1924 Crossley Brothers Type 1065 Engine

Imported engines, like this Type 1065 Crossley Brothers, that was exhibited at the 2019 Foothills Antique Power Association of North Carolina Spring show, aren’t something you see very often around here. Judging by the fit and finish shown by this example, they were not inexpensive, even back in 1924. There were dozens of domestically produced engines available that could do exactly the same thing,  that almost certainly cost less.

In 1867 Francis and William Crossley bought a factory that manufactured steam engines, pumps and presses from a man named John M. Dunlop and set up shop under the name of Crossley Brothers. Frank was in charge of factory operations while William  managed the business. It always helps to have a Daddy Warbucks in the family and with considerable help from a rich uncle they acquired the rights to the Otto and Lang atmospheric gas engine for the entire world with the single exception of Germany in 1869. Those privileges expanded in 1876 to include the famous Otto four stroke engine.

Crossley contributed improvements to the engines they manufactured that included poppet valves and hot tube ignition and in 1888 an improved carburettor for using liquid fuels. In 1896 they bought the rights to the Diesel system and by 1901 they were manufacturing gasoline engines for automobiles and buses. In 1906 they expanded again and began building automobiles under the name of Crossley Motors Ltd. During World War 1 Crossley built aircraft for the war effort.. 

The spending spree continued after the war ended with the purchase of the Premier Gas Engine Co. in 1919. Premier specialized in large power plants for ships, railroad locomotives and stationary engines. All good benders must eventually come to an end and Crossley woke up with a serious financial hangover. Now it was Crossley’s turn to be bought out by a company called Bellis and Morcum, who used the Crossley - Premier trademark into the late 60’s. 

The corporate Pac Man game continued as Crossley - Premier merged into Amalgamated Power Engineering, also known as the A.P.E. Group, in 1968. This created A.P.E. - Crossley LTD. Honest, I didn’t make this up. By 1988 Crossley Engines had become a division of Rolls - Royce Engineering who retained ownership up until 2009 when they moved production and closed the Crossley factory in Manchester for good. 

Sources:

www.crossley-motors.org.uk/history/origins.html 

www.grace’sguide.co.uk/crossley_brothers  

Russell Super Special Grader

Back in February 2018 I did a post about a Russell Junior Grader. Last Summer I spotted this all grown up Russell Super Special, parked in front of the East Suber Road Storage located in Greer, South Carolina. Whenever I stumble across one of these roadside attractions, time permitting, I stop and take a look. I’ve learned a bit more about Russell Manufacturing since that first post, but big gaps of information about the company and its products remain.

Richard Russell and C.K. Stockland set up shop in Stephen, Minn. in 1903 under the name of Russell Grader Manufacturing Co. to build a horse drawn, elevating road grader that they had designed. This machine took the dirt scraped by the blade and conveyed it by belt to a dump wagon or other convenient location. This early product sold well and  Russell continued to expand. 

By 1915 Russell was running front cover advertisements on The Contractor, a trade magazine for contractors that specialized in infrastructure construction. This publication, available courtesy of books.google.com, provides some interesting insights about Russell Manufacturing during that period.

Russell had relocated their general office and factory to 2207 - 2229 University Ave. S.E. Minneapolis, Minn. and had established dealerships in 27 cities in the United States and Canada.  The overseas market for Russell products was developing nicely as well. Graders were being shipped to: Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America, the West Indies, Africa and India.

World War 1 opened up a new market for grading machines. An article that reads like a typical trade publication press release, describes how Russell Vice President, M.T. Nagel had recently sold a “ car load of machines” to the Russian Government, to be used for digging trenches . A photograph shows a Mogul Grader excavating a shallow trench. The accompanying text claims that a mile of trench 4 foot deep can be completed in one hour. The shallow trench produced would no doubt provide protection from rifle fire, but none from airburst artillery shells. The troops who would occupy the sector, had their work cut out for them.   

“For big work, be sure to investigate the Russell Mogul”. The advertisement described the Mogul as, “The largest, heaviest, and greatest capacity road machine made.” The Mogul’s blade was 12 feet long and 20 inches wide and supported by a frame that weighed 6750 pounds. It was intended to be pulled by a 60 horsepower tractor. 

In  descending order of capacity, the Russell lineup included: the Russell Special at eight ft., Russell Standard seven ft., Russell Hi-Way Patrol 6 foot. Russell Jr. at 6 foot and the Russell Kid. 

Russell’s product line also included: dump wagons and the ever popular elevating graders, scarifiers, disc plows, road drags, road plows, railroad plows, snow plows, corrugated galvanized metal culverts and steel beam bridges to name but a few. They also built self propelled motor graders before Russell merged with Caterpillar. 

So where does the Super Special fit into this story? That, I haven’t been able to determine. About all I’ve seen online are a few brief threads on chatroom sites. What made it “Super”? Judging by the other Russell models, my guess would be the size of the blade. With that in mind, I measured the blade on this grader and found it to be nine feet long by 18 inches wide. Since the blade on the Special was given as eight feet, the extra foot would make this one “Super” sized. Of course, I could be wrong.  Any information you, our readers can contribute is always welcome. 

Sources: 

www.constructionequipment.com/russell-grader 

www.smokstak.com 

www.acmoc.org

www.chriscomachinery.com/graderpictures.htm 

https://books.google.com