Museum's mechanical magic

In a way, there's more science in one of Steve Phillips' old diesel engines than there is in the latest smartphone.

When one of Phillips' massive antique machines fires up in a noisy spectacle of pounding pistons, whirring giant fly wheels, chugging hot exhaust, you can't help but ask, “What in the world is going on inside there?”

Phillips showcased his cast-iron hulks Saturday at the Penngrove Power and Implement Museum's “Power Up” event, a sort of open house where everything is turned on — from old farm tractors to industrial diesel engines to antique cars.

One of the biggest crowd pleasers was the 3,000-horsepower, Pratt & Whitney R-4360 reciprocating internal combustion engine that was among a cache of engines that powered Howard Hughes' “Spruce Goose” flying boat in the mid-1940s. The engine is a fuel hog that consumes about a gallon a minute in idle.

“That's a 28-cylinder radial aircraft engine; that's a hell of an engine,” said Robert Jensen of Santa Rosa, a 76-year-old retired Teamsters worker.

Jensen, like many of the older visitors who came out Saturday, was drawn by nostalgia.

The museum, housed at the site of an old chicken ranch barn, is not officially a museum. It is not open daily, nor is it equipped to handle large numbers of visitors.

The “Power Up” events, which began in 1997, take place only one to three times a year. These days, it's more like once a year, said Phillips.

A Penngrove native, he hurt his back after taking a fall while working in the barn. At 66, Phillips has refurbished hundreds of engines and mechanical implements in his effort to preserve “in working condition” the equipment and machinery that ushered in the modern industrial world.

During the Power Up event, the museum invites locals to bring their own machines and engines for display.

“You've got another Army truck coming in,” said a visitor to Phillips' wife, Nancy, who stood next to a 1930 Fairbanks Morse, direct injection diesel, 2-cycle engine that once powered a generator. The 450-horsepower engine is the largest (in terms of physical size) at the museum.

In the first floor of the barn, there are more engines, and the second floor houses a collection of old Singer sewing machines from the Napa Glove Factory, a chicken de-biller, a wooden egg-washer and a kale chopper.

Nicky Yeager, a museum board member and himself a grease-monkey, said Phillips has a rare ability.

“This one guy has restored hundreds of engines and implements and machinery,” said Yeager. “He essentially has done most of this without a manual.”

The main goal for the museum remains to be the eventual purchase of a 1-acre empty field across the street that would house a restoration shop.

The hope is that the museum will one day take on a life of its own, even after Phillips can no longer wield a wrench.