Stationary engine Logestics

Whilst driving my truck tonight, i wondering about the distribution on engines back in the day. The questions i have can be answered in many ways and depending on the engine:

How would it have been transported for example something like a large tangye engine?
Would the engine had to have been assembled on site?
For smaller engines eg, Lister Ds would they have been in a crate, would the engines have come with some kinda warranty?
Was it up to the owner to fix any engine problems or did they have specialist companys that would get called out?

All simple questions, but interesting, dont you every wonder what happened to your engine when it rolled off the production line

I know R A Lister had service agents across the country, They dealt with the supply and after sales service of the engines and accessory's

I think RH, Petter, etc all had a similar setup.

Regarding transport...At a guess early ones were transported by steam lorry and big ones built on site?

Later engines I guess still delivered by the road network, maybe smaller engines were carried on the trains as "Goods"?

John...

A lot of the larger engines would have been assembled on site Ryan, chances are that they were test run at the works and then dismantled again for transportation, the final re-erecting was possibly done by works fitters. I had a photo of a large Ruston being transported across Africa in pieces, it was hauled by vehicles and even Elephant's when the going got a little "rough", that same engine could still be there now!!
Regarding Lister's and the like, my mate used to collect D's etc from Dursley and take them up to Gateshead for Liner mixers in the 1960's, I will ask him when I see him next but I would imagine by that time that they would be cased and on pallets.
I think that warranties would have been issued by the factory, I would also imagine that a lot of the engines had little maintenance and were looked at only when they broke down, especially on mixers etc which worked in dusty conditions and were overseen by unskilled labour! At our quarry it was common for the compressor's to seize up and when we went to fix them the sump was full of clean oil, the operator would have run it with no oil and then, when it stopped, fill it with new oil to hide his error! They couldn't understand how we knew that the oil was fresh.

Pete

i think it a very interesting subject and would like to find out more

Well, here is an interesting thought. My Ruston BPR was sold in Coldstream up in Scotland, How did an engine that was made in Lincon go all the way to Scotland only to end up in a shed in Suffolk???

Villiers wrote:Well, here is an interesting thought. My Ruston BPR was sold in Coldstream up in Scotland, How did an engine that was made in Lincon go all the way to Scotland only to end up in a shed in Suffolk???

there is so much more history to be uncovered than just the engine

Just an update Ryan, I have just spoken to my mate (the one who transported Lister engines) and he says that the D's were just on wooden skids with no covering, it was up to him to sheet and rope them down. The export engines however were packed in wooden crates, he picked them up from somewhere near Bristol and not from the factory.

Pete

The larger engines all had test run in the factory, prior to painting and delivery. This was also the case for steam engines. I have a PB that was sold from an agent and was delivered to the farm by lorry. I don't know how it got to the agents first.

The bigger Petter engines were sited by petter enginers, Im reading the book "Petters ive got a job for you" good book plenty of pics and service hints and tips.

Handy for rough dating as well.

Paul

Villiers wrote:Well, here is an interesting thought. My Ruston BPR was sold in Coldstream up in Scotland, How did an engine that was made in Lincon go all the way to Scotland only to end up in a shed in Suffolk???

My Lister D (the 500 rpm one) was originally sold in southampton, and it too has been up and down the country, whereas my Lister CS has never travelled 30 miles beyond where it was first sold at (Barnard Castle)

Paul