Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i Old Glory

BRITAIN’S only MOD fire services museum, based at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, has been closed down due to space being required for the 2017 Scampton Airshow. A team of 35 volunteers at the Museum of RAF Firefighting at Scampton have been running the attraction for 14 years on authorised temporary use (known as MOD encroachment), housing decades of memorabilia and 47 fire engines. They have until January 3 to vacate the annex of Hangar 2 and are looking for a new home for the popular visitor attraction. Items are in the process of being dismantled, catalogued, packed and placed in storage provided by the RAF base, awaiting possible relocation. Museum spokesman Steve Shirley said: “It is with much regret that the Museum of RAF Firefighting located at RAF Scampton has been…

THE Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road organises a rally in late September to complement its working heritage railway and museum with steam on road and rail, reports Malcolm Ranieri. Rally organisers are Adrian Aylward from the railway and Terry Petty, owner of Marshall traction engine No 61970 of 1913 Emma. A dozen engines were present, two of them rarely seen or just returning from restoration. Wallis & Steevens ‘Advance’ 8-ton road roller No 7922 of 1927, owned by the Davies family of Prestwood, was bought straight out of service from Buckinghamshire County Council in 1961, reboilered in 2004 and looking very smart in a green livery. Just restored, last seen at Honours Yard, Little Chalfont, in the workshops on the occasion of the October road run in 2015 and…

SOME 150 guests made their way to Norton in Hales near Market Drayton on August 19 on all types of vintage and veteran transport, says Peter Love. It was to celebrate Jon Jones and Karina Woodcock tying the knot at St Chad’s Parish Church. The happy couple met at Raseheath College, Cheshire. Both sides of the family have steam connections, with Karina’s mum Kath and dad Paul owning 1923 Aveling & Porter 6-ton road roller No 10460. This roller worked for W W Buncombe, Highbridge, Somerset, for a good few years and is now in excellent condition. Also in attendance on this very wet day was 1920 Aveling & Porter convertible 8-ton roller No 9624 from Steve Milns from Ellesmere, Shropshire. New to Aberystwyth RDC it worked from their Bow…

THE FOURTH year of the reborn Northleach Steam & Vintage Show, held in September and organised by Steve Freemantle, a Northleach resident and collector of classic tractors, gets better each year, reports Malcolm Ranieri. Old Glory featured the history of the show in 2014, which in its original form started in 1956, one of the first in Gloucestershire and indeed the country. Discounting the fact that the rally was reconstituted twice in its history, this year was its 60th since inception. Restarting in 2013 with seven steam engines, and a commensurate number of other exhibits, the fourth rally had doubled the steam to 15 examples, and a good number of other exhibits and attractions. The setting for the rally is typical Cotswolds, rolling hills, farming country, delightful lanes leading to…

Unlike some of the early traction engine events, the rally at Saling aerodrome near Braintree on Saturday, July 9, 1955 did not include any racing. By this time the potential dangers of racing old traction engines at speeds they were never intended for had been realised and a more sensible approach to safety was developed. Twenty-three engines were on show and all had arrived under their own steam. Well not quite all! Harold Nicholls of Cheveley, near Newmarket, set out on the 30-mile journey to Saling on his Burrell 6nhp single crank compound engine No 2536 Her Majesty. Unfortunately a breakdown necessitated the services of a low loader and the engine did not arrive until halfway through the afternoon. The engine had been exhibited at the Smithfield Show in 1902…

THE 2017 STEAM FESTIVAL at Maldegem, Belgium, will take place over the weekend at the end of April and beginning of May. Planning for the event is at an early stage but there should be around six or seven locos in steam on narrow and standard gauges, including two narrow gauge locos from the UK. It’s also hoped to have the Canadian-built Belgian National Railways 2-8-0 No 29.013 present and working trains but this is not yet confirmed. As a secondary attraction, negotiations are in hand for a selection of horse-drawn carriages to attend and display. Maldegem, on the Belgian-Dutch border, lies about 14km from Bruges. For groups wishing to attend from the UK, transport from Zeebrugge P&O ferries terminal (nightly sailing from Hull) or Bruges railway station can be…

THE Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust (PNBPT) is to be granted £2.4m in LIBOR funding by the Chancellor for its Memorial Fleet project. The project will create an operational Memorial Fleet of small craft which have played a significant role in the defence of the nation during the 20th century. LIBOR funding comes from fines levied on the banking industry for manipulating the LIBOR rate, and is being used to support those that represent the best of values, in particular military and emergency services charities and other related good causes. The project will offer the public the opportunity to engage with the historic craft both in Portsmouth and farther afield, and will provide rehabilitative and vocational training for veterans. The trust will work closely with the International Boatbuilding Training College…

