Innehållsförteckning för October 2024 från Old Glory

Thursford Steam Gala was very popular as always, held this year on Sunday 7 July with a huge crowd (larger than last year) attending. There were just some ten engines to enjoy outside this year. The morning got through without rain, but in between the afternoon’s heavy showers the steam parade took place. The highlight this year was 1913 Burrell 7hp DCC No. 3526 Lightning II, its green and cream livery standing out compared to the all-maroon livery of No. 3837 Victory, which was in steam again. None of the rest of the fleet here were in steam, but it was good to see the museum’s Marshall roller and Clayton traction engine outside in the yard for all to enjoy. John Saunders supported the event with Burrell Majestic and Fowler…

The site is arranged around a long grass airstrip with several visiting planes attending, some of which carried out an air display on Saturday evening. All vehicles are asked to avoid the runway, but the steam engines are encouraged to drive around the edges of it, making it far more interesting for exhibitors and public alike. There were about 40 full-size steam engines and about 60 miniatures at the rally. One or two changes had been made to the site; the public parking had been moved to the old ploughing field which was much better. The restoration tent had been moved to the steam line-up opposite the line up of eight Sentinels from the Sentinel Drivers Club who had their club stand next to the restoration tent. Displayed in the…

The Ross-on-Wye Steam Engine Society put on a magnificent show for their 58th annual steam and country rally. For 2024 the team had pulled together a fantastic selection of full-size steam engines from all over the United Kingdom and Ireland which looked superb in the summer sunshine which blessed the rally this year. As in previous years, a road run took place on the Thursday with over thirty engines heading off on various routes through the Malvern countryside. One of many engines visiting for the first time and out on the road on Thursday was the Kell family’s stunning Fowler road locomotive No. 14888 of 1917 Kingfisher. Over the course of the weekend Kingfisher was kept very busy in the playpen on heavy haulage duty, often paired with all sorts…

Fate has a funny way of bringing things to pass. I was cycling through the Suffolk lanes when I caught sight of an old abandoned pantechnicon out in a farmer’s field. Unable to resist a closer look, I pulled up and was greeted by the farmer’s wife, Mrs Godbold, who told me, “My husband’s got a couple of other old lorries you might be interested in.” Mr Godbold was summoned and, indeed, he did have some very interesting lorries besides the derelict pantechnicon (a 1974 Bedford TK, which had been parked outside in the early 1990s), to say nothing of his various tractors and historic motorcycles. The jewel in this little collection was a wartime Dodge in desert khaki, about which my genial host told a remarkable story. Alas, I…

German reader, Gunther Aselmeyer, recently attended an international meeting of collectors of electrical insulators in Szeksárd in Hungary. Whilst there, he discovered a steam roller from the manufacturer Hofherr-Schrantz-Clayton-Shuttleworth in Kisbér, a town between Györ and Budapest. The roller was situated behind a fence and Gunther was able to take some photos of it. He found that the rear rolls had the C&S lettering on the wheel hubs but they had been heavily modified with newly-welded spokes. Enquiries revealed that the yard was that of the ‘Magyar Közút Nonprofit Zrt. Komárom-Esztergom Vármegyei Igazgatósága’ (HungarianKomárom-Esztergom, County Directorate of Public Roads, Nonprofit Zrt.). On returning home, he consulted his copy of The European Traction Engine Register and discovered that the roller was listed in there but without a works number or year…

Ambros Saladin writes from Switzerland to advise that the Swiss major road building company, Walo Bertschinger, is well known for the steam rollers it owns and maintains in various locations around the country. From time to time, the firm cares for them by taking them back to its works in Schlieren, to the west of Zürich, refurbishes them there and then places them on display again for the public to admire at various locations. This then acts as an advert for the company and also tells passers-by that it cares about its past. The latest roller to be refurbished in this way is Fowler No. 15739 of 1924 which was craned into position in Aargauerstrasse in Alstetten in early June. The firm even has a steam roller plinthed outside its…

