Rescued Treasure

More than thirty years ago, a good friend of mine spotted this 10 HP Mogul engine, which was almost totally concealed by blackberry and trumpet-creeper vines, near Flat Gap, Kentucky. My friend was able to locate the owner, and after he made a deal, we loaded it on a borrowed truck and moved it to his home. It has been under cover ever since, but it never was restored.

Last summer at the Pinckneyville show I visited with the owner of the beautifully restored 4 HP engine shown in the video below. I mentioned the 10 HP engine in Eastern Kentucky, and he took down the contact info. I had a call a few nights ago from Jim (the 4 HP Mogul owner), of St. Peters, MO, and he is now the giddy owner of the 4000 pound, 10 HP Mogul. He made a deal over the phone with my old friend, and made the round trip from west of St. Louis to Johnson County, Kentucky to retrieve the very nice specimen of old iron. He is already well into the restoration process, and he expects to show it next summer. This old engine ran a stone buhr mill for grinding corn meal (and probably malted corn for whiskey) during its working years, and it also powered a generator to charge the batteries for a rural phone exchange.

The machinery on the 4 HP model operates the same as the 10 HP, and they have great appeal for old machinery aficianadoes. I hope these two are operating side by side next year at Pinckneyville.