Innehållsförteckning för March 2024 från Old Glory

It’s great to see these pictures of Ian and Lucy McConachie’s 1899 7hp Allchin No. 1105 Ellen back in East Sussex. It was brought back by Peter Denham as a return load. The previously well-worn engine is now back like new. The engine was stripped by Ian, before Brian Allison collected the boiler assembly and took it to Shropshire and his steam centre. The firebox was cut out and the two-section boiler barrel was removed and scrapped, and the same with the backhead and throatplate - she certainly had been on borrowed time. Basically a new boiler assembly has been constructed. The new flanged and riveted firebox looks superb as does the foundation ring. With the new tubeplate and front end assembly progress was made. The cylinder block has been…

Good news on Thursday 4 January as in heavy rain Peacock’s arrived in East Sussex from Lincolnshire and on their superb tri-axle lowloader was December 1917 Fowler BB ploughing engine No. 14712 Wilbur. The engine was steamed onto the lowloader with its new boiler and front end looking superb and a credit to those involved with the work, which we have reported on before. In the heavy and cold rainstorm the engine was unloaded with Tom Beckett at the controls and Emily Burgess on the steering wheel, with Jeff Burgess steadying things with the Turkish-made Case-IH tractor. With lights ablaze the engine was safely put away in its building and doors locked. Various small jobs have got to be finished on the engine, which is being set-up for the 2024…

A MESSAGE FROM THEEDITOR Delighted to boast that this is Britain’s best-selling magazine for steam and vintage machinery enthusiasts. If you have enjoyed this issue of Old Glory and love original style or gleaming restored machinery especially road steam, or are fascinated by Britain’s rich industrial and transport heritage then why not subscribe? You will save money on the shop price and receive every issue direct to your door. Whether you’re interested in the latest news, places to visit or black and white photography of these wonderful machines in working times, featured by top writers and photographers you’ll find it all in the pages of Old Glory.…

Thanks to Rodney Lissenden from Sevenoaks, Kent we can show you these wonderful pictures of a raft of still-working paddle steamers which were trying to make a living for their operators around the United Kingdom coasts in the 1950s and early 1960s, which was becoming more difficult as the years went on. We are always delighted to receive such pictures to show our readers life and times that are long gone now and we personally just love. We thank the help of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society in compiling these notes. PRINCESS ELIZABETH Built in 1927 by Day, Summers & Co for the Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, more commonly known as Red Funnel. The paddle steamer was named after the newly-born…

Situated in the beautiful South Downs countryside of south east England the museum is located within the former Amberley chalk quarry. Historically an important source of lime for mortar and agricultural uses, the Amberley quarry had its own kilns, the remains of which can be seen today in the museum grounds. In addition to the road steam exhibits the museum’s 2ft gauge railway was in operation and featured the delightful Bagnall saddle tank No. 2067 of 1918 Peter. The locomotive returned to steam last year after the completion of a major three-year overhaul which included extensive boiler work and mechanical repairs. The chunky-looking Bagnall was originally built for the Ministry of Munitions to 3ft gauge and worked for the Canadian Forestry Corps in Cumberland. After the war it was regauged…

Mike Neale reports that as well as a large turnout of steam vehicles, there was a good mix of other vehicles and attractions as well, including classic cars, vans, tractors, trucks, buses, miniature steam, stationary engines, vintage fairground rides, market stalls, displays, wood-cutting demonstrations and even the chance for visitors to steer a steam engine. Many vehicles had their moment of fame in the arena. One new ownership nearly ended before it began. The 1920 Clayton & Shuttleworth 5-ton tipper FE 3704, No. 48637, was bought four years ago by Richard and Julie Hooker from Surrey, but two days later it was stolen! It seems the thieves had no idea it was inside a modern curtain-side lorry that they stole. Following extensive publicity on social media and TV news, a…

The 1930s was the age of speed, luxury and elegance, and two industries which really embodied the aesthetic of the time were commercial air travel and motor coach travel, both of which had enjoyed rapid growth since the latter half of the 1920s. The prospect of flight caused greater excitement, but the coach industry benefitted from its influence. The stylists of the 1930s, enamoured with the thought of soaring through the skies, incorporated streamlining into everything, from cars and trains to architecture and household radio sets. The coach industry, being reliant on impressing the public far more than other commercial-vehicle operators, was not indifferent to it, and the Art Déco coaches of the 1930s and 40s, such as this 1949 Dennis Lancet III, are some of the most beautiful commercials…

One of the editor’s heroes, Bob Davis of S E Davis & Son, Astwood Bank, Worcestershire died on Monday 8 January. He was the major king-pin in plant preservation for many decades and his natural skill was passed on to his son, his grandson Paul and the rest of the family. It gave Bob much pleasure to see them taking up the preservation cause and using as much of their equipment as possible at shows and at other major plant workings in the UK. Some of these machines have been used in the everyday plant and construction business here over the years. That natural skill of Bob was passed on to firstly his son Andrew who became the lynch-pin of Komatsu’s development in the UK with his spectacular displays at…

