Model/Pittsburgh Model Engines 1901??--1920s/30s???

[Bud Tierney]

Established 1901 or so, Model Gas And Gasoline Engine Co, later/earlier Model Gas Engine Co, later Model Gas Engine Works, Auburn and Peru IN, later (1912) Pittsburgh Model Engine Co, Pittsburgh and Peru, later (1915) purchased by either Standard Steel Car Co (RR cars and Standard auto) or Standard Automobile Co (Standard auto) and resold to Rockwell Industries late 20s/early 30s?? built gasoline engines, transmissions, gears and unit power plants for cars and ?? (engine, clutch, trans as a package to go into "assembled" cars and ??)...even their own car, the Model, 1902-07...

Apparently a fair sized operation, they get no respect in my old parts catalogs--not one listing for Model or Pittsburgh engine parts in a number of 1917 to 1940s engine parts catalogs...

Std Cat Am'cn Cars, Tractor ref books etc list a few with Model engines, and I seem to recall a "Pittsburgh" engine listing I can't find, but that's about it...

Their engines, apparently their 5x6 and 51/2x7, went into some Baldwin yard/shuttle gas engined locomotives used in France in WW I, and they produced aircraft cylinders in WW I...

Does anyone here know of any halfway decent writeup of the company and/or their engines produced, or even a fair list of what makes etc their engines were used in ??? Some Googling finds bits and pieces, but nothing remotely comprehensive...Many thxx!! Bud

[Standard Eight]

Bud,

See this link related to my 1915 Standard Eight built by the Standard Steel Car Company. It appears Pittsburgh Model Engine was purchased as your timeline suggests and was used by the Standard Steel Car Co. to build Hershell-Spillman V8 engines for the Standard Eight and other assembled cars for the late teens and early twenties. You will find some information we have been able to research about Pittsburgh Model Engine in this thread. - Bob

http://forums.aaca.org/f190/1915-standard-eight-roadster-324525.html

[Bud Tierney]

VWLFAN: Many thxx for reply---yes, it was your thread, coming up on Google, that mentioned Pittsburgh Model was acquired by Rockwell/Rockwell Ind's...

Pittsburgh Model may well've switched to building H-Ss under license; a Brit RR forum said the Pittsburgh Model engines in Baldwin yard switchers used in France in WW I gave a lot of trouble, and Std Cat says when the Great Western car failed in 1916 (the Model car became the Star and then the Great Western) trade press accounts largely blamed "...faulty engines made by the Model company in Pittsburgh...".

I'll have to dig around on Rockwell...