cooled Starting
air compressor, but thought my wife would be happier with just one
to look at for a while, so I let them both go.
I was about the only one at the sale who collected old machinery
so the scrap dealers had the upper hand, and a lot of old stuff was
scrapped. I went back and bought a lot more after the snow melted,
but most of the Weber spare parts and tools were gone before I
found out they existed. A six-cylinder Fulton diesel was scrapped
that would have run along with a Cooper Bessemer that needed some
work.
A big Cooper Bessemer was dismantled and moved to Kansas along
with a generator to furnish power for a factory. I was later given
the four-cylinder Weber diesel, which was engine #101, before
it’s brass tag was stolen. I later traded for the Fairbanks
Morse air compressor.
About two weeks after the sale, a man who collected engines of
the smaller variety, Jerry Nance; my brother, Brice; and my son,
Trent and myself met at the foundry to move the Weber. I learned it
was a type 3MB from a picture on page 543 of the Gas Engine
Encyclopedia. The weather was perfect, for January, and everything
went as smooth as silk. We wanted to weigh it but with only a
12,000 pound license and being twenty miles from a weight station,
we decided to go straight home. The three-quarter ton Chevy 4×4
handled it fine until we started up ‘Rocky Top.” About
half way up this terribly steep hill, I lost traction. My
father-in-law, ‘Big John,’ (another old-iron collector)
tried to help with his 4×4 but we could not move it. He then got
his two-ton water truck with six-wheel drive and pulled us to the
summit just fine. The engine was not stuck, but the Madison-Kipp
lubricator was in bad shape. As you can see from the pictures, even
the muffler was a load.
We are now ready to mount the Weber on a trailer and have hopes
of getting it ready for our 1988 Sni Valley Antique Machinery
Association show in Oak Grove, Missouri.
Since I started writing this story, I was given the
four-cylinder vertical Weber. Another friend, Jim ‘Taco’
Chappel of Napoleon, helped move it home. It weighs over 12,000
pounds, but I believe it isn’t as heavy as the one cylinder. I
also have most of a twenty horsepower ‘Y’ Fairbanks Morse
but need an injector and the valve plate on the rear of the
crank-case. (That’s another story!!)
If anyone has any starting information or any literature on the
Weber, please let me know.