THE innovative and eagerly awaited Mail Rail museum project in central London took a major step forward at the end of October, with the delivery of new trains, which will soon take visitors for the first time through the subterranean depths of a former 2ft gauge Post Office Railway. It is part of a £26m transformation of Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant site near King’s Cross that will also see the conversion of the railway’s former maintenance and repair depot into an exhibition centre and the creation of a new postal museum. Mail Rail will be a ride of nearly a mile on part of the former railway. The battery-powered trains that will transport visitors were designed and built by Severn Lamb Transportation of Warwickshire. They were delivered to Mount Pleasant…

THE 14th Newark Vintage Tractor Show held over November 12-13 certainly brought the main rally season to a close and was a thumping success, says Peter Love. It was very much helped by the number of special themed displays, principally Marshall, Muir Hill, OTA (Oak Tree Appliances), Turner and 70 Years of Mechanical Hedge Laying as well as various Ferguson and Massey Ferguson anniversary specials. The George Stephenson Exhibition Hall featured mostly restored tractors, of which there were fewer this year, but there were some new gems about, like the latest restoration to come from Henry Dixon of Pembrokeshire. It took the form of an interim 1933 Fordson Standard N that had been converted to pneumatics and had been purchased by Henry from a bankrupt farm sale some years ago.…

ISLE OF MAN Railways is to host a Festival of Steam next Easter – a 10-day event which will take place from Friday, April 14 to Sunday, April 23. The event will feature all of the island’s railways with many volunteer railways getting involved in the event as well. One of the highlights will be a dramatic traction engine road train consisting of three iconic Fowler road locos – Atlas, The Duke of York and The Great North hauling the Great Dorset Steam Fair’s twin-bogie trailer, atop which will be the Isle of Man Steam Railway’s locomotive No 8 Fenella. On the Thursday following Easter, the road train will assemble at Douglas station, travel north along the promenade and then closely follow the Manx Electric Railway route from Derby Castle,…

THE LAST of the 2016 rallies for Shakespeare Promotions was the Stoke Prior rally, held in mid-September, writes Malcolm Ranieri. Seven engines attended; Terry Gibson’s Fowler Showman’s Road Locomotive No 15652 of 1920 Repulse, while Steve Harbach of Stourbridge had brought his newly painted in family colours 1923 Foden tractor No 10694 Tiler. Working on the road was Daz and Fiona Wardell’s Fowler D5 15-ton road roller No 15902 of 1923 Jessica, originally sold as a convertible engine and new to Ashford DC, Kent, working up to the 1950s. The roller is roaded to most events towing a trailer and 1915 living van, currently nearing the end of an extensive restoration. Miniature engines featured in the rally attractions – 20 examples, mostly 3in or 4in models, Burrells just edging out…

THE annual get-together at the New Leathern Bottle, Jealott’s Hill near Bracknell, saw two notable reunions, writes Peter Hammond. Understandably attracting much attention was the new-build Fowler B6 Super Lion Onward which owner and builder Dave Eves had backed up to the pub’s front door. A late arrival but standing alongside from mid-evening was Robert Herring’s Burrell traction engine The Model, on its first visit. Half a dozen full-size steamers, plus a similar number of miniatures, saw two Shay drive rollers from the Wingfield family while a third roller was Wallis & Steevens Daisy May purchased by Richard and Carole Waistell at the Keeley sale. The Wallis is no stranger to the pub as it was owned by ‘Jumbo’ Palmer at the time he started this annual steam-up, initially at…

In 1912 Boots ‘the Cash Chemist’ placed a trial order with Fodens of Sandbach for a 3-ton steam wagon. They requested that Foden produce the wagon in show condition and with a canvas hooped body. The resultant wagon was shown at the Smithfield Show in November 1912 but what happened to the wagon after the show is unknown. It is assumed that it went to work for Boots somewhere – we believe this to be in Nottingham but have no confirmation. We do know however that the wagon went back to the Foden works in 1914 to have a fixed body installed and can only assume that the canvas was not a huge success. Again after this period we have no record of where the wagon worked or what its…

In July 1915 the first Sentinel steam waggon to be built at the Shrewsbury factory steamed through the gates to undergo its road tests. From the available information it would seem likely that the waggon in question was a 6-tonner built as No 1102 and which carried the Shropshire registration AW 2409. However the story of the development of the Sentinel steam waggons began not in Shrewsbury but in Scotland where, in 1874, engineers Stephen Alley and John MacLellan formed a new partnership. They founded the Sentinel Engineering Works at London Road in Bridgeton where production of a range of specialist valves and other industrial equipment began. The business grew quickly and by 1880 had really outgrown the London Road works and there was a pressing need for new and…

