On Mon, 23 Jul 2018 15:26:03 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Certainly the had cranked static diesels of the era, had a lever to
release the compression, so the could be cranked over. You moved the
lever, cranked up to speed then released the lever to hopefully have it
fire up.

Yep, my single cylinder diesel genset has a decompression lever so
(if your feeling fit) can pull start it. Try and pull it without
releasing the compression and it's like trying to pull the QE2. For
normal use It has electric start and battery kept topped up with
small solar panel. B-)

Possibly lorries had a similar device too, to allow the starter to crank
the engine over. Called a 'valve lifter' I think (?)..

Any diesel that is/was intended to be hand startable will have one.

Such a lever would stop a runaway diesel engine, if used on all
cylinders.

It'd have to operate on all cylinders to enable hand starting...

--
Cheers
Dave.