"Houston, the pigs have flown."Well, the pig iron anyway. :)Yesterday, a crane lifted out the 49 ton, four cylinder, triple expansion engine from the engine room of the Elizabeth, and set it down on a barge. Some additional steam machinery was removed as well; plans are to restore it and set it up as an exhibit at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, PA.You can see the photos taken during this operation in the Steam Ferry Elizabeth (ex Lakewood) Raising photo folder at: http://www.survivingworldsteam.com/gall ... age=2Harry Burkhardt has already added his comments to the pictures. He is the one that spearheaded this entire operation; he also singlehandedly removed the Worthington 3½ x 2½ x 4 Duplex #1020939 from the ferry, and has already begun restoring it. The photos of his work so far are at: http://www.survivingworldsteam.com/gall ... 57Removing this pump on his own and breaking it down was no small task either; Harry is definitely made of the "right stuff". (I can barely move my Dean Bros. 3 x 2 x4 duplex when it is in pieces!) I understand he has bruises on his back to prove it; but he did it.The Independence Seaport Museum is still seeking funds for restoring this machinery. Donations for restoration can be sent to The Elizabeth Engine Restoration Fund 211 South Columbus Blvd. Philadelphia PA, 19106Hats off to everyone who has made this happen.-James Hefner Hebrews 10:20a Surviving World Steam Project

James- You may want to let those in charge of the project know that a similar type of exhibit was done with one of the triple expansion engines from the Mackinac Transportation Company's (NYC/PRR/DSSA owned) Chief Wawatam. The exhibit is within the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoac, an is one of the neatest ways I've seen for doing an engine display --- complete with a touchpad "Chadburn" which activates the engine itself.TJhttp://www.wisconsinmaritime.org/[/url]

So glad to learn of this display of one of the Chief's engines. I knew her only from pictures, and it pains me when I think of her loss.

James and all,You said "Hats off to them" And I say Amen to that!!!Quadriple expansion steam engines are much rarer than the common triple expansion engines. If you can't save the ship, then save the important parts! And steam engines powered the 19th and early 20th centuries! And they sound so cool!Ted Miles

Hi Ted;I thought you would love the news.Not to pick nits; but the Elizabeth's engine is a four cylinder triple expansion engine. Like the engines aboard the Titanic and the Battleship Texas (RYPN brief), she has one HP cylinder, one IP cylinder, and two LP cylinders, one on each end of the engine. Their respective cylinder diameters are 19 inches, 35 inches, and 30 inches x 2; the stroke for all of them is 30 inches.Overall, the engine is 16 feet tall (including bedplate), 7ft 6in wide, and 18 ft. long. it was rated at 1500HP; and had piston valves on the HP and IP cylinders and slide valves on the LP cylinders (the valve boxes have the hatch pattern on each end of the engine.) The walnut lagging and asbestos insulation was removed a long time ago.Four cylinder triple expansion engines, like quadrupal expansion engines, are rare indeed. It is smaller than the engines found aboard the U.S.S. Olympia (already at the Independence Seaport Museum) or the Battleship Texas; but it is the perfect size for an exhibit similiar to the Chief Wawatam engine. Free of engine room clutter; it will allow visitors to see it in toto and working.-James Hefner Hebrews 10:20a Surviving World Steam Project

One of my most treasured memories from the early days of Project 1225 was when one of our guys graduated from MSU and took a job in Cheboygan, MI. He rented a house just down the road from Frances Burgtorf, author of the picture book on the Chief Wawatam, which was in its last years of operation at that time. He introduced himself, and we all got invited to an evening with the retired long-time master of the Chief, and onto the boat itself. When I last saw the Manitowoc engine, it was still in the Chief. One of three engines, not two: the key innovation of the Straits ferries was the bow propellor which contributed to their icebreaking ability. The two engine rooms were separated by the two sets of HAND FIRED boilers. I'm glad to see this picture of the Manitowoc installation.We would have gone across the Straits in the engine room, but the Soo Line had managed to derail a car on the St. Ignace loading bridge and it was out of service for the weekend. One of our members who was a trainman on the connecting Michigan Northern short line did take the trip through the ice below the water line in the forward engine room, and reported that it sounded like the ship was crunching through about a million potato chips. I'm a bit mystified by the statement that the triple-expansion engines sound so cool: if these engines are in good order, they shouldn't sound like anything at all, with no exhaust.The Michigan Department of Transportation invested quite a bit in storing the Chief at Mackinac City for an extended period in the 1980's in hopes that the locals would preserve and develop the ship as a museum, but no one there appreciated it and it was eventually scrapped. As often happens on the lakes, the hull still exists as a barge.

The Nobska in Boston had/has quadruple expansion (not cylinder) engines. Are they cutting her up now? Last I heard the engine was at a technical school.

The mention of the Elizabeth having a triple expansion engine struck a chord that had me reaching for George Hilton's Staten Island Ferry book. It seems that the SI Ferry had one boat, the Mayor Gaynor (1914), with a four cylinder triple expansion engine, the only one of its type in the history of the Staten Island Ferry.That boat was somewhat unpopular with the Captains and pilots, as the engine could get stuck with the HP cylinder on top dead center. A bypass valve could be used to admit HP steam to the intermediate cylinder, but that took time, which wasn't always available while docking. I wonder if the Elizabeth made a few rough dockings for that reason.The earlier (1905) and later (1921, 1926, 1929-1931, and 1937-1939) SI boats had what they called a double compound engine, a pair of compound engines placed fore and aft on a single crank (high, low, low, high). The advantage of this somewhat unusual arrangement was that the cranks were at 90 degrees, so that the engine could not get stuck TDC. As I'm writing this, I'm wondering if the Elizabeth had a different set of crank throws than the Gaynor.I had the pleasure, back in 1971, of making a few trips in the engine room of the Mary Murray, which was the last SI boat with these engines. (The later Merrill class had Skinner Unaflows, still steam but very enclosed.) I have mixed feelings when I see her in the mud in the Raritan River from the Turnpike. I'm glad that I got to see her in service, but am sorry to see her abandoned in the mud, where she has been for maybe 25 years.I also had the opportunity to tour the Liberty ship John Brown when it was in Philadelphia last month, tied up at Penn's Landing, perhaps a quarter mile South of where the Elizabeth served as the Hooters. The Brown is based in Baltimore, and I highly recommend a visit. I was amazed at the fact that almost nothing on the ship was off limits, including the bridge and the engine room. That particular engine is a three cylinder triple, 2500 HP at 68 RPM. One of the fireman told me that the engine of the Liberty ship on the West coast (sorry, I forgot the name) was used in filming the movie Titanic. All the railings and light fixtures were replaced with smaller items; lower railings and smaller fixtures made a 140 ton engine look like a 1000 ton engine, a neat modeling trick.A growing problem facing the John Brown is the lack of steam qualified, Coast Guard licensed marine engineers. Some of the gents involved in this restoration (and operation!) are in their 70s and 80s, and the Merchant Marine and Navy just aren't turning out steam engineers anymore.Sorry if I rambled too far off topic-

You can now see some good pictures of the engine as it is being cleaned. They start at the bottom of: http://www.survivingworldsteam.com/gall ... ge=3-James Hefner Hebrews 10:20a Surviving World Steam Project