Model T engine found 7 feet underground

Rolleiflex

Rolleiflex

Junior Member
I thought this was kind of neat. Construction crews working on Mercer Street in downtown Seattle found this engine while rebuilding the road. It was 7 feet under the current road elevation.

2017335682.jpg
 
now thats cool...a friend of mine found a 1924 harley davidson hidden under a chicken coop....he was elated...its now completely restored!
 
Are we sure that's a T engine? Whats that shaft on the right side? The pedals don't look like a T arrangement, and there's a gear shift lever. But cool nonetheless!
 
Defiantly not Model T....those transmission ears are all wrong, the head and block are different and it has a sliding gear transmission behind it.

That shaft on the driver side looks to be a chain or belt/shaft drive for the Starter/Generator mounted to the bell housing.

It looks like a Dodge or Maxwell engine of the same period. Maybe a Continental or Lycoming engine?
 
Gumpy said:
now thats cool...a friend of mine found a 1924 harley davidson hidden under a chicken coop....he was elated...its now completely restored!
Click to expand...

GUMPY .................
This reminds me of one of my sad stories.
This older fellow, back in West Virginia, had told me that his old 1926 Harley was bulldozed under, along with a chicken coop, right after WWII, on the family farm. He said that I could have it. The fellow who bulldozed it, was still around, but he said he would have no idea as to where it was. I was excited about digging it up, for quite a while.
MIKE :)
 
Wow you guys are great!

I was just going off of what they had in the Seattle Times newspaper. That's what I get for not looking more closely. I didn't post the article itself because has little to do with the picture.

Here's a link to the article. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017335741_mercerstreet26m.html

I just emailed the writer of the story to inform him of the mistake. We'll see if it gets corrected. I'm not holding my breath though.
 
Last edited:
Hey Rolleiflex (my favorite camera, got two E2s) tell him to post it on e**y. Looks like it could pass for NOS there.
 
I know of two T's and a 47 Merc conv.buried here in town.I actually own one of the T's.When the new cement highway was put through here this section was done through 1939.They were grabbing sand anywhere they could and a little piece I own now had nice concrete sand on it.They dug out sand,then filled the holes in with whatever they could.Nobody cared back then,they were getting a new road they could actually drive 50 on.I was digging a water line,was coming up with a lot of junk,then one piece didn't break loose so easily.It was a T front axle.I broke it off the chassis,and poked around to find at least the front part of an upside down chassis.I did get two pretty nice brass hubcaps.I didn't want to dig up the rear,it was under the driveway.At the Quaker cemetary there is a 15 T buried outside the fence.A local man named Perkins and his wife bought the car new and took it on their honeymoon.When the wife died in the late 40's Perkins wanted to have the car buried with his wife,but the overseers said there was not enough room in the cematery.(my grandfather was one of them) So they buried it outside the fence next to her.A farmer nearby got $3.to dig the hole and fill it in.When A friend of mine was fixing to put a driveway in there,I told him about the car,we got the farmer that planted it,and he marked off the spot.He was pretty close,when we dug the road out he just got into one wheel.He wants to put a gravestone in for the car.He feels things like that ought to be saved.
 
When they put in I-91 through Bradford VT they filled over a junkyard full of T's. Like dozens of them. I can show you the spot on a map but they have about 20 feet of fill over them. Similar situation 40 miles south in Windsor VT. Highway guys came in and told the guy he had to move his cars. About 30 of them. He told them to go to hell and a couple weeks later they were dumping rocks and dirt and driving Euclids all over them. There are mummified remains of a bunch of 20's and 30's and 40's cars under that stretch.
 
FL&WVMIKE said:
GUMPY .................
This reminds me of one of my sad stories.
This older fellow, back in West Virginia, had told me that his old 1926 Harley was bulldozed under, along with a chicken coop, right after WWII, on the family farm. He said that I could have it. The fellow who bulldozed it, was still around, but he said he would have no idea as to where it was. I was excited about digging it up, for quite a while.
MIKE :)
Click to expand...
Fresh gas and check the coils she'll probably fire right up.
 
I remember when they were building the Balt. to Wash.DC parkway in the early 50's, A bunch of early cars and such were bought out of junk yards in the DC area and used for fill in a swampy area. Most were driven to the spot, put in gear and let go at the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top