Forum Home
PC World Chat
Thread ID: 96724	2009-01-20 08:21:00	A tale of a diesel engine	tut (12033)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
740550	2009-01-20 08:21:00	Back in the dark ages, (1970s) I was an electrician in Hamilton. On my first day at work I went with my leading hand to a small concrete building in the car park in Garden Place, not the underground park but one on the corner about where the Warehouse was before it moved across the road. Inside the building was a large diesel engine driving a generator which in the event that the Hamilton lost all its power the generator would supply the Council building This diesel was from memory about 3 metres long and 2 high. I seem to think it had 6 cylinders. My leading hand said our job was to start the engine and check its operation. Now it turned out that the engine hadnt been running for a long time. No one had been able to start it. I was told it flattened the batteries trying and then it took a week or more for the batteries to be charged up again. With the batteries charged again it was time to try for a start. The interesting thing was that one had to take out 6 plugs like spark plugs and in them insert a small rolled up piece of paper soaked in salt peter. The paper was lit and it smouldered like a cigarette. The plugs were inserted back in the cylinders, the de compressors opened. On the side of the engine was a placard. It said for start “Bring the engine up to speed on the starter and then close the decompressors”. Standard instruction for a diesel. Well I have already digressed fom the question I was going to ask so I will continue. The leading hand held the starter button down until the batteries flattened. I tried to suggest that he should have closed the decompressors but was just laughed at as he pointed out the instructions were quite clear. (He was from the old country) A week later with the batteries recharged again we went through the same procedure with the same result. And then another week later with recharged batteries here we were again. This time just as the batteries were dying and the engine showed no sign of “Coming up to speed” I reached over and slammed the decompressor closed. The result was magic. With an unbelievable noise the engine burst into life shaking on its mounts and blowing smoke out of every pipe joints in its muffler. A fearsome sight and sound that had my leading hand running panic stricken from the building. The engine was water cooled from a not very big water tank in the ceiling and after about 20 minutes running, the water in that tank started to boil so the test was terminated. I never went back to that engine and moved on to another career. The question is; Does anyone know what happened to that engine and from the description, where or what it might have come from?	tut (12033)
740551	2009-01-20 08:58:00	have you tried contacting the hamilton city council? they would have records of it somewhere as all that sorta stuff is documented for financial reasons, if you find out please post as id be keen to hear. im guessing the leading hand would now be deceased?	hueybot3000 (3646)
740552	2009-01-20 09:03:00	have you tried contacting the hamilton city council? they would have records of it somewhere as all that sorta stuff is documented for financial reasons, if you find out please post as id be keen to hear. im guessing the leading hand would now be deceased? Yeah, probably died of fright!!! PJ	Poppa John (284)
740553	2009-01-20 09:08:00	lol but how can one be scared of a diesel engine? electricity is far scarier, and it feels funny	hueybot3000 (3646)
740554	2009-01-20 09:28:00	I had a similar job when I worked for the M O W at Rongatai Airport, Wellington. Once a month we had to go round all the Light/Radio beacons on the hills around Wellington & into some of th eGovt buildings & start up the emergency generators. They had to run for one hour minimum. Needless to say we were NOT popular in those buildings. Because they were the Emergency Generators, a lot of equipment would stop working. Only that equipment connected to the Emergency Supply. PJ	Poppa John (284)
740555	2009-01-20 09:39:00	Back in the dark ages, (1970s) I was an electrician in Hamilton. On my first day at work I went with my leading hand to a small concrete building in the car park in Garden Place, not the underground park but one on the corner about where the Warehouse was before it moved across the road. Inside the building was a large diesel engine driving a generator which in the event that the Hamilton lost all its power the generator would supply the Council building This diesel was from memory about 3 metres long and 2 high. I seem to think it had 6 cylinders. My leading hand said our job was to start the engine and check its operation. Now it turned out that the engine hadnt been running for a long time. No one had been able to start it. I was told it flattened the batteries trying and then it took a week or more for the batteries to be charged up again. With the batteries charged again it was time to try for a start. The interesting thing was that one had to take out 6 plugs like spark plugs and in them insert a small rolled up piece of paper soaked in salt peter. The paper was lit and it smouldered like a cigarette. The plugs were inserted back in the cylinders, the de compressors opened. On the side of the engine was a placard. It said for start “Bring the engine up to speed on the starter and then close the decompressors”. Standard instruction for a diesel. Well I have already digressed fom the question I was going to ask so I will continue. The leading hand held the starter button down until the batteries flattened. I tried to suggest that he should have closed the decompressors but was just laughed at as he pointed out the instructions were quite clear. (He was from the old country) A week later with the batteries recharged again we went through the same procedure with the same result. And then another week later with recharged batteries here we were again. This time just as the batteries were dying and the engine showed no sign of “Coming up to speed” I reached over and slammed the decompressor closed. The result was magic. With an unbelievable noise the engine burst into life shaking on its mounts and blowing smoke out of every pipe joints in its muffler. A fearsome sight and sound that had my leading hand running panic stricken from the building. The engine was water cooled from a not very big water tank in the ceiling and after about 20 minutes running, the water in that tank started to boil so the test was terminated. I never went back to that engine and moved on to another career. The question is; Does anyone know what happened to that engine and from the description, where or what it might have come from? Fascinating story made my night. When I was a kid we had a Lister diesel driving the shearing shed, 4 stands. To start was swing on the handle and drop down the decompression lever and it would slowly pick up. The cooling was a 44 gallon drum next to it dont how it worked because there was no pump. Hope you find out where the engine went	prefect (6291)
740556	2009-01-20 11:25:00	Possibly a Ruston-Hornsby (www.whfrs.org.nz) (like they have in the Wrights Hill Fortress in Wellington) though these were air-started.	feersumendjinn (64)
740557	2009-01-21 00:40:00	Yeah, probably died of fright!!! PJ I can well imagine! The satellite station at Warkworth has a very large standby diesel motor that is about a story and a half high. The exhaust (naturally) is vented outside and so you would assume that most of the noise goes outside as well, but that does not mean that it is quiet inside. Far from it. It is not a good idea to be in the engine room when it starts. Hearing anyone when that beast is running is impossible - even hand signals are hard to hear.:rolleyes: It is rather overwhelming when you know that it is about to start, but if you are in the engine room when it starts unexpectedly, it's as PJ says: Yeah, probably died of fright!!! PJ	Roscoe (6288)
740558	2009-01-21 02:46:00	Hi Roscoe, re your signing of signature, (www.radioreading.org). They are looking at closing the shortwave side of it. May be it is a warning of further cost cutting. Some meeting coming up in February about it.	BobM (1138)
740559	2009-01-21 03:29:00	Hi Roscoe, re your signing of signature, (www.radioreading.org). They are looking at closing the shortwave side of it. May be it is a warning of further cost cutting. Some meeting coming up in February about it. Possibly has something to do with cost cutting but I suppose it would be more the fact that very few listen to their shortwave broadcast. Originally they ran three sw frequencies - the other two were closed some years ago. 3935 is a good frequency and can be heard in most areas all day and night with the exception of places like Auckland - too noisy. I think that one of the main reasons is they are now streaming on the net which is a million times better than trying to hear through the static. They will still be running 1602AM which can be heard in most of NZ in the evening. Besides, they have a fairly large audience around the Levin area. Have a listen Friday night at 8pm or Saturday morning at 1030am for "It Happened In New Zealand," a programme I have been reading for almost as long as they have been on air. Thanks for your interest.:thanks	Roscoe (6288)
1 2