Here are a couple of pictures of a new enginehouse that I am building for the Tod Engine Heritage Park in Youngstown, OH. The big green thing is a 34" x 68" x 60" cross compound rolling mill engine of 4,000 horsepower. The building is 44' x 60' and has runways for the 1893 vintage Morgan overhead crane shown in the first photograph. I am building this myself, no contractors involved. We have plans to double the length of the building to provide space for additional equipment and our 1942 GE 70 tonner, which will reside where the Morgan crane is sitting now.

Our goal is to have all of our important pieces located inside this building and under hook. The Tod Engine Heritage Park is to be a museum of steelmaking in Youngstown, Ohio.

That's awesome. Thanks for posting. VIVA VAPOR!

A great looking building, you should be pleased and proud.

Now for some questions:

What is that neat little orange crawler crane? A Bay City? A Lorain? Do tell. Is it used to put up the steelwork?

If you don't mind answering, are you able to build the structure yourself without any zoning or permitting or insurance problems?

Howard P.
MP6, NAUG

The crane is an Insley K12 crawler. We bought it earlier this year for $1200, and I did a lot of work to reverse some of the abuse the machine has had in its life. We fabricated a new 20' center boom section to make the boom long enough to erect the steel. When the building project is finished we will resell the crane, resulting in steel erection being done basically for free.

We have both zoning and building permits, and neither prohibit the owner from constructing their own buildings. In our city only electricians, plumbers and HVAC installers need to be licensed. We have a good relationship with the inspector, who is just fascinated with the engine!

Nice, an Insley. Forgot about those.

Howard P.

Wow- amazing engine, nice building, and a cool crane.

My dad was a crane (dragline) operator, and once got to tour the Insley factory in Indianapolis back in the mid 1960's. I remember he brought me back a handful of Insley crane brochures. Wish I still had some of them.

For any of you interested in preserving antique construction equipment, check out the Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA): http://www.hcea.net/

Always a good tactic for invitees - wanted or unwanted: Wow them with steam!

I must ask the obvious:

Is the steam engine operable? I'm assuming not.

But I'm guessing it will be able to be displayed "in motion", powered by something else, like an electric motor.

Thanks for the photos.

I have not heard anything about that Todd engine in a while. so it is always nice to hear good news.

My question is what was the working steam pressure used to power the engine?

Ted Miles

The steel plant's boilerhouse generated 160 psi superheated steam. There were 12 Erie City coal fired boilers in the steel plant boilerhouse, and an additional 10 Stirling blast furnace gas fired boilers at the blast furnace plant. The Tod Engine had a 12" dia. steam line to feed it, a larger engine at the other end of the building had a 16" dia. line feeding it.

The engine will never run on steam again. Heck our engine's cylinders are larger in diameter than most available boilers! It will be set up to run electrically.