A Piece of History
Bates-Corliss Engine
The monstrous steam engine made in 1905 sits next to Denton FarmPark’s exhibit hall. It was moved here in May of 1988 from Maxton, N.C., for restoration. It was derelict for half a century..
Threshers’ Reunion director Brown Loflin said he believes it will be the largest steam engine running on public display in North Carolina “and I’m sure it’s one of the biggest in the United States.”
The 24-foot-long Bates-Corliss engine and its boiler weigh 125,000 pounds. Its eight-spoke flywheel, 15 feet in diameter and 30 inches wide, is 32,000 pounds of cast iron in two parts. Runs at 350 horsepower and was the companys primary power source until it was abandoned in 1938.
Loflin said he and a crew spent “about 24 man days” in preparation for the antique’s 100-mile trip. When they started, it was buried under tons of discarded. machinery in a burned-out building scheduled for replacement at Maxton Oil and Fertilizer Company.
“The clean-up took two days,” Loflin said, “and we had five more days of flooring and shoring and dismantling the engine into six big parts and a lot of little ones. When you’re dealing with bolts four inches in diameter and five feet long, and nuts on them have been rusting for 50 years, it doesn’t come easy.”
Crane lifts half of flywheel through roof of derelict building at Maxton, N.C.
A 50-ton crane, 10-ton fork lift and four tractor-trailer rigs were used in the removal and hauling. Thirty cubic yards of concrete have gone into the engine’s new foundation.
“Now we have to put it back together and make it run,” said Loflin, “and that’s the part of the job that gets really tedious.”
Return to operation required replacement parts, he said, “and we couldn’t go to the store and buy them. They had to be made. We have done most of the work in our restoration shop, and contracted some of it.”
Similar tasks have been performed here with a variety of antique machinery, including giant farm tractors and the steam train on the Handy Dandy railroad.
Loflin said he hoped to have the engine running at this 18th annual Threshers’ Reunion.
“We’ll at least have it put back together and on display,” he said, “and we’re going to do everything we can to have it running. That will depend on how much trouble we run into with repairs. Everything you do to it is a big job.” The engine was donated to the park by the Maxton company, whose co-owner Murphy Evans said he is “very happy it can become a historical preservation. It’s at piece of my family’s history. We could. have sold it as scrap iron, but I’d rather know it’s bringing enjoyment to people.”
General manager Ed Stevenson said. records show the engine was installed new in 1905, four years after the company was founded, and was its principal power plant until abandonment in 1938. The “oil” in the company’s name refers to extraction and processing of oil from cotton seed and peanuts, major crops in the farming area. where the Robeson County plant is located. The Bates-Corliss Engine was restored in 1989.
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