Table of contents for February 2021 in Old Glory

2020 saw 1920 Fowler R3 Special 8hp 18-ton showman’s road locomotive No. 15653 Renown celebrate its centenary. The engine was bought by its present owners, Ian and Gary Howard of Derbyshire, back in 1979 and has been widely exhibited at shows up and down the country ever since, often in conjunction with their set of Savage gallopers ride that was built in 1886. Renown was ordered along with its sister engine No. 15632 Repulse in August 1919 and was delivered on May 8 1920 to showman John Murphy of County Durham. As was common with other Fowler showman’s engines neither had ‘barley sugar’ brass canopy supports, plain supports were fitted, rather appropriate for an engine that carried the logo ‘Plain but Powerful.’ Renown was fitted with a Thompson & Walton…

Leominster Vintage Club decided to beat the post lockdown blues by organising a road run on September 13, aimed at allowing tractor enthusiasts at least one trip out with their vehicles this year, reports Duncan Pound. Knowing a full-scale working day wasn’t going to be feasible due to a ban on large gatherings, newly elected club chairman Colin telephoned the committee members suggesting we replace it with a road run. It was agreed this would be possible, where contact between participants could be reduced to just people within the same household, as per the then current government guidelines. The outcome was a staggering 92 tractors and 4x4 vehicles attending, raising £1000 which was presented to Macmillan Cancer Support a few weeks later. The event was praised for allowing people to…

The chairman of the Road Roller Association sadly passed away on the afternoon of 19th December after a long battle with cancer. He was diagnosed with this a year or two ago and it then went away, only to return in relatively recent times. The chemo treatment for this made him ill and he was admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where he was responding well in late November. However very soon afterwards, he tested positive for Covid-19 and he later took a turn for the worse with the unfortunate but inevitable result says Derek Rayner. Michael lived in March, Cambridgeshire, where he was at one time, a very well-respected builder. He became RRA chairman in 2006 at the Association’s Annual General Meeting held at Basingstoke. He was very supportive…

OSWEGO Patented in 1870, the Sage & Alger shovel designed by Clinton H. Sage and Samuel B. Alger, and known as the ‘Oswego Boom Machine’, was initially built by John King & Co. of Oswego, New York. According to literature dated 1885, this location underwent a name to Kingsford Foundry & Machine Works at this time. It also appears that Oswego machines were built by the Vulcan Iron Works of Oswego, New York, owned by the same John King. This was probably the same factory in Oswego, and not to be confused with the Vulcan Iron Works of Toledo, Ohio, also a builder of steam shovels. The first Oswego shovel was of the luffing type with dipper arm attached and hinged to the boom close to its centre. This was…

From April 1973 (number 15) I compiled OM News and started writing for Old Motor itself in July 1973 (Volume 7:4) with an account of the Caledon lorry. I had recently acquired the only known example and had met a number of people involved in its Scottish manufacture whose story I will recount in these pages shortly. Prince was increasingly involved with his Obsolete Fleet of buses used for film, promotional and actual passenger service. He became the first to run a London tourist service since the Pirate days of the 1920s with a fleet of opentop BMMO double deckers originally made exclusively for Midland Red use. I became joint editor with Prince from March 1974 (Volume 8:2) whilst doing occasional runs to Birmingham (which suited my occasional work for…

A few years ago Daniel Crosby spent some time going back and forth to Athens, Greece, for a project he was working on. In the car from the airport to the city centre he would always pass through a toll booth on the motorway. At the side of this toll booth there sits a steam roller that’s been painted gold. He asked whether anyone was able to identify what make it is and always wondered about whether its history is known and also how it ended up where it is. Our Technical Editor photographed the roller from a train enroute to the airport in 2014 when returning from a railway holiday in southern Greece. He persuaded a friend - a Road Roller Association member in Greece - to take a…

An item appeared in Vintageworld (OG 196) relating to various engines seen during a safari visit to South Africa. It’s come to the magazine’s notice that some of the information in that article was inaccurate and we thank Phil Braithwaite for providing the correct details and sending one of his own images of the machine in question. In OG 196, an image of a McLaren tractor at the Willem Prinsloo Landbouw / Agricultural Museum near Pretoria was captioned as being No. 1870 of 1938 whereas the engine with that number is a McLaren crane engine in the James Hall Museum of Transport (JHMOT) in Johannesburg and was pictured in Derek Rayner’s article in OG 354. The tractor is actually No. 1471 of 1913 and although it was originally superheated, its…

