[SEL] Tod Engine Moved to Museum!!!

[Za3Sh at aol.com]

Yesterday two 50 ton hydraulic cranes and four semi trucks from Grim's Crane 
service arrived at the plate mill building at V&M Star Steel in Girard, OH to 
begin loading out parts of the Tod Engine for shipment to the future Tod 
Engine Museum site.  By the end of the day one of the flywheel halves was on a 
trailer and the LP bedplate was ready to lift. 

Today we successfully moved both halves of the flywheel, low pressure 
bedplate and LP soleplate to the Tod Engine Museum site.  The LP bedplate and sole 
plate were placed into position on the concrete, and one flywheel half was 
placed into the pit.  A total of 239,000 lbs. of engien parts were moved in a 
convoy this afternoon.

Tommorrow we will complete this phase of the project by unloading the 
remaining flywheel half and doing some fine adjustments on the locations of the 
bedplate, to assure that they will line up with the crank and flywheel when the 
remainder of the engine is assembled.

We had full media coverage for the move.  All three local TV network 
affiliates had newscrews for interviews, the Youngstown Vindicator sent a reporter as 
well as the local Business Journal. Mr. David Tod, one of our past 
benefactors, also was on hand to view the work in progress. The Tod Family is still quite 
interested in the project, and the son of William Tod, of whose company built 
our engine, will be in town and I plan to give him a personal tour of the 
engine and grounds. 

After tommorrow's work the riggers will return in about a week to move and 
set the low pressure cylinder. After that is completed the only parts that will 
remain at V&M Star Steel will be the high pressure bedplate, cylinder and 
crankshaft.  These parts will move early next year.

Photos of today's work is on the webshots site at 
http://community.webshots.com/user/todengine

For the remainder of the year the Tod Engine Foundation will focus on filling 
in and constructing the concrete pad for the high pressure side of the 
engine, and cleaning and painting the parts that are at the museum site. 

These last two days have certainly been good ones for us!  Thanks to everyone 
on the SEL wrecking crew whose work eight years ago dismantling this engine 
made today's success possible!!!

Rick Rowlands
Tod Engine Foundation
Youngstown, OH
www.todengine.org