Peter Christopher, clipper ship City of Adelaide director, is looking forward to marking the third anniversary of the world’s oldest composite clipper arriving at Port Adelaide in 2017. And he’s celebrating the fact that, over the last two years in which the historic ship has been open to the public, following its rescue from certain oblivion on the slipway at the Scottish Maritime Museum, more than 7500 paying visitors have taken the tour of a vessel that is still very much a work in progress. “We’ve done remarkably well since bringing the ship from Scotland in 2014, and 2017 will be a memorable year for us, especially as the South Australia Government is due to announce the site of Port Adelaide’s seaport village where she’ll be permanently based as the…

AN EXCELLENT traction engine collection which attracts visitors from Australia and elsewhere around the world is Pearns Steam World in Westbury, close to the Bass Highway, about two-thirds of the way between Devonport and Launceston in Tasmania. The Pearns Collection was visited by Terry Jepson while he was holidaying in Tasmania and he was amazed at what he found on display there. Housed in one of two ‘Nissan hut’ type buildings are more than a dozen traction engines and rollers while the other building contains a large collection of tractors. Of interest to British enthusiasts are two Foden traction engines, Nos 1828 of 1909 and 2108 of 1910; Aveling & Porter KT type piston valve compound traction engine, No 11733 of 1926, the last survivor of three or four similar…

THE PLAINS Vintage Railway and Historical Museum near Ashburton, on New Zealand’s South Island, has three very different types of railway crane in its collection, reports Phil Barnes. In no particular order; there is the 2-ton capacity hand-operated crane, which sadly is unidentified, although it possibly dates from the 1870s as defined by this number on its axle box covers. There’s also an air-operated locomotive coaling crane; this one is identifiable, but only by number. It was originally built as No 301 in 1911 but after a rebuild due to damage, became crane No 360 in 1925. It’s likely to have been built ‘in-house’ by NZR and came from Invercargill railway depot in 1987 where it had spent most of its working life, some 15 years after steam had finished…

THE National Traction Engine Trust’s AGM was held on November 19 at the Hilton Hotel, Leicester, with weekend delegates making social visits to the Statfold Barn Railway and the premises of the Welland Valley Vintage Traction Club. Following on from the usual business of the meeting are the eagerly awaited annual awards, presented for outstanding achievement during the year. The 2016 awards were presented to Mark Johnson (Sentinel waggon); Chris Arrowsmith (roading long distances); Calder brothers (Foden wagon restoration, see page 48); Colin Brothwell (running/restoration/ repairs); Chris Goodey (safety officer, Little Casterton Working Weekend); David Smith (personal service to NTET); Vaughan Wray (Ransomes Agricultural); Dave Eves (Fowler Onward new-build); James Coward (Tuxford portable); Sharon Skinner (restoration and rallying Allchin roller); Stuart Tomlinson and family (Fowler traction engine Elsa); Nick Bosworth…

OKTOBERFEST organiser Paul Kirrage gathered an impressive group of visiting organs to welcome everyone to his annual event at the Mizens Railway in Surrey – and at the entrance was the star of the show, ‘De Lange Gavioli’, reports MOOS chairman Alan Smith. Sounding superb, and with some outstanding arrangements, including Chattanooga Choo Choo, which seemed most appropriate for a railway setting, ‘De Lange Gavioli’ has just undergone a two-year restoration project, including a beautiful redecoration of its façade. This outing was the first since this comprehensive renovation and congratulations are due to the Museum Speelklok in Utrecht for undertaking this wonderful project and honouring us with the first public appearance since completion. Forming part of the Dutch National Collection, the organ dates from 1898 and was built by Gavioli…

CONGRATULATIONS to vintage preservationist and Fordson Dexta man Shaun Garrod on winning the coveted British High Cut Ploughing Championship on September 9 at Crockey Hill, York. Shaun was the winner with 247 points and comes from Great Ellington, Norfolk. He was the winner on the Thursday and finished third on the Friday to give him the overall title, writes Peter Love. Shaun used his 1962 Fordson Dexta that was originally from Suffolk and has not done much work. “I bought it from a Cheffins sale and liked it because it was a nice original tractor,” he said. Shaun has been ploughing for about 18 years and started with a Ransomes Motrac and Fordson Standard N. However to be competitive the Ransomes RSLD is the preferred plough for competitions. He purchased…