Martin Nutter continues to develop his fabulous 1907 Stanley 25hp Roadster on the south coast, which is one of the most successful Stanleys in the UK. When he purchased the car which was in bits it carried a two-cylinder piston-valve which had had a crack repaired. While rebuilding the car so well he replaced the assembly with a Stanley slide-valve engine. However a Stanley patron in the USA has cast a number of these piston-valve engines and Martin has acquired one of these assembles and has been working throughout this cold winter on fitting the more advanced Stanley engine into the Roadster. The engine has lots of drain taps associated with it. The Roadster is eerily capable of cursing at 55mph on the Pevensey Levels and a lot is expected…

Tractor historian and enthusiast John Rutter took a fitting final journey in December. Having spent his entire working life and much of his spare time repairing, maintaining and restoring agricultural machinery, he was transported to his funeral service by one of his own historic vehicles – a 1950 Ford E27N with a Perkins P6 engine. It was driven to the ceremony by John’s son Gary who helped him restore it after it was bought at the end of its working life from a farm in Petersfield in 1974. It was the first vintage tractor acquired by John and Gary, who have since amassed an impressive historic agricultural collection including a thrashing machine and binder as well as numerous tractors. They include many Ford and Fordson derivatives with a few exceptions…

I t’s to celebrate the history of that city’s long association with its one-time local bus operator R Chisnell & Sons, better known as King Alfred Motor Services, who were one of only a few privately owned bus companies to run a municipal bus service. History The Chisnell family’s involvement in bus services goes back to 1915 when, using a variety of small motor vehicles, he transported troops to and from various military training camps in the area. On Whit Monday in 1915, using an ex-RAF war subsidy Leyland, he ran his first charabanc excursion to Bournemouth. The firm became a registered company in 1939 and, despite competition from other operators in the area, maintained a staunch degree of independence, personified by the emblem of King Alfred the Great who…

The narrow gauge railways of Wales have a unique charm and character. For many years now at the end of the running season on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways a series of ambitious photographic charters have taken place with enthusiasts from around the world congregating in Porthmadog to enjoy the spectacle of narrow-gauge steam working in the stunning Snowdonia national park. This year was no exception with a series of charter trains heading off from Porthmadog during the first week of November. This was proceeded by two days on the equally impressive Vale of Rheidol railway at Aberystwyth. Finally a visit was made to the home of railway preservation in the UK, the Talyllyn Railway, for another two days of charters in the magnificent Welsh hills. There was also…

Whilst travelling to the superb aviation museum in Krakow, Poland, John Clarke spotted a striking road roller in a company car park. Accordingly, on his way back to the city centre from the museum, he alighted from the tram a couple of stops earlier than planned in order to investigate. He discovered that the roller had been manufactured in Poznań by Cegielski in 1929 and was works number 1039. Reference to the European Traction Engine Register indicated that it was recorded as being at the Museum Drogownktwa in Ciechocinek, but the roller has clearly moved since then. John made enquiries of the company where the roller is currently on show and discovered something of its history in that it is the same roller and it worked until 1953 for PDZL,…

The rescue of a derelict Aveling-Barford steam roller from a somewhat obscure wayside station on a lightly-used branch line between the junctions of Chandausi and Aligargh in northern India was recounted in last year’s September issue of the magazine. This has now reached its conclusion since an appreciable amount of work has been carried out on the roller by the staff at the Indian Railways steam maintenance depot at Rewari, some 60 miles south-west of Delhi. During the course of the roller’s renovation and the application of a ‘very fetching’ repaint to appeal to visitors, the roller’s identity was established from the original manufacturing stampings on the boiler. These indicated that this particular major component was constructed by Ruston & Hornsby at Lincoln and was date stamped as being hydraulically…

What is a steam tractor? Well the best way to describe it is as a one-man road locomotive, which is light, nimble, has plenty of power and, in most cases, has a compound cylinder block, a solid flywheel, compensating gear with springs, two or three speeds, belly tanks and a winch drum. They are used mostly for road haulage but they also need good off-road capability for winching tree trunks out of the woods and so forth. Some were even adapted for direct ploughing in the early days, but were too heavy and did not have enough traction. As time went on the steam wagon and internal combustion lorry and tractor took over many of its roles. However in the late 1920s many tractors were converted to cheap steam rollers,…

