I was wondering if anyone knows if J. Falk ever produced a steam engine that had the slide in burner
plus a 110v electric heater in the boiler? Maybe for the U.S. market back then. Please check your
resources as I have been for several days now.
Thanks everyone, and stay safe.
Please share more Tom, what have you found?
Looked at my very limited amount of J.Falk data here, and didn´t find anything.
Would make sense theugh, as i only have some German info here, which most likely wouldn´t list an exportengine like that.
However, of the top of my head, i would consider it pretty unrealistic that they did.
Nomatter how it was set up, a firebox would radiate way to much heat, to stay within the normal comfortzone temperaturewise, when it comes to electric wiring.
(Unless incredibly well insulated with asbestos or similar of course.)
Would love to be otherwise educated though, do you have such an engine Tom, since you´re forwarding the question here?
Yes I have it in my possession. Here are some pics. It is next to my other Falk overtype which is on
the right in the pics where they're together. The base is a little longer and taller. The wood handles
are all there but a different style, not sure if that can help with which one is older. There's no
sight glass but an overflow valve that doesn't look original. The fire box has different cutouts and
only the two middle lower ones on both sides are open. There is what looks like a plastered asbestos
panels on both walls. It looked like it has never seen oil in a long time and with no inline oiler to
add any. Please see the pics and respond if you have some idea of whether Falk did this or Uncle Cletus.
Thanks for your time,
[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Boy, that’s a tough one without a catalog reference... while I can’t see them getting rid of the sight glass, they did add a fill plug... If not factory, someone did a very nice job of it. Firebox also looks to be repainted. Bruce, did you travel back in time?
Bruce, did you travel back in time?
That was my first thought as well .... must have been Bruce's earlier incarnation.
It would be downright daunting to try using the burner with the wiring right out the firebox door like that. With the heater rod inside the boiler, there would be no reason to pug off the vent holes in the sides of the firebox either really, so I'm not sure what the reasoning behind that was anyway.
Still, it is rather well done, thus I suspect Uncle Cletus had some skills .... so it's probably best that it wasn't Uncle Bubba that did the work!
No doubt in my mind that Uncle Cletus is to blame for this one.
Definitely looks to me like they just removed the sightglass, drilled the lower gauge-hole up to fit the heater, and added another to fit the overflow plug instead.
...but still in most aspects an amazing engine, and definitely no less interesting with the unshielded electric suicide setup.
When I saw it the seller had the heating element out of the boiler. I've seen new one for sale that
have a cord that unplugs from what would be, that back of the boiler. I knew I was tacking a chance
on this. It was listed for $1000.00 BIN OBO. so I threw him offer thinking he'd say no, and he did.
So I pointed out everything I saw and told him Falk didn't do that heater. I threw the same offer at
him and one hour later he said yes. What was too much?