Author Topic: FINE SOM on ebay!!  (Read 9193 times)

hotater

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7200 hrs on 6-1/5Kw, FuKing Listeroid,
Currently running PS-Kit 6-1/5Kw...and some MPs and Chanfas and diesel snowplows and trucks and stuff.

mobile_bob

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2006, 05:26:46 AM »
looks like a fine example of an original som, and all the bits too?

sweet :)

bob g
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(useful forums), utterpower.com for all sorts of diy info

hotater

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2006, 02:58:32 PM »
That's the finest Lister CS I've seen on ebay.  It'll be interesting to see who wants it more.  I'm betting one of GF's hated gentlemen collectors grabs it and paints it dayglo pink or something.

  I'm not sure what all came with a SOM originally but there seems to be BIG pile of green parts there!
7200 hrs on 6-1/5Kw, FuKing Listeroid,
Currently running PS-Kit 6-1/5Kw...and some MPs and Chanfas and diesel snowplows and trucks and stuff.

t19

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2006, 08:56:30 PM »
All the parts I need to complete my SOM.  I notice the base is different from mine and the Gen head looks bigger too.

The other parts would be the cherry on the sunday :)

I hope someone gets her and puts her to work
There is plenty of room for all of Gods creatures... right next to the mashed potatoes...

listerdiesel

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2006, 07:34:45 AM »
That's the finest Lister CS I've seen on ebay.  It'll be interesting to see who wants it more.  I'm betting one of GF's hated gentlemen collectors grabs it and paints it dayglo pink or something.

  I'm not sure what all came with a SOM originally but there seems to be BIG pile of green parts there!

This seems to be a late model with some extra switchgear and a Brush alternator. The standard machine has a control box on the alternator and the junction box with ammeter on the wall. The heavy cast-iron base that was in use for so many years seems to have been replaced by a fabricated item, yet the engine has compression change-over, so not an 8/1 engine. That is odd as I had the remnants of an 8/1 powered SOM unit that had the cast base, and the numbers all matched up. It may have been that the foundry were busy or they trialled the fabricated base?

It certainly seems to be all original, if the picture of the engine plate was clearer it could be dated. I'll ask him for the details and see what comes up.

Peter

listerdiesel

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #5 on: October 02, 2006, 12:22:59 PM »

It certainly seems to be all original, if the picture of the engine plate was clearer it could be dated. I'll ask him for the details and see what comes up.


Numbers are 5825LB  plant number.The engine number is 39676, that makes some sense as the control box is cast not sheet steel like the later ones.

For those who don't understand the arcane lettering of Lister generating sets, 'LB' after the plant number is an abbreviation for 'Lister-Bruston', and is used for all automatic starting sets. 'NA' after the plant number means 'Non-Automatic' and is used for all hand-started sets.

Engine is a 1940 unit by the serial number.

Peter

t19

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2006, 02:26:29 PM »
A 1940's unit, in that kind of shape, WOW!!

If I did not have one, I would be after it
There is plenty of room for all of Gods creatures... right next to the mashed potatoes...

listerdiesel

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2006, 03:14:27 PM »
A 1940's unit, in that kind of shape, WOW!!

If I did not have one, I would be after it

A lot of this sort of kit was put into country houses and stayed there until the grid arrived. never got taken out and probably never used since the 1950's.

Like our JK4 set which has 158 hours (corrected from my first post on the matter) since new and was installed in 1964. We took it out 40 years almost to the day it was made.

Peter

hotater

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2006, 04:34:36 PM »
 It has been said that the rural electrification of America killed off a whole generation of do it yourselfers....but it put America on the fast track to prosperity, too.
   I fed and milked before daylight, but I didn't have to light the lantern and shell the corn and crank the cream separators by hand.
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Currently running PS-Kit 6-1/5Kw...and some MPs and Chanfas and diesel snowplows and trucks and stuff.

listerdiesel

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2006, 09:54:52 PM »
Probably worth mentioning that if you could afford a SOM set, you were pretty well off and not exactly short of a few bob. Smaller generating sets were also sold by Lister and Petter, and others, but their cost to buy and run was way over most ordinary folks means.

The Lister CD 110V generating set that we have was one of a pair, installed in a large country home with battery banks and switchgear, probably part of a large estate to be able to afford that kind of plant.

Regarding America and the electrification of the country, it would have happened anyway, just that war probably accelerated its implementation.

England and Europe are far easier to electrify as they are very compacted and close-knit. 700+ miles and you have driven top to bottom in England, we did that driving Indiana to PA, across Ohio state the other year, and that's a small part of the total, coast to coast.

Peter

hotater

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2006, 10:35:13 PM »
Peter---

That's what's amazing about America's electrification--it happed before the war.  The REA was created in 1934 and by 1948 they had branched into telephone service (our first at home), because the electrical grid was done and serving 28 million farm families.  It took several years after the war for Europe and the Isles to start the same process.
  When you look at the vision and work to create such a thing across such a wide area and have it 'standardized' so fast just amazes me....Between Hoover Dam, the Grand Coulee project, and the Tennessee Valley Authority to connect what was already done at Niagra spread a grid from corner to corner.

Oddly enough, I used to live in the last town in the lower 48 without grid power, Floyd Beach, Florida  (up until ten years ago they flew the Stars and Bars over the Post Office, too).  And then I lived near Marble, Colorado for 15 years.... one of the only places that gets no TV or radio signals, and then worked in the last town in the 48 to have telephone service, Yellowpine, Idaho.

Civilization is CHASING me!!!   :o :o
7200 hrs on 6-1/5Kw, FuKing Listeroid,
Currently running PS-Kit 6-1/5Kw...and some MPs and Chanfas and diesel snowplows and trucks and stuff.

listerdiesel

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #11 on: October 03, 2006, 08:06:06 AM »
I think we had most of the National Grid set up in the 1930's, we were still on DC in some towns until later, but the basics were there before WWII.

Nowadays we think we are away from civilisation if we can't get a signal on our cell phone! :-))

Peter

Doug

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #12 on: October 03, 2006, 04:27:18 PM »
I rather have communication on my terms. Cells phones, I won't carry or own. I don't eve like the copper line, they way I see it people generaly call me for stupid reasons and I don't feel the need for small talk when I could be doing something. At work Leaky feeder radio keeps me in constant contact... I hate it when people brake things they should have to sweet about it for a while and loose money, not get their forman on the radio call me and the mechanics and sit on his but while we fix his mess. Or worse still call me and ask stupid questions or have me come down and hold their hands and show them how do things for themsevles.

Too much communication, information and convenience makes people lazy and act stupid. People need to think plan and act before they open their mouths but technology makes it easier to open your mouth and turn off your brain.

Doug

hotater

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #13 on: October 03, 2006, 04:31:27 PM »
AMEN!!!

The owners of this place say they're going to spend $20K for a phone...but they can't pay me enough to plug the damn thing in!!
7200 hrs on 6-1/5Kw, FuKing Listeroid,
Currently running PS-Kit 6-1/5Kw...and some MPs and Chanfas and diesel snowplows and trucks and stuff.

Geno

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Re: FINE SOM on ebay!!
« Reply #14 on: October 04, 2006, 12:35:15 PM »