Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

   I have shown pictures of this stuff before, but I would like to tell you what a power house my Wilesco D455 is. By the way, this little engine is my favorite. I have recently added four more pieces of machinery to my machine shop , bringing the total to 20 pieces , with a total of 24 drive belts . While I am running it at 60 psi , I only crack the regulator valve by about 1/16 of a turn to drive all these machines at one time . It makes me wonder just how much this tiny engine is capable of doing. However, when watching videos, and looking at pictures taken during the industrial revolution of a single steam engine powering an entire factory with hundreds of looms and much auxiliary equipment , I probably should not be surprised.

  D. E. Jones

If it was a real shop with all equipment being used at one time , I'm not sure what would happen . If you haven't watched David Richards, Old Steam Powered Machine Shop on Youtube, I recommend it. He has his shop set up like a shop in 1935 would have been . Heck , most of his equipment dates to 1935 or earlier. At the first of his series, he powers his entire machine shop with a very small horizontal engine through a series of line shafts. His little engine just loafs along powering the entire shop with seemingly no effort . Later in the series, he installs a much larger mill engine in his shop , not because he needs it, but just because he wants it. Like he said, it is overkill , and would run a saw mill , but it will also run his shop ! That being said, he doesn't use all his machines at one time. Usually no more than two or three at once . I forgot mention, but I named the little guy using my band saw David Richards .

D. E. Jones

That little engine is sure the one that "could"...."Can"!!!