New toy collected

The Oil Engine manual quotes approx 1600lb for the 2-cylinder.

Peter

Sounds OK to me although I can't find it in the British Diesel Engine catalogue which surprises me. A pic would be good :-) IIRC Holman's main market was mining which was surely in a slump in 1952 given that Coal nationalisation was 5 years old and most metal mines had closed. Will it be going in a boat? regards Roland

I'm sure it's substantially more than that, but well under the 3690 lbs. Just shows that it's always best to take what you read or are told with a pinch of salt

Cheers Tim

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Tim, What I am interested to know was how you got it and manouvered down the tow path without a touch of nerves :-))

Mart> I collected my latest toy this afternoon, with help from the previous

The figures quoted are:

Peter

Older issues have Dorman listed under English Electric.

Peter

We got it onto a fairly compact 4-wheel trailer, the nervous bit was when we realised that one of the lugs the ratchet straps was secured to had snapped off within 1/2 mile of setting off! Lifting at his end was from a steel beam in his garage, he assure me he'd used the same beam to unload it 15 years before! The hardest part was getting it high enough to get on to the trailer, there was a little jiggery pokery needed here.

The previous owner supplied the horsepower in the shape of his gas powered Discovery, the same one we used to collect my CVA lathe (1 1/2 Ton) from Scotland a few weeks ago.

The engine was sitting on wooden blocks on its mounting feet, but it wouldn't have needed much bouncing around for it to slip off these & we would have been in the merde, so losing the securing lug wasn't a good plan. The journey was only about 10 miles, & we chose a quiet country lane route for the most part.

Towpath was no problem once we got here, after all it isn't huge. Unloading was straightforward with my 2-ton engine crane, luckily it would just pick the engine up on the full (1 ton) extension, something it wouldn't quite manage with the 1 1/2 ton lathe.

Cheers Tim

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You won't like it, it's a fairly 'striking' bright Holman yellow :-)

I'll see if I can remember how to do it, & sort something out during the week.

Not sure why mining would be in a slump because of nationalisation? It was still a very big industry at that time, most of our electricity came from coal & my guess is that demand for that would have been just starting to pick up?

The idea is tempting, it would go well in the right sort of boat. Depends really on how good its mechanical condition is, or whether I can find enough spares to make it good enough to be worth putting in a boat.

Cheers Tim

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Which year was that? They seem to have made them in various forms, some with relatively small enclosed flywheel, vehicle style, this has a 28" (I think) open flywheel, cast iron sump, it's governed to 1000 rpm. I'd be interested in any more info you might have.

The later LD series looks as though it may have been a development of the DL.

They made a smaller range at about the same time, I think these were the DS range. DL = Diesel Large, DS = Diesel small ?? A few of the smaller ones have found their way into narrow boats.

Cheers Tim

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Peter

Yes for 6th ed but Dorman do not seem to be in the 1st ed at all. Modern Oil Engine Practice (3 ed 1947) quotes types: DS, DW and DL. Type DL quoted at 2-6 cyls and 32.5 - 97 hp. No weights quoted. ttfn Roland

I phrased it badly. I meant supply would be in a slump. I don't think I'll bother "Mining history" but logic suggest that the main post Nationalisation splurge would have finished and after that most things were electrified. There was a late 1cyl Tangye diesel at Enstone which was also in a striking canary yellow.

Roland

My 2nd ed 1946 just has half a page on Dormans with more detail on the cold starting arrangements than on the actual models! They do say there was an 8hp air cooled single - do these ever surface? Dormans do have a full page ad in the book, though, with a pic of a

Incidentally the previous owner bought it from a scrapyard, where the compressor had been in use just for removing wheel nuts from scrap waggons.

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service