1890’s shop replica will be on display Sept. 7 only
As a nod to the past, Rob Hiler has built a working replica of an 1890-era steam-driven machine shop. The master machinist made the intricate diorama in his home, but is sharing it for one day with visitors of the Richfield Heritage Preserve.
Hiler made the machinery accurate down to the last boiler-room pressure gauge. And all the machinery moves.
“It can hook up to water and actually run on steam,” said Hiler. “It looks amazing, then, with the steam rising out of the vents.”
When Hiler displays the 4-foot by 3-foot diorama in Kirby House on Sept. 7, he will operate it on compressed air.
When the diorama is powered up, the miniature boiler sets the line shafts spinning, turning drive belts that activate 11 machines, each of which can be controlled by an individual throttle. On the replica work floor there is a miniature shaper, a grinder, a drill press, a trip hammerer, and more – all crafted by Hiler. In one corner is a furnace with glowing coals. In another corner, a terrier named “Pogo” lunges after a rat. Pigeons roost below the clerestory windows.
Hiler spent five years researching authentic machinery and mechanisms for the project. It became a passion.
“[It was] a huge contrast between working all day on giant rollers in a steel mill, then coming home at night to my own shop and putting these tiny things together with tweezers,” he said.
He finished the work early this year.
The diorama will make its one-day-only public debut at Friends of Richfield Heritage Preserve Kirby Day, on Sept. 7. The event uses the story of Richfield inventor James B. Kirby to promote interest in science and engineering.
Kirby began his career in 1899 as a stationary steam engine operator at the age of 14. He went to work in a machine shop that could have been very similar to Hiler’s diorama.
Photo: Rob Hiler worked on a diorama of a working machine shop for five years and now will share it with the visitors to the Richfield Heritage Preserve on Sept. 7. Photo by R. Richardson.