The recent vintage sale conducted by auctioneers Cheffins on 20 July at Ely, Cambridgeshire had a number of stationary engines up for grabs, but without a doubt the star of the sale was the ex-Brockenhurst Collection (Trent University) 1904 Hornsby Akroyd No. 7888 3.5bhp hot bulb engine. There were several serious prospective buyers, however these slowly dropped out leaving just two to fight it out. The engine finally sold for £15,000 (plus of course the buyer’s premium and VAT). I am sure that the new owner will have a great deal of pleasure with his purchase.…

We left sunny Sussex at 5.00am to make our way to the Towy Valley Vintage Club rally, located on the Cothi Bridge Show Field and staged on 29-30 June, writes Alan Cullen. My wife Lynne and I have made this journey for several years, and always look forward to meeting up with stationary engine men whom we only see once a year. On arrival, our section marshal Ozzie greeted us and made us most welcome. He said that they were expecting thirty-plus engines to attend over the two days. The variety of engines on show ranged from a small JAP battery-charging set to the lorry-mounted Blackstone Spring Injection I.S.I series owned by Ifon Davies. Andy Doncaster was showing two Wolseley engines, a pre-WD model which he has owned for over…

I must first welcome all Stationary Engine readers to Old Glory, don’t feel nervous that you are going to be engulfed by steam engines and all other types of vintage machinery and we forget your own engines. In fact that’s not the case at all as SE editor Patrick Knight carries on in this magazine providing ten pages on the subject, so do send in your restorations, rally reports, finds, discoveries, letters and more to him. His address is in his section or you have my email peterlove@madasafish.com. However something he wrote in his last editorial is not correct, your FREE classifieds of all types do continue in this magazine and we will be increasing this section in our next issue. In fact stationary engines of all types have always…

Sad news, but it’s been on the cards since the Government introduced its counter-terrorism laws in October 2023 following its blanket ban on the sale of hexamine tablets which fire these miniatures. These have been used since 1975 when methylated spirit was declared to be too dangerous to use. It is suggested that hexamine tablets can be used to make bombs. The company was started in 1936, 88 years ago now, by Geoffrey Malins in Birmingham and from the stationary engines came the steam roller in 1961 and the range was expanded later on with the traction engine, steam wagon and steam car and accessories, not forgetting the 0-4-0 railway locomotive and stock that came later. Adrian Lockrey from Tamworth purchased the company relatively recently and had done a marvellous…

On a wet Friday 5 July at the Kent County Show, Detling William and Andrew Pierce debuted their 1935 Blackstone spring injection ES1-1 No.192940 stationary engine which was installed by J & E Hall Ltd of Dartford, Kent on the farm of Chris Wheeler, East Peckham, Kent. It was used to power a refrigeration unit and generator for the storage of apples and was in use until 1956. It was 2019 when it was dismantled from its original position having not been used for over 60 years. It was not an easy task, the engine weighs over 3 tons and had been securely positioned on a concrete plinth in a not over-large building. Scaffolding, lifting gear and more was involved in removing it with the crankshaft and flywheel coming out…

The annual 2024 Somerset Steam and Country Show was held at Low Ham, Langport, Somerset on 20-21 July by courtesy of the Cook family, says Joseph Lewis. Two steam entries were making their first rally appearances after some years away. James Morris exhibited his 1924 Aveling & Porter C-type 8-ton roller No. 11085 Energy which was parked in a hedge and collected in February 2024. The roller started life in the Isle of Wight and moved to various owners, throughout its working life, including West Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Yeovil. She ended up in the ownership of I S Underwood of Street in Somerset. The aim is now to bring the roller back to working order. The purchase price for the engine went to St. Margaret’s Hospice. The other engine…

The wonderful Charles Burrell Museum in Thetford, Norfolk, is quite rightly very proud of its superb collection of engines housed in the former paint shop of the famous St Nicholas Works. Usually the museum building is full with the engines on display to the general public but with two of the collection’s engines being away at Weeting Rally, an opportunity arose to put some other Burrell products into the former paint shop building. And so it was on the Thursday before this year’s Weeting rally four Burrells set off from the Fengate Farm rally site for the ten-mile run down to Thetford. The Vickery family of Luton had invited me along to record the momentous day. On the morning of the run Paul and Ian’s superb Burrell single 7nhp agricultural…

