133 Comments for Motor City Garage

Is it like 1920 or what?

Wow, that is freaking awesome. Just to stand in the room with that thing would be awesome, even made more awesome by the fact that someone hasn't been taking meticulous care of it for the last "who knows how many years." Again, awesome.

Definitely 19teens or after.

It escapes me what all these controls are for. I would love to know. These steam engines are so old and antiquated that they leave you wondering what features they actually had with all these controls. They are pretty awesome in their own right.

You can see in this picture that large rubber treads have been attached. Presumably, to drive it on concrete or blacktop. Normally, they would just have heavy steel wheels with giant steal lugs (also seen in the pictures) that would tear up any concrete or blacktop because of their massive weight.

You're absolutely correct. The flywheel is for large, wide belts that run other machinery such as pumps, and threshers. The more people used them, the more they built wooden cabs over where drivers were. The box that the seat seems to sit on (depending on model) is where they stored wood to fuel the fire box for the boiler. They were very much like small, ground treading steam locomotives. I used to go to a show in Lynden, Washington every year that featured these and other old-school gas powered tractors.

Wow pretty neat, I never really looked into how those old hand cranks worked, thanks!

Yes. I agree it is a Model A (Only because I just looked up restored model A engines :-D ) . I wasn't completely sure, but had a suspicion when I saw the little ratcheting gear in the center of the crankshaft on the bottom of the engine. That is what the hand crank attached to. It was designed to 'safely' let the engine turn, once started, without taking the operator for a spin. A short time later, after many broken arms, jaws, skull fractures and broken ribs due to the engine backfiring (The injuries led to death in many cases) <- no kidding .... The electric starter was added along with a 6 volt battery for starting the engine...except in winter when the batteries would die due to extreme cold. Of course, you always had that hand crank, just in case. :-| On a lighter note however, cold engines rarely backfired enough to caused injury. BTW, this history class is over, now.

Looks like it could be a Ford 8N or 9N tractor.

Yes, I'm partial to the huge older cars which is why my daily driver is a '76 Cadillac Eldorado convertible with 39,000 original miles on it. Yup, I lucked out finding this one, less than a thousand miles a year and garage kept all it's life. You can't match the ride that a heavier car gives, mine weighs almost 5,100 pounds. When I get into a newer car, I fell all claustrophobic and like I'm sitting in a bucket. I guess I'm used to my front seat that's really a sofa! Had my share of new cars, still prefer the older ones you can work on yourself.

looks like a 1930's model a. I have a pic but can't upload it

Gleaning from the forum post about this engine's restoration, it seems it had been sitting here since the 1980s or 1990s.
https://www.smokstak.c...wthread.php?t=155064

I wonder how long this has been sitting there. It looks like a spooky place.

Thanks Jason

Thanks for the link, I'm very happy to see this beautiful engine to be saved from the scrap heap!