Digboi Centenary (Assam Oil Industry) Museum

As part of the centenary celebrations of the first production oil well in India, the Assam Oil Company (part of Indian Oil) established a museum of the history of the Assam oil industry, behind the refinery at Digboi, which opened in early 2002. There is a fair amount of preserved machinery present, much of it stationary steam. Not illustrated are a number of small simplex and duplex pumps, mostly anonymous but including a couple of examples by Weir. Note that the museum is closed on Monday and nearby is the Digboi War Cemetry, poorly sign posted but as ever a poignant reminder of the futility of war as a means of solving problems. Not far away are some rather less well conserved North Eastern Coalfields Relics.

Pride of place is given to this large Borsig stationary engine - unfortunately not all exhibits have explanatory notices (as this one) and the curator is not a technical man...

Next to it is a large duplex pump, marked only as Dow 41245.

From the workshops is a steam hammer from B & S Massey (Manchester, England), dating from about 1930, a nice 'spot' following our afternoon with working examples in Howrah.:

This is a Clarke, Chapman (Gateshead, England) steam winch, 8" x 12" as marked on the cylinders:

There are three very similar large duplex pumps, this one has been painted and appears to be from Brasov (Romania, I believe):

Unrestored are two almost identical engines to this, one is marked with 'Weston' and the other is Romanian with a plate  from Uzinele "Strungul" Orasul Stalin, dating it from 1959.

I was quite unclear what this monster did, but have been informed by Tom Sherrif that it is a diesel driven gas compressor, most likely produced in the USA in the 1950s.:

Exhibited in the main hall is a vertical Ashworth and Parker (Bury, England) engine, its plate carries 1856/1949, although the explanatory notice dates it to 1930!

Metre gauge Ruston and Hornsby 4wD (Size 88, Class DSC No. 394011) is displayed, presumably it worked here, there are also two pictures of steam locomotives at work in Digboi exhibited. More bizarrely present is one of the small Bagnalls from Coal India with two home made coaches:

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