Volunteers Continue Assembling Corliss
Work on the Corliss Steam Engine has been an ongoing project for many volunteers at the Sioux City Railroad Museum with help from Meier Towing.
The Corliss Steam Engine was invented by American Engineer George Henry Corliss. It was widely used as a means of power for many manufacturing plants in the early 1900's. The Corliss Engine that is now housed at the Museum as manufactured by the St Louis Ice & Cold Machine Company in 1911.
The Corliss Steam Engine ,now located at the Sioux City Railroad Museum, was recovered from the KD Station, formerly Swift Packing House, in 2009 before demolition of that building. The recovery and removal of the Corliss Steam Engine was a major undertaking. Each half of the fly wheel weighs nearly 5 tons! All the pieces of the Corliss needed to be removed from KD Station and transported to their new home at the Sioux City Railroad museum, where the restoration projects began.
Over the last few years our volunteers have been hard at work preparing this 35 ton engine for the day it would once again be restored to its original state.
Today our volunteers have restored and assembled the mechanical portions of the Corliss Steam Engine and have begun to work on the steam components.
We would like to thank Meier Towing for their assistance installing the Corliss Engine.
Stop out this season and see this impressive exhibit taking shape.