A company that is on the ‘up and up’ of course is Bangers and Cash TV stars Mathewson’s at Thornton-le-Dale. It’s all happening now at their new larger premises on the edge of Pickering and no doubt many of you have been watching the new series on Thursday evenings 8-9pm. Their on-line sales have become a twoday affair since the summer and have been going so well, they offer affordable ‘everyman’ vintage to classic vehicles. They have also been selling a fair number of commercials and tractors including this 1950 Lanz 2416 No. 357397, an original style tractor that sold for £6,700 recently. As we said most of their sales have some excellent commercial vehicles in and normally feature a few tractors from Ferguson and Massey Ferguson. On the TV…

Tel: 01959 541444 – shop.kelsey.co.uk KIRKLEES RAILWAY Situated in the heart of West Yorkshire between the towns of Huddersfield and Wakefield, the 15in gauge Kirklees Light Railway transports visitors between the railway’s main station at Clayton West to Shelley some 3½ miles away. David Reed visited the line and tells the full story. HOWARD BROTHERS FAMILY FAIR David Reed carries on his look at the ever hard working Howard family and its fairground. JOHN CRAWLEY’S STEAM WAGONS We go back in time and bring you a look at steam wagons from the 50s and 60s. ARMSTRONG-WHITWORTH We look at Armstrong-Whitworth, the company and its steam rollers - were they really white elephants? NOTHING BUT THE BEST - S&D P2 We take another look at the early days of Shelvoke &…

The famous old Davey Paxman works site in Colchester (acquired by MAN of Germany in 2000) is to close. The Paxman business, founded in 1865, moved to its present site in 1876. Closure early next year will mark the end of 144 years of manufacturing here, say Patrick Knight and Richard Carr. Paxman became part of MAN B&W Diesel Ltd in June 2000. On 18 May 2001 MAN announced a re-organisation of its diesel engine businesses in the UK. At that stage management of the Paxman engine business was transferred to MAN B&W Diesel Ltd’s Strategic Business Unit - High Speed, based at Stockport in Cheshire. The implications for Paxman became more visible in spring 2002 when most of the sales, contracts, and finance functions were transferred from Colchester to…

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Harry Berriman, he was 84 and will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Harry was a well-known and highly-respected Ford and Fordson enthusiast and ploughman, especially in his native East Yorkshire writes David Reed. Harry was born on Hutton Road, Cranswick, he was the ninth child of Charles and Annie Berriman; he had 15 siblings, eight of whom survive him. Harry loved gardening and at a young age used to grow vegetables at his Driffield school for use in the kitchen. In later years, he carried on his interest in gardening to his allotment and his large garden, often winning prizes at local shows with his vegetables. On leaving school, Harry went to work for Mr Pexton…

The near 30-year restoration of a small diesel locomotive on the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway has been shortlisted for two national awards in the 2021 ‘Railway Oscars’. It is the third consecutive year in which the railway in the Skegness Water Leisure Park has been shortlisted by the Heritage Railway Association (HRA) for an award (not to be confused with the National Railway Heritage Awards on previous page). It was a joint winner with neighbours, the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway at Ludborough near Louth, for its achievement in re-opening in 2009. The LCLR was the very first heritage railway in the world to be built by enthusiasts on its original greenfield site when it opened on August 27, 1960, linking the bus terminus at Humberston, south of Cleethorpes, with the local…

Set amidst bluebell-strewn woods, from where the vineyard derives its name, Bluebell Vineyard Estates is a family-run vineyard and winery. The owners say it has a passion for producing world class ‘still’ and sparkling wines. It’s based 1.5 miles from the Bluebell Railway, which was running steam trains on Saturday 12 December and could be seen from the impressive vineyard says the editor._ Established on the site of a former pig farm, the transition from swine to vine,_began as a hobby: the creation of a fine wine collection, an eye opening visit to Romaneé Conti in France and the belief that truly exceptional wines can be produced in England._ The site, once home to 1000s of Large Whites, Landrace and Blue Cross pigs, is now home to over 100,000 vines…

