The control panel on the HC Ørsted diesel engine built in 1932.

Diesel House, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a unique museum that diesel enthusiasts can really appreciate. The Museum is dedicated to the history of the diesel engine and its overtake of the steam engine in the primary production of power for all forms of work and for energy production. It houses a number of historic engines, as well as engines of various sizes.

The best feature of the Diesel House though is its routine firing up of a handful of these historic diesels, some of them dating back to the early 1900s. Some of these diesel engines are of monstrous proportions. The largest in the collection, and at one time, the largest diesel engine in the world, is the Burmeister & Wain diesel engine built for the HC Ørsted Power Station (in Copenhagen, Denmark) in 1932. The power station, built in 1916, was named after Hans Christian Ørsted (1777 to 1861), a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields.

Some of the other historic diesel engines in the museum.

The Ørsted engine, a double-acting two-stroke, features almost unimaginably enormous dimensions. The engine is 80 feet long, 41 feet high and weighs 1,400 tons (2.8 million pounds). The performance of this technical masterpiece is equivalent to 22,500 horsepower. Some of the parts inside are gigantic. The weight of one entire cylinder is 20 tons, one double piston with its 10 piston rings comes in at 4.5 tons, the weight of the almost 30-inch-thick crankshaft is 140 tons, and the flywheel weighs 80 tons.

From its inception in 1932 and for about 30 years, the HC Ørsted engine was the world’s largest of its kind, and still remains at the higher end of its type planted on land. The job of the eight-cylinder hulk was to supply power to all of Copenhagen and large parts of Zealand, during peak demand of electricity until the late 1960s. During World War II, the HC Ørsted powerplant and the engine played an important role in the fight against Nazi Germany, as the gigantic engine was used as a hideout and storage for the resistance group’s weapons and combat materials.

The last time the engine was used, it was during the extensive power outages that ravaged Zealand, Lolland-Falster (two islands just off the Danish coast), and large parts of Sweden in 2003. The HC Ørsted engine can be started under its own power and without the use of electricity, granting it even more importance as a historic engine because modern engines must be energized to start. It is fired up at 11 a.m. on the first and third Sunday of every month. To find more information about the HC Ørsted engine and all of the historic diesel engines in the Diesel House, check out the museum’s website or Facebook page.

The 80-foot-long HC Ørsted diesel powerplant cranks out 22,500 hp.