After changing ownership in 2023, the Nene Valley Railway-based 1926 Aveling & Porter 2-2-0WT No. 9449 railway/traction locomotive has now been readied by engineer Jamie Allen of Over, Cambridgeshire for a tubeplate and smokebox replacement, all part of its 10-year overhaul. It’s hoped to have the engine back on the rails later this year. This was the last rail/traction engine supplied by Aveling & Porter and was to the Mk1 design which was some 26 years out of date, but the works manager insisted in using this design. One wonders if AP had parts of this type still about in the works and that is why it was built as such. It was supplied to the Holborough Cement Company Ltd at their Snodland, Kent base, later this company was taken…

The big hit rally-wise in 2023 had to be the mid-June High Weald Steam Working at Danehill, Sussex. In just two years the event had outgrown the site and it was time to find a bigger one. The Ian Langley-Dave Mansi team have come up with Pippingford Park at Nutley, TN22 3HW. The team and helpers walked the site in early January and are impressed with what they have signed up to. Spokesman Bryn Kemp told Old Glory that the views across Ashdown Forest are a good backdrop for the show with the organisers looking to arrange the site to maximise photo opportunities of the exhibits capturing the background. The show will have the same working areas as previous years with wood sawing, threshing and road making. The heavy haulage…

The Connemara Railway project has made significant progress after a burst of winter track-laying took the line one kilometre east of its Maam Cross station base, eastwards, in the direction of Oughterard, the next station towards Galway. A temporary railhead has been established using 3ft gauge track, and a test train has been run over the line to check it out as a prelude to passenger operations. Chairman Jim Deegan said: “We cleared the trackbed which hadn’t been disturbed since closure of the line in 1935 and its subsequent lifting immediately after, and laid our narrow gauge track which will remain in place as a temporary measure until we lay our permanent 5ft 3in gauge track in the future. The narrow gauge will allow us to start passenger services from…

The E27N was sold in 1958 for a brand new Massey Ferguson 65Mk1 and it worked with the grey Ferguson TE-F diesel tractor on the mixed farm until 1968 when a Ford 5000 replaced it. In fact, Peter has that very first Massey Ferguson 65 back in his collection today and is making progress on a rebuild. By then Peter was into anything mechanical and was repairing things for others when just 15 while he was working on the farm. He then went on to Newtown College on day-release while working in an engineering company at Clarach for £10 per week on lathe work and more. It was rather repetitive work, but gave him a solid background in making pistons, sprockets and hydraulics. This knowledge and skill has been so…

At the time when Bill Palmer concluded his working career, he’d reached the age of 60 and he then turned his attention to his model engineering interests which he’d had since childhood as a result of his father being a clock maker of all sizes of timepieces. Bill had consequently spent his early years with drilling, milling and turning and the smell of cutting oil. He built two 5in gauge railway locomotives and became heavily involved in the local model engineering club at Whissendine, Rutland, for which organisation he served in various guises for many years. He later turned to steam rollers and built a 4½in scale Wallis & Steevens ’Simplicity’ roller, which he exhibited at many shows. In the mid-1980s, German road steam enthusiast Busso Hennecke was looking to…

Simon Colbeck reports that the theme for this, the 67th show, was ‘Bigger and Better’ and the organising team certainly delivered on that promise. The four field site was packed with exhibits with a much-expanded commercials section and tractor pulling featuring for the first time. The origins of the rally date back to 1956 and the early days of steam preservation and will always be associated with local ploughing and agricultural contractors, Beeby Brothers of Rempstone. Rempstone originally started as an informal get-together in the Beeby Brothers yards, which at that time were still home to a sizeable fleet of engines. After a few changes of location for the rally it has been at its present home of Turn Post Farm, Wymeswold for many years. As always Rempstone had a…

Within a month of the start of WW1 in August 1914 the government dictated that the total output of 3-tonners from the most British builders was to be ‘taken over.’ The makes affected were: Albion, British Berna, Commer, Daimler, Dennis, Hallford, Halley, Karrier, Leyland, Maudslay, Pagefield, Straker-Squire, Thornycroft and Wolseley. Many of the vehicles built under the subsidy scheme had already been taken by the military, along with a host of other less suitable vehicles commandeered. Some users reverted to the horse, but they were also in great demand. Over in America an increasing number of new companies were finding there was money to make building trucks and a host of assemblers joined the growing ranks. The introduction of the Pierce Arrow truck in January 1911, designed by British engineers…

Coming as he does from the county of the Broad Acres - Yorkshire - or the White Rose county as many title it, it’s only perhaps natural that Derek Rayner should have an interest in road steam vehicles which at one time worked there. Over a long period, he has been able to bring together a number of steam wagon images which once plied for trade in this, the largest county in England, and these are presented here for the interest of readers. It should be pointed out that the various extended captions have been provided as a result of many references to the extensive records of the Road Locomotive Society - plus the assistance of the staff at both the West Yorkshire Archives Service at Gildersome and the Cheshire…