Vintage stationary engines

Vintage stationary engine photo, videos, info and vintage stationary engines for sale on ebay as available

Here you will find information, photos, videos and vintage engines and parts for sale, as well news and blog links concerning vintage engines.

If you are looking for vintage engines and parts, this could be the right place for you to look.

Soon I will add Vintage Engines and parts from the US and the UK to it as well.

This site is in development and will take some time to build. Oct 2011

Photo courtesy of CC geograh in the uk by Evelyn Simak

This is a very interesting hobby for a few people and the effort, which goes into keeping these old engines running, is nothing more then amazing.

Many shows and field days have displays on such a variety of stationary engines driven by steam, petrol and kerosene. They also come in many different sizes and had many uses in particular in agricultural.

For more pictures go to Wolfie at Redgage

In order to help me to make this the best site for you please enter the poll or leave a comment right at the end of this page.

It is sometimes hard to believe that these little engines were the forerunners to our modern machinery. The applications for these stationary engines were plenty such as pumping water, power tools, drive saws to cut firewood, move people and not to forget it was running the first power plants.

Life was starting to get easier at the turn of the century and the engines could do the job of a few men.

Photo:Ruston and Horsby Diesel Milling Engine (Ashley Dace) / CC BY-SA 2.0

Richard Hornsby & Sons:

Richard Hornsby & Sons were a large engine and machinery manufacturer in Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918. After that it was taken over by Rustons of Lincoln and became a subsidiary and this created Rustons&Hornsby.

Hornsby & Sons manufactured mainly agriculture machinery such as threshing machines and traction engines. Everything was tested on their own farm before they turned it into production.

Richard Hornsby also developed the early crawler system, which he patented and later sold what became later caterpillar.

Interesting Hornsby Facts:

- 1898, a Hornsby designed engine was used to provide electrical power for the Statue of Liberty.

- 1896, Hornsby built the world's first tractor and locomotive powered by oil engines.

- Manufacturers in Sweden and Denmark built thousands of engines using the Hornsby design to power fishing boats.

- Marconi used a Hornsby engine for power in his early wireless telegraphy experiments.

- Among the famous people who have used Hornsby engines are Rudyard Kipling, the Duke of Roxburghe, Viscount Curzon, Lord Rothschild and the Czar of Russia.

- Hornsby engine was used to light the Taj Mahal and the tunnels in the Rock of Gibraltar.

- Hornsby engines were used in the Arctic Circle, Malta, Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Jerusalem, Jaffa, India, South and Central Africa and South America.

Wolseley Stationary Engine

R. A. Lister and Co came into existence in 1867 by Robert Ashton Lister. Having been a manufacturer of farming equipment for many years, Lister started in the early 20th century to engineer petrol engines to run shearing equipment after the invention of the internal combustion engine.

Photo Courtesy of CC BulldozerD11

Under the management of Percy Lister, who was a grandson of Robert Ashton Lister, the company grew quite rapidly and had a workforce of about 2000 by 1926. With around 6000 customers in the UK alone the company had to run 24 hours a day. Australia and New Zealand were also big customers for their shearing equipment.

Lister started to produce a cold start (CS) diesel engine in 1929, which they had designed themselves. This diesel engine was a slow running engine (600rpm), but very reliable and was used in driving electric generators and irrigation pumps because of their longevity. These engines run for many years and were widely used in the British Commonwealth.

Link to a Lister D Vintage Engines

Despite the depression, Lister was producing around 600 engines a week. The majority was small engines from 1.5 to 3hp and was used on building sites.

The Lister 'D' is still one of the most widely seen vintage stationary engines in the UK.

As it always happens when someone comes up with something good other people copy it. Other countries produced the Listeroids engine, which was based on the Lister engine. (see below)

After the 2nd World War Lister couldn't achieve the high's of the 20's and 30's due to more competition (Petter and overseas) and the higher labor cost

Finally in 1965 Listers was sold to Hawker-Siddeley who already bought Petter in 1957. In 1986 merging the 2 old rivals into Lister-Petter formed a new company. This gave strength to the new company by building on there past successes.

Due to the uncertainty in the late 80's and 90',which nearly caused the collapse of the company, part of the company was sold of to Deutz. Some investors who were interested in rebuilding the old product range bought the core of the company.

In the new century Lister-Petter still assemble small engines from the old site in Dursley, but the new investors started to extend the product range into more powerful engines.

Listeroid engines:

In 1987 production of the Lister CS engines stopped in England, but because of the good reputation it was continued to be built in India and exported to other countries. The quality of the engines produced now is at the same level as the originals Lister build engines.

Because these engines are easy to maintain and repair they are well sort after for the outback or remote areas. Another advantage of these engines is variety of alternative fuels that can be used in them.

Coming soon

coming soon

Just click the link to see the Photo

Every Link will open in a new window for you.

The following link is the main tag for Stationary Engines on the Vintage Mowers site. Below you will find the links which get you directly to the photos.

Photo of a Alfa Laval 4HP Vintage Engine

Photo set of 3 of a Bamford 2 HP Stationary engine

This video isn't really a video, but more like a slide show. Steamwally who uploaded this video shows in steps on how he restored this compressor in picture form with some text thrown in.

This video is still good and interesting to watch. After 6 and a half minutes he demonstrates the running of the restored marco compressor

Sit back and enjoy.

Here is a video about 2 vintage stationary engine enthusiast starting up 6 small stationary engines in the backyard.

Watch out for when they do crank them up, as you will see they use different methods to start the engines.

They also explain what engine is what.

Video 1:

A Lister tr1 running after restoration

Video 2:

1946 Lister D type stationary petrol engine manufactured in Dursley, England

Video 3:

A 2hp 1948 Lister D

Video 1:

A wonderful old Lister engine

Video2:

6 horsepower diesel backup generator charging a 48V battery bank

Video 3:

Another Lister Vintage Engine

These items are all from the UK.

These items are all from the US