Kahlenberg Mystery

May 2, 2011 in Erie Canal, personal, photos, technology | Tags: 1912 tugboat, Kahlenberg engines

Mystery gets revealed at the end of this post. The question is: which vessel carries this engine? A clue is that this vessel has appeared here numerous times. Some quasi-related posts are here, here, and here. A question is . . . how rare might this engine be?

View of the two Kohler auxiliary engines along the port side of the vessel.

Forward portion of main engine looking aft . . .

View aft along the starboard side.

Important cue: the date stamped on this support for the H-bitt appears to say 1898, which means this H-bitt possibly served on another vessel before the current one.

Top-down view of controls on starboard side of wheelhouse.

Side view of these same controls. Have you by now guessed the identity of the vessel with this E-6 Kahlenberg engine? At 73′ x 18′ . .. and 99 years old, it’s the vessel currently called

Grouper!! Click here and read all the 62 comments made on one single post. Add more if you wish.

More on old Kahlenberg engines might be located here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who is elated that Grouper has been set into better waters thanks to E-Bay!! Thanks to Alen and Angela for inviting me in to see Grouper even before the clean-up process begins. May Day was no May Day or CQD for this vessel.

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14 comments

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May 2, 2011 at 2:02 pm

Mage Bailey

Wonderful shots and great news.

May 2, 2011 at 3:09 pm

Les Sonnenmark

Enhancing the photo of the H-bitt support, it reads “Phoenix Iron Works, Port Huron, Mich. 1898”. The date is cast into the support, and so is not likely to be the date of manufacture but the sort of a model year for the design. Phoenix Iron Works was a builder of steam engines as well as other marine (and shoreside) heavy equipment. They may have built the original engine for GROUPER, prior to repowering with the Kahlenberg.

May 2, 2011 at 7:05 pm

eastriver

Fun!! Kahlenberg still makes the best marine whistles…

May 2, 2011 at 8:41 pm

Capn Dave

Kahlenberg still makes whistles and horns and there are afficianados who collect them. Kahlenberg’s website is (pardon the pun) a hoot since you can click on the various whistles and hear what they sound like.

A Kahlenberg engine is rare but an engine built in 1957 is not by diesel standards an antique. Our engine (Cummins) is a year older and there are still Atlas’s, Enterprises’ Waukeshas and Fairbanks from the 1930s and 1940s. By the way when you own a Waukesha engine you must buy Jesus shoes because you will need to “Waukesha”.

May 3, 2011 at 2:06 am

David Hindin

Second “Wonderful shots and great news”
A possibly dumb question: Is the control column in the wheelhouse a direct control of the engine functions or is it an engine order telegraph. The issue is whether the operator can control the engine directly or is an “engineer” required.
I eagerly wait for a video of the engine running.

May 3, 2011 at 5:18 pm

tugster

i believe it’s an engine order telegraph, and i too am eager to hear the kahlenberg fired up and … purring.

May 10, 2011 at 10:56 pm

alan baker

i have drawings that depict direct control of the engine functions forward and aft.

November 30, 2011 at 5:33 pm

Michael

I hope whoever created the brass plate in the top photo enjoyed making it as much as I enjoy looking at it. Beautiful and substantial.

December 2, 2011 at 9:02 pm

Jean Hemond

Hi !
I remember In the years 1968 or 69 talking to one of the Kahlenberg family One of the sons of Kahlenberg brothers In Two Rivers Wisconsin.
I was then buying for a small ferry i was building an electric air horn they then were manufacturing I think they still do.
This gentleman then asked me if we had or could locate any old engines of their manufacture and that he would buy it.
There, I think, was one at local museum in Quebec or Rimouski but not sure anymore.
He also told me they the family, coming from Europe ,first started casting small diesel engines in the Three-Rivers Quebec area for early forestry operations. From Three to Two-Rivers coincidence

January 20, 2012 at 7:12 pm

Zach