Machinery of all sorts

[SkedAddled]

Whatever machinery strikes your fancy, with an emphasis on older stuff.

 

[SkedAddled]

Corliss steam engine from sometime in the 1800s.
40-foot flywheel diameter at 4-foot wide, it used to drive a leather belt
to power a huge machine-shop manufacturing factory.
Rotational accuracy within a few-thousandths of an inch, it's put into operating motion
every weekend under power of compressed air.

One can feel the air it moves around if you're near it while in motion.

 

[OhLook]

Can a small appliance sneak in? Space heater, very old (except replacement cord), still in use.

 

[ShipleyNW]

 

[Inphoto]

 

[Ltdave]

Whatever machinery strikes your fancy, with an emphasis on older stuff.

ahhhh! the Henry Ford!

 

[Ltdave]

1909 International Harvester Carriage (self-propelled)

 

[West Coast Birder]

Offshore oil platform in the Santa Barbara Channel off Goleta, California.

 

[SkedAddled]

ahhhh! the Henry Ford!

Yep, the venerable Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield village.
A gigantic cornucopia of artifacts from the industrialization of the United States,
as well as being a showcase of some extremely impressive machines of the past.
And don't forget the architecture.

The collection includes such historical items as the last presidential limousine to not have
been destroyed after official retirement, a 1952 Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, the actual bus
Rosa Parks was on when she refused to give up her seat, the theatre chair Abraham Lincoln sat in
during the show he attended the night he was killed, a genuine Eames chair in all its parts
displayed in a permanent static exploded view, the Goldenrod land-speed record-setter
of its time, the longest continually-operating steam-powered train locomotive in North America,
one of Thomas Edison's actual laboratory buildings replete with contents, the actual Fokker aircraft
used by Josephine Ford's Arctic expeditions, the number 001 production of the Ford Mustang
and 001 of the Edsel Citation, multitudes of operational gigantic steam engines, and the place
is even a scaled version of Philadelphia's Independence Hall. In the Spring & early Summer,
you can dine in period within Harvey Firestone's family farmhouse, witness grain milling
on giant gindstones in the Village's millhouse, participate in rotating the railroad's roundhouse
track or simply watch the train restoration, and even ride around in Model A and Model T cars.
You can even participate in period glass-blowing lessons, or just browse a southern plantation
house from the past, and perhaps you'll catch a wool-spinning demonstration happening
on a truly antique spinning wheel. You can even visit the home of Noah Webster,
a guy who helped to create the modern dictionary book.

There are accredited science and history schools on the property in period buildings, as well.

I carried an annual membership when I lived nearby, and it paid for itself many times over.
Just five visits per year by myself was worth it, but admitting friends or family with me
paid for itself several times over the cost.

I highly recommend annual membership if you live near.

 

[SkedAddled]

The official story is that Henry Ford installed one of his "Gasteam" engines from his original
Highland Park factory on site, along with the gigantic Corliss engine and some others,
then had the entire structure built up around them.

The train tracks within the structure are how they are able to change what's displayed indoors,
as well as how they're able to house an example of one of the highest-powered steam
locomotive engines ever built. It is a gargantuan hulk of a machine.

And here's a pro-tip about the massive automotive collection displayed, from my extensive
times spent visiting: Any vehicle displayed as sitting with its own tires on the floor is operational,
and any on stands are not(yet). What this means is that, for example, the stunning white
Bugatti Royale on display is indeed a fully-functional car, while some of the rest of the collection,
as they stand on their stilts, are not.

 

[SkedAddled]

Here's that 1952 Weinermobile

An Edison DC-electric generator

Example of the stunning interior architectural detail

 

[SkedAddled]

The exploded Eames chair I mentioned

Interior of the only fully-preserved 'Dymaxion' house of Buckminster Fuller's design

'Goldenrod' land-speed record-breaker from the 1950s or 1960s

 

[SkedAddled]

Many special displays come and go, also.
I visited while a display of genuine Hollywood movie props were being shown,
and I got to capture

The actual ECTO-1 from Ghostbusters

Batmobile from Tim Burton's movie starring Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton

"Did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moon light?"

 

[SkedAddled]

There was a display of 'Rock Stars' Cars and Guitars' some years ago. Very cool.

Billy Gibbons' chopped 1933 Ford Coupe, "Eliminator"

 

[SkedAddled]

Alice Cooper's "Billion Dollar Baby"

 

[SkedAddled]

Janis Joplin's 1965 Porsche 356c Cabriolet Super

 

[SkedAddled]

Ricky Nelson drove this iconic car on 'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'

 

[SkedAddled]

My favorite was this eclectic combo of Rick Nielson's, drummer and frontman of Cheap Trick:
A custom-painted Ford Ranchero aside a similarly-custom-painted John Deere yard tractor

 

[SkedAddled]

Mechanical bits from an elevator at the Packard assembly plant

versus operationals of the Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital

 

[Ltdave]

my wife and i love the Henry Ford. we have membership tickets which gets free admission to the museum. weve been to several special exhibits and theyve all been very good.

the locomotive you referenced. Chesapeake and Ohio's Allegheny class 1601. (2-6-6-6 in Whyte designation)