Seeing as my last "what is this post" resulted in uniting an obscure valve with a good home, I figured I would try again.

This one I am fairly sure is railroad related as it came from an estate auction of a lare railroad collection;

Thanks

Jason Midyette

Looks like a speed governor or overspeed trip of some kind -- diesel mavens may know precisely. Spur kear drives the large brown gear, and the bevel gears rotate the vertical shaft that rotates the balls out agains the 'leaf spring' tension.

That makes sense now that you mention it. I had just assumed that it was for some super low RPM use as there are no bearings, nor is the gear assembly sealed in any way.

That said, I did fine "Made By Pickering Governor Company, Portland, Connecticut", "450 REVS" and "467827" stamped on the round surface just above the balls and just below the gear box, so it is indeed a low RPM governor of some sort.

Jason Midyette

Yes, a "Flyball Governor" indeed. As the speed of the input shaft increases the "balls" move outward from the main vertical shaft and the "top cap" moves down (enabled by the leaf springs supporting the weights).

Then some kind of linkage/yoke picks up that motion and moves up/down to limit/lessen fuel flow. I suspect a small gear driven by the camshaft (or crankshaft) drives the "exposed'" lower gear (in photo #1) and a "fork" engages in the reduced diameter of the vertical shaft to move a fuel rack or carburetor "butterfly plate" and reduce/modulate the amount of fuel available.

All done without any electronic computer control.

Nice find, Kevin