Best Guess on what this is?

[hozz1235]

[s7mar7in]

Perhaps a coal crusher...only a guess my friend. 

[nicko]

Looks like an old electricity generator of some sort to me

[Mroz4k]

Coal crusher is a good guess. Also could be a wood chipper. But I think I saw some Carter hydro dam tags on them, so its possible its some sort of generator, or better yet, condensator, designed to gather up the energy from the Dam and store it in case of blackouts, which I suspect would be pretty common in pre-pocalypse Great Bear.

[s7mar7in]

Grey Mother's Barn

Orca Gas Station

The machinery is located at key buildings, Orca Gas Station and Grey Mother’s Home.
From this context it is more likely a source of power rather than leftover mining equipment.
It would help to build a list of locations where this machine is found.

My new best guess:
This appears to be an artist’s over simplified rendering of an IHC hit and miss engine.
Likely antique but pressed back into service when the electric infrastructure of Great Bear failed.
Capable of operating without electronics.
Multi-fuel adaptable while using Kerosene, gas, or diesel fuel.
The many fuel drums supported on elevated stands might have allowed gravity fed fuel.
The strange wagon wheels in the ML Camp Office might have been fly-wheels.

Many details are still not known, and this is speculation.

Images as Clues:

The artist might have used the simplest shapes to give the machine's general appearance...hence what might look like lug nuts on a wheel might represent the head bolts and valves at the righthand side of the above image. In addition, the rounded metal guard at the opposite end of the machine matches well with what is found in-game and the left end of the machine in the above image. Interesting question my friend. 

[hozz1235]

Great research All!

@admin, do you have an TLD Lore person who could tell us?

[s7mar7in]

On ‎1‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 5:13 PM, s7mar7in said:

The machinery is located at key buildings, Orca Gas Station and Grey Mother’s Home.
From this context it is more likely a source of power rather than leftover mining equipment.
It would help to build a list of locations where this machine is found.

Another big machine but even bigger clues:

The big machine found in the barn in Milton is the one from the Carter Hydro project scrap sale.

The really exciting clue is the (2) flywheels found in the barn, (guarded by several wolves).

This seems a confirmation that the machine in question is an IHC engine, used by the last survivors of Milton.
From game splash-screen: "...the town became nearly abandoned after the lights went out..."

IHC hit and miss engine
Capable of operating without electronics.
Multi-fuel adaptable while using Kerosene, gasoline, heating oil, or diesel fuel.

It may be that the people of Milton went back to their 1911 roots and made due with these engines as a source of power.