The editor was invited to meet the Goakes family at March, Cambridgeshire, to catch up with the restorations currently underway at their works and to look at their own collection. As people get older and retire there are fewer experienced personnel to take on the task of boilermaking, to keep our steam engines on the road today. But one person who has been at the job for nearly 13 years is David Goakes, who started off with the late Mike Maskell, where he learned his trade thoroughly before going solo some six years ago now. He had a fine grounding in steam, thanks to his very practical parents, Linda and Michael Goakes. David has two brothers, Andrew and Thomas, who are both builders and are also keen steam hobbyists. One…

This 3ft 6in gauge Climax loco No. 1317 was built in Corry, Pennsylvania, in 1914 to the firm’s ‘Type B’ 0-4-4-0 design for the Egmont Box Company in New Zealand where it spent 26 years working for them on their Ohotu, Kakahi and Taurewa bush tramways, writes Phil Barnes. She was later sold to Smyth Brothers and Boryer where she worked on their Arohena and finally Ngaroma tramways in the Waikato region. The loco finished her working life at Ngaroma in 1956 and was stored outside before being moved to the War Memorial Park at Te Awamutu in 1960. She then spent a further 44 years outside where the weather really took its toll until, during 2004, she was moved to the council depot in Daphne Road, Te Awamutu. It…

On Saturday 19 September Nixon Auctioneers moved over to Sandy, Utah to hold the dispersal of the Parker collection set around a famous copper mining area that went on into the early 1950s. Much of the casting patterns that were sold at a previous sale came from the Kennecott Mine. This sale consisted of the traction engines, plant and so much more collected over a 50-year period. The engines were not in the best of health and the Nichols & Shepard 20hp double-cylinder engine No. 11409, which went on to sell for £18,581, was the best of the steamers here. Amazingly the i/c Avery 12-25 tractor that’s missing quite a few parts, including its water cooling tower, sold for a stunning £16,259. RESULTS 1911 Buffalo Pitts 22 hp TE needs…

Having successfully staged a similar sale last year Nixon Auctioneers were game for it again at the Kansas Star Casino, Mulvane, Kansas on Friday and Saturday 30/31 October. They featured a number of ‘flashy’ looking traction engines and rollers, some in fully restored steamable condition and others that had been cosmetically restored and placed in a Colorado collection until very recently. The end result was very good considering. On the Friday the models, pressure gauges and such like sold well. Nixon’s were very pleased with the results, especially the 1916 Minneapolis 40-80 i/c tractor No. 1176 that sold here for a good £86,143. RESULT HIGHLIGHTS 1915 IHC Mogul SBG583 older restored 4…………£27,173 1917 Waterloo Boy N early parts on tractor 4.2…………..£40,770 1920 Emerson & Brantingham Big Four No. 14631 engine…

The only VP/VPE ever made and the largest of Paxman’s heavy fuel oil engines ever built, No 23912, was ordered in December 1931, writes Richard Carr. Components for it were despatched from Colchester in at least three batches during April 1932. The engine was installed for power generation in the Lismore Power Station in New South Wales. This truly unique and very large engine has survived and is still where it was originally installed. A recent photograph shows it to be in far better condition than in some older photographs I have. A local group is working towards the preservation of the former power station and its engines and is trying to acquire the building from the NSW state power company (Northern Rivers Electricity?) that owns it. The group is…

With the passing of Maurice Hudson on 6 November 2020, the preservation community has lost a distinguished champion says Ed Burrows. In the 1970s, Maurice became the custodian of one of the Britain’s most valuable transport artefacts, the Scammell Hundred Tonner registration number KD 9168. The only two built entered service in 1930. They were the world’s first-ever road going motor vehicles capable of moving a load of 100 tons. KD 9168 is the only one of the pair restored to full running order and is in pristine condition. Rather than garaged out of sight, so that this supreme example of Scammell engineering ingenuity could be seen by historic vehicle enthusiasts and the general public, for many years up to 2018, Maurice loaned KD 9168 as a star exhibit at…

