Our vintage Hobart Welder comes to life!

Various task are constantly being worked on by volunteers at the Toronto Railway Museum.  On July 15th, Michael Guy worked on a number of them and here is part of his report on that day's activities:

"The second half of the day was spent on the Hobart welder engine. This little beast was built by MWM (Motoren-Werke Mannheim AG) in 1963. It produces 23hp at 1800 rpm. Typically these little industrial engines are built like tanks and will run almost forever if you look after them. This one I felt was in need of some tender loving care as the air (it is air-cooled with fins on the cylinders and a fan) was coming out rather hot and only from one cylinder. 

I pulled off the fan belt (it needed replacing so that was another side trip), fan, cylinder shrouds and guess what? A mouse nest and a lovely collection of dead leaves and debris was uncovered. One cylinder was getting almost no cooling because of this.

The engine was cleaned up and reassembled  and the motor runs just fine although it does need an oil change and a couple of minor leaks fixed."

The Hobart welder has proven valuable to us in providing very high amperage current when needed such as to the #7020 S2 Diesel Switcher as we work to make it operational.  

Watch the video above to hear it running.

Click on each image below for a closer look!

Posting by Russ Milland; Photos by Michael Guy

Mouse nest

Cleaned up engine!