The Steam and Vintage Rally held at Duncombe Park near Helmsley in early July certainly brought together a great selection of steam engines, with full-sized machines being complemented by a great selection of miniatures. One of the highlights of the event takes place on Saturday evening when the engines make their way to Helmsley, a couple of miles away, and large crowds gather to greet the engines and have a close look. So looking at the miniatures in a bit more detail, many makes were represented. Starting off with a trio of Foden wagons, John Barnfather’s 4½in C Type Foden Belle was built by John Rex of Pontefract and bought in 2017, while Frank Stansfield’s 4½in example was seen in Theakston’s livery, the name of a major brewery in North…

The date is 2 July, 1907, and the location the French coastal town of Dieppe. After some rainfall, the air has cleared and the weather has turned rather fine. It would be an ordinary Sabbath for all the labourers in the surrounding fields, except that the local roads have been closed and taken over by 37 smoking, snorting, devilish contraptions, charging about and raising dust, in the name of the Automobile Club de France’s second Grand Prix. The cream of France’s motor industry is there, including Renault, Brasier, De Dietrich, Darracq and Clément-Bayard, but despite their best efforts, the eventual victor, the one car which could go the 477.4 miles faster than all the rest, was a product of Italian soil. Its driver was a strapping 25-year-old named Felice Nazzaro,…

The Stafford family of Houghton-le-Spring, Co Durham, were threshing contractors dating back to the 1930s and steam was used in those early days. For many years afterwards, they continued the business with internal combustion tractors. In June 1966, on the occasion of the firm’s very last commercial threshing day, Providence was pressed into service to mark the ‘end of an era’ and consequently, a very large team turned up to help with the task in hand. The location was the Weightman’s North Pit Farm at Houghton-le-Spring, some six miles north-east of Durham. The ‘mountain’ in the background of one of the photos was actually a huge pit heap, common-place in that area at the time. Since then, the heap has mostly been reduced and recycled and, along with the farm…

GURNEY Goldsworthy Gurney was born into a wealthy Cornish family in 1793 and met Richard Trevithick who had experimented with steam vehicles since 1796. The scientifically-minded Gurney became assistant to a Cornish medical doctor before heading to London in 1820. There he continued in medicine, conducted scientific lectures and invented a oxy-hydrogen blowpipe for which he was awarded the Royal Society Gold Medal. His study of high pressure steam jets helped to ventilate mines, purify sewer gases and even allegedly to improve the performance of Stephenson’s Rocket in the 1829 Rainhill Trials. Having previously built models, in 1825 Goldsworthy Gurney build a full-size steam carriage with an ingenious steam generator in which the ends of tubes in V-form ran into two horizontal boilers connected by vertical tubes. Exhaust steam passed…

In the August issue of Stationary Engine there was a report on the Cheffins vintage auction sale where an American-built Kewanee pumping set was put up for sale; I enclose a few photos of that engine which might be of interest to you and fellow enthusiasts, says Val Moore. The engine was bought by Arthur Gaston, who lives near the village of Carnlough in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Arthur is a well-known collector of all things David Brown, indeed his collection is one of the best to be seen anywhere in the British Isles and Ireland; he also has a few stationary engines, with the Kewanee being the latest addition to that collection. Built by the Kewanee Private Utilities Company of Illinois, USA as a purpose-built pumping set, it is…

Not every young lady would want to be taken to her school prom by a 1920 Aveling & Porter KND Colonial steam tractor. But when it looks so stunning and is kept in concours condition by Jenny Shackle’s dad Jim, that’s what she wanted. It was certainly something very different and all went well for those who travelled in Shamrock’s trailer on that perfect sunny evening, particularly as the weather has been so changeable. This was to be Shamrock’s last journey for a few weeks as Jim has now replaced the boiler tubes and it’s all together and going well again. It will certainly be something that Jenny can look back on in years to come, she was the queen of the prom that’s for sure.…

