1895 Bates Corliss

Around 1995 I was told about this engine located in a swamp in Vass, NC.  I had trouble locating the owner until one day in 2002,  when I drove by and seen a TD24 Dozer pushing the building down. You can see the damage in the first photo. I stopped the operator and he let me know who owned it. The owner claimed not to know it was being pushed further into the swamp, although he did hire the operat

In 2015 without my knowledge the engine was sold in a package deal with a dump truck and two buildings. The new owner partnered with a wrecker service to move the engine and sell it and split the money. Part of the engine was moved to the wrecker service, parts taken to the owners farm and as seen in the photos, some left in the swamp. Work was stopped and there was issues between the partners. In

After the rescue of this engine, I was contacted by a few steam enthusiast that let me know that this is a rare toggle linkage engine that Bates had used on some of their Corliss engines. It is thought that this is the only one left in existence.