The Strangest American Engine Ever

Click to reserve a copy of our book: → mettlehistory.co.uk ← Remembering the Britain that made things. ——— This is the Strangest American Engine Ever. Two pistons in every cylinder, hammering toward each other. Two crankshafts. And no cylinder head at all — nothing on top, where every other diesel in the world needs one. It powered American submarines through the Pacific war. It hauled freight across the country. And then the railroads decided they could not live with it, and threw it out. Except the factory never stopped building it. Not once, not for a single year since 1938 — eighty-eight years, without a break in the line. It still powers warships across the United States Navy today. You can phone that factory with a serial number from 1943, and they will sell you a new part for it. So why did one half of America throw this engine away, while the other half never stopped building it? This is the story of the Fairbanks-Morse opposed-piston engine and the answer begins in the engine room of a submarine called Pampanito.