Classic Hifi Care

We used to have a tourist trap in Indianapolis called Riverside Park. It's probably been 65 years since I was there. It is long gone by now. I remember all the rides being powered by Allis-Chalmers four cylinder gas engines. This was probably the engine used in the B, C, and CA Allis-Chalmers tractors of the day. They had the hood, gas tank and radiator like was used on the tractors. Most of them had straight pipes so the operator could hear it run over all the other noise in the park. When they throttled the engine back to slow the ride, it would backfire and blow fire out of the exhaust. Most of the exhaust pipes were really tall to keep the noise up off the ground so as not to spoil the ride. As I remember, some of the engines had mechanical clutches used to start the load, while others used a centrifugal clutch. The engine would rev up, then start the ride gradually as the clutch engaged. You never see one of these little engines in the hands of collectors. They had to be pretty tough, and well-used and neglected, being used like they were.

When I was little, the club at the Owens-Illinois plant would take all their kids down there for a day with a box lunch. My favorite ride was the rail cars that ran with the crank I had a load of fun there!

I recall seeing rides at fairs back in the day in MD that used Chrysler Industrial flathead 6s as well, and most of the gas powered air-raid sirens in WWII used them, along with many small inboard boats.

The tractor club back in Missouri had a man who collected industrial engines. He had two or three flat semi beds full of industrial engines of all kinds. Chrysler, Hercules, Continental, Wisconsin, LeRoi, Fairbanks-Morse. He had a fire siren, similar to an air raid siren, powered by a 331 Hemi. It had a two-barrel carburetor. The Pierce governor was run off the back of the generator where the power steering pump was on early Chrysler setups.