The traction engine community of Dorset were shocked to hear the news of the sudden passing of engine owner Ian Mackins. Ian had been rushed into Poole Hospital following an accident which had resulted in severe injuries to his legs, and sadly after two weeks of treatment he was unable to recover from his injuries and he passed away on 18th November 2020 says Paul Ritchie. Ian owned and rallied locally his 1895 Peerless taction engine No. 4726 at many of the local Dorset rallies. It always created a lot of interest as an unusual exhibit – in fact the only one of its kind outside of the USA. A talking point of the engine beings its wooden wheel, which Ian was always able to surprise people with this fact.…

Two contrasting positions regarding major lorry events for 2021 emerged in the week before this issue went to press. To begin with the bad news, the 2021 Kelsall steam rally, due to take place at the end of June, has been cancelled. This event, of course, also hosts the major ERF Gathering of the year, and generally sees more than 200 ERFs converge on Churches View Farm. In a brief statement issued on November 29, the organisers said. “It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided not to go ahead with the rally for 2021. This has not been an easy decision however, we want to make sure that everyone stays safe. Geoff, Marie and all of…

Normally we attend between 10-12 events a year, mainly in the north of the country, with our 4in scale Burrell SC Percy’s Pride, but Covid-19 has put paid to that so the engine, having been “put to bed” in October 2019, remains sheeted and locked away, awaiting it’s next hydraulic and steam test, which was actually due to be done just before the first lockdown was announced. My interest in steam began many years ago, most probably at a Pickering Traction Engine Rally around 1962 when I went with Mum and Dad as visitors. My father was very interested in steam, having once worked in a small foundry, he also crewed for the late John Conner of Charleston near Bridlington, East Yorkshire with 19783 Fowler B6 showman’s road loco King…

With no steering wheel and simple two-pedal control, the little SD Freighter was like no other commercial vehicle chassis available. As it didn’t feature a radiator on the front ‘apron’ panel, many thought it was battery electric-powered, but the reality was even more intriguing. The Freighter – or ‘Tiller’ as it was known - was powered by a transversly-mounted side-valve petrol engine, coupled to a semi-automatic epicyclic three speed gearbox, driving the rear wheels. With small diameter road wheels (solids to start with) and no bonnet to look over, driver vision and ease of entry was perfect for stop-start work. Malcolm Bates, himself the owner of a 1922 Freighter tells us more… It’s a tribute to the soundness of James Drewry’s unique design that the ‘Freighter’ stayed in production for…

During the mid to late 1990s, a number of commercial and residential structures were demolished by Ruston Bucyrus 22-RB and 30-RB ball cranes across the Black Country. This was to make way for new road networks and new low-rise housing. In the summer of 1994, Birmingham-based demolition contractor F C Richardson & Son Ltd demolished the West Midlands Travel bus garage/offices and parking facility on the Birmingham New Road in Dudley. This facility opened in 1929 and the reason for the demolition was to make way for the new Castle Gate roundabout which would feed traffic onto the new Dudley Southern bypass, spanning Dudley to Merry Hill. The demolition works by F C Richardson were carried out using their Ruston Bucyrus 22-RB crane complete with bell-type demolition ball. The first…

The remains of a Swedish-built Munktells steam roller - in form of just the boiler - has recently been found and this extremely important historical item has now been secured as an artefact by the RUBENS Museum in Götene, Sweden, reports Tore Blom. Munktells No. 5015 was part of a batch of four rollers (Nos 5014-17) which were delivered to the Swedish National Railways Board in 1911. The firm of Munktells at Eskilstuna built only about three dozen steam rollers between 1906 and 1915. The last few of these which were known to have been in commercial service were scrapped in the 1950s, about ten years before road steam engines started to be preserved in the country. The initial rollers produced by the firm were of the single cylinder design…

www.kelseymarketplace.co.uk Well, I write this on Friday 11 December and the Bonhams’ Bicester vehicle sale has just finished. It featured a tractor I owned 22 years ago now, a Field Marshall Series One Contractor Mk2 No. 3661. The tractor is well known as the fastest Field Marshall out there and the winner of the yearly Welland Steam Rally Marshall single-cylinder races. The rally in those days was staged at Upton-upon-Severn by the River Severn and the tractor was owned by Brian Blandford, who drove it to many victories and was well recorded on film. After my 2001 roofing accident, when I damaged my back, I ended up not able to wind the starting handle over without locking my back up, I had no choice but to sell the tractor and…