VERY much the star on Sunday, October 23, was the 3ft Ransomes Sims & Jefferies threshing drum, which sold at H J Pugh’s late Sam Evans MBE sale on September 17 at Pennal, Merionethshire, reports Peter Love. It was purchased by Arial West for £1500 and has turned out to be a bargain, with no work required before it was put into operation for the first time in years. It was seen working well at Peter and Linda Brown’s premises at Kinnerley, Shropshire, and the drum was driven by Arial’s Marshall convertible tractor No 78953 of 1925 Moonraker (new to Roby District Council, Lancashire) and at the rear was a New Holland baler. Arial said he was delighted with his purchase and it was clear that Sam had done a…

NOW with new owner Don Cully of Southampton is Burrell 5nhp 10-ton road roller No 4070 of 1927 Charlie. New to J Dickinson of Doncaster, it was acquired for preservation in 1982 and is the youngest surviving Burrell roller built, according to the TER. Although it needs some TLC to bring it back to its former glory, it is in a nice original condition. It was recently brought home to Netley Marsh by Don Cully to proudly sit alongside Burrell traction engines No 3746 Charlie B and No 3902 Elizabeth.…

This article aims to show you items that are currently on the market that will be useful in your workshop restorations – new practical tools to help Father Christmas find you something that’s just what you want instead of new socks or a string vest! Peter has personally paid for nearly all the items featured here. 1-2 BERGEN SUPER BRIGHT MAGBENDER LIGHT 5381 It can be difficult to find a powerful rechargeable torch when you are underneath a steam engine, tractor or commercial vehicle where you need constant light – and one you can hang up, leaving your hands free to work on the project. But this torch has a strong magnetic base that works well. At each end there are two folding hooks to hang the torch where required.…

On Sunday, October 9, Crossness Pumping Station held its last ‘in steam’ open day of 2016. There were five previous steam and nine non-steam open days throughout the year, providing an opportunity for visitors to see how the project to restore a second beam engine and improve the presentation of the pumping station to the public is advancing. Crossness Pumping Station is a Victorian engine house containing four enormous rotative beam engines – quite possibly the largest remaining in the world – that were built to pump sewage into a containing reservoir before its release into the River Thames at Crossness, a location on the south of the river between Woolwich and Dartford. The building, both externally and internally, is one of the finest remaining examples of ornate Victorian municipal…

While there is a little uncertainty concerning the tractor’s early history, the Austin Model R has been at Shuttleworth Park in Bedfordshire for close on 90 years. Although the machine has long retired from active service this highly original tractor is still used occasionally, although not for the forestry work that it was originally bought to handle. The Austin has been identified as an example of one of the earlier tractors built at the company’s Longbridge Works between 1919 and 1923 as it has a two forward speed gearbox and was not fitted with a water pump. The three-speed box and the fitting of a water pump were design changes which were introduced later. However despite a careful inspection of the components which was made during some restoration work no…

ON HIS TRAVELS in his home country of Sweden recently, Wolf Clarke came across the remains of a Munktells portable boiler. It was located in the region of Småland on the outskirts of the town of Älmhult, adjacent to a hardware store. It looked in reasonable condition and appears never to have had motion, etc. fitted. Wolf recorded that its works number is 4431 of 1910 and it doesn’t appear in the 2015 published European Traction Engine Register. The plate recorded not only the maker’s details and their number but also the name of Josef Berglund. It’s thought that this man may have been Munktells’ works inspector, whose responsibility it was to test and dispatch their machines to customers. Had he been an agent for Munktells, it would have been…

A ZETTELMEYER steam roller that was once in the Ukraine during the Second World War, along with another similar roller and a Ruthemeyer, is now in Germany, some 20 miles south of Hannover, reports Busso Hennecke. The trio of rollers were purchased new by the Wiegand road-making firm prior to the war and in 1941-2 they were commandeered by the authorities for the Todt organisation and sent by train to Ukraine to work there. They came back in the same manner in 1944, their job completed. They were returned to the firm, then hidden by it in outlying areas to prevent them being damaged by Allied bombing. Ironically, the firm itself was totally destroyed by bombs shortly before the war finished in 1945 but the rollers survived. They were used…

Burrell 10-ton Compound Roller The first roller completed by Burrells was in 1891, a 10-ton single crank compound. The design was changed in 1895 which is well illustrated with No 2145. The roller left the works in November 1898 and was delivered to J J Martin of Piddington, not far from Northampton, who combined his work as a threshing contractor in the winter months with rolling in the summer. In 1943 many of the engines including Burrell No 2145 were sold to Esmond Kimbell of Boughton, also in Northamptonshire. He had a similar business that was expanded during the war and which later became a very successful construction company. The roller was last used in 1952 and was scrapped soon afterwards. Foden 6nhp Agricultural Engine Fodens made a variety of…