Exciting news! By the time you read this, with any luck Merrick and Fergus Jardine of Faversham will have the ex-John Keeley 2016 sale 1929 Maudslay lorry running. It came in a pile of bits, with John Butler’s hand in the process. The amazing restoration of this possibly unique commercial vehicle is a story in itself, which we will go further into later on, but the main feature of any Maudslay is the overhead cam engine which they used from 1903. The Henry Maudslay company started in 1798, but the company we know was created in 1903, based at Parkside, Coventry. There products were ‘high class’ and that is the case with this 40hp four-cylinder engine which is now back in the chassis. The gearbox has been fully overhauled and…

Whilst waiting for these parts to be fabricated, Stuart decided to work on the wheels, which turned out to be a big job. “The first thing that we did was to take the rubbers off as they were worn out,” Stuart said, but this led to further problems. “When they were removed, the original metal strakes were found to be totally worn out, “Most of them just dropped off the wheels,” he added. However, he decided not to replace the strakes, but to rubber straight onto the wheels. But this meant that he had to weld new rivets onto the back wheels, while the rims were also made good with weld. It was a time-consuming job, “This meant that Reliant Rubbers of Batley could vulcanise the new tyres on,” Stuart…

The Swanage Railway Victorian gala promised the very rare treat of two 19th century tender locomotives and a supporting cast of more recent Southern Railway-themed locomotives working an intensive service of trains through the Purbeck countryside and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Completed in 1885 the spectacular Swanage railway passes through 9½ miles of delightful Dorset countryside. Starting at the Victorian seaside town of Swanage the line climbs inland and passes the famous ruins of Corfe Castle en route to Norden which is at present the terminus of the line on most running days. The line does continue on to Wareham where there is a connection with the national network, and last year a trial through service to Swanage was run in the summer months. For many the star of the…

Joe had been a supporter of such events for many years with the enthusiastic help of his son Kevin and now a third generation in Tom who organised the brilliant working here. It’s said to be the best since the 2014 Great Dorset Steam Fair plant working, which is always rated as the best one ever staged with those two early Ruston draglines as the centrepiece. Joe came from East Yorkshire to Belper, Derbyshire in 1954 and worked for Bowmakers, the renowned Caterpillar dealers and contractors. After nine years he set up on his own in 1963 with a JCB3, in fact the commentator at Cromford, Dave Whittle, rebuilt a JCB3 for J C Balls which is very similar to the original one they had. The cab and panels needed…

The Associated Manufacturing Company of Waterloo, Iowa, was without doubt the most successful American engine manufacturer to market its products here in the UK. Better known to the UK enthusiast as the ‘Amanco’ farm engine, these were imported in their thousands and marketed from the company’s London branch; nowadays for most UK enthusiasts an ‘Amanco’ engine would be their first choice when electing to purchase an open crank engine, regardless of the fact that it was American-built. The Amanco engine was marketed in a wide range of sizes from 1¾hp through to 18hp. The smaller sizes 1¾hp and 2¼hp were also available with air-cooling. Each size and type of engine had a code name; for example the Chore-Boy, Hired-Hand (air-cooled), Hired-Man (water-cooled), Farm-Hand, Mule-Team, Special and Foreman. There were smaller…

I ’m sure that all stationary engine enthusiasts will be aware that the world-renowned Lincoln-based engine manufacturer Ruston & Hornsby was involved in the production of a great many different models of engines over the years; these ranged in size from the little 1½hp Class PB and PB petrol engines through to some gigantic multi-cylinder oil engines capable of providing power to run a factory or office block, writes Paul Cane. However, for obvious reasons we only see the smaller sizes of engine, with the exception of a few larger lorry-mounted engines, on our rally fields. While examples of the smaller models of horizontal Ruston & Hornsby PB, PR, AP and IP engines are fairly numerous, the same cannot be said for the OK and OKE Class of engine. Introduced…

Without doubt one of the outstanding events of the 2024 season has to be the Rural Times Past show held at Horns Cross, East Sussex on 10-11 August. This show saw an excellent crowd and so much going on in all sections at what is very much a working event that has just grown and grown. On the SEVAC stand was Steve Pike’s Covid restoration project in the form of the c1934 Deutz OME122 15hp semi-two stroke diesel engine. It was original employed on the River Wey (main contributory to the River Thames) in Surrey and powered a pile driver of all things. Sadly the box of bits that Steve started with didn’t include the serial number, if you can help please get in touch with Old Glory. The engine…