Table of contents for September 2021 in Old Glory

It was a pleasure for the editor to be invited to the Marshall Club’s excellent ‘Marshalls Yard Meet’ on Sunday 25 July at the old Britannia Works, which is now a retail complex called ‘Marshalls Yard’ at Gainsborough. Some 40 examples of the make in all forms gathered for what is normally an annual event, but of course could not take place last year. The public just loved the old machines here, as did the many Marshall fans that attended, even from Scotland.…

The Marden Motor Car Club has been in existence for some 63 years and has staged an excellent small gathering, in July, near Headcorn, Kent for many years, thanks to the Day family. Will Day joins in the fun and displays some of his cars, as well as his steam engines. This year the plan was to steam his unique 1907 Alley & MacLellan waggon No. 190 for the first time in public, which he has owned for approximately 21 years. Alley & MacLellan waggons were built in Glasgow and marketed as ‘The Sentinel’. Production moved to Shrewsbury in 1915 and they became established as ‘The Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd’ from 1918. Will’s waggon was exported when new to Argentina, and is thought to have been used in a railway…

An urgent call has gone out from the Loch Katrine Steamship Trust for enthusiasts, businesses and public bodies to rally round to help raise £500,000 before the end of 2021 to ensure the 1899-built fresh water steamer can sail again in 2022. The trust, which took over the historic ship from Scottish Water in 2005, fitted two new Cochran Wee Chieftain boilers in 2008, and converted the vessel from coal firing to biofuel, as one of the first heritage steam-powered vessels to do so. Hairline boiler cracks were discovered during inspection in 2020, and the ship was berthed pending the launch of an appeal which was delayed by the Covid-19 crisis. James Fraser, Loch Katrine Steamship Trust chief executive, said: “We have been delayed by Covid and, of course, have…

Cheffins have recently sold 1920 Fowler R3 No. 15117 8hp showman’s road locomotive Bertha, which was shown at the Chester-le-Street rally on 10-11 July. In fact, after sorting all the paperwork out, as Cheffins did, the engine is now in its new home in Switzerland. It’s sad to see this famous engine, which was rallied in Kent in the early days by the Pegden brothers, who painted it blue, leave these shores, however there was a good window of opportunity for anyone to buy it quite frankly. As is known, the engine could do with a full overhaul, at some stage.…

On Wednesday 4 August Cheffins concluded the on-line only late Leslie Willis collection sale, based near Maidstone, Kent. Leslie lived and worked in the Republic of Ireland and collected most of the engines there, before transferring the collection to Kent with his son. This superb medium sized stationary engine collection was a rarity to see these days and the highlight of the sale was the very desirable Gardner No. 1 open crank that sold for £14,250. More on this sale in our next Market Place.…

Sunday 27 June saw Bursledon Brickworks Museum near Southampton Hampshire open their doors for a welcome open day and steam gathering, reports James Hamilton. As with all similar locations they were trying their utmost to work the best way to open their doors and of course stay within the current government Covid-19 restrictions. With a generous helping of social distancing, masks, pre-booked entry times for visitors (to restrict the flow of people to avoid too many people at any one time) and of course plenty of hand gel they achieved this well, although of course with less visitors and with the museum being able to open fewer days during this reduced season. Thankfully, the support of two rounds of the Cultural Recovery Fund in the form of c£80k has helped…

The 12th Fylde Steam & Farm Show took place over the weekend of 3-4 July and saw a multitude of entrants being displayed on the showfield, situated between Preston and Blackpool, says David Reed. Good crowds were in attendance on both days, despite some uncertainty about the weather and, judging by Facebook comments, they certainly enjoyed the event. As the name suggests, steam is the main attraction with both full-sized and miniature engines on site. There were other attractions too though; cars, motor cycles, commercials and tractors were present, with animal activities such as dog training giving it that rural feel. It is a charity event with the Rosemere Cancer Foundation benefitting from the proceeds of a Massey Ferguson 35 that was auctioned off, and with other donations over £3,500…

Small GWR Prairie tank No. 4555 initially came to the East Somerset Railway from the Dartmouth Steam Railway as the result of a threeyear ‘arrangement’ in early 2020 and then Covid struck, thus closing this heritage line and giving this visitor no work to do. This was compounded by problems with mechanical aspects of the loco, so it went away for remedial work and having subsequently returned, now takes up its role as part of the ESR’s active steam fleet.…

The award-winning Statfold Barn Railway in Tamworth is a well-known attraction that holds a series of open days, where visitors can enjoy travelling on their narrow-gauge railway which stretches through the fields on a three-mile round trip. These open days are usually complemented by a variety of special events, with the biggest being the ‘Road, Rail and Ale’ festival that is held in September. Also high on the list of events though is the Giant Miniature Weekend, which is described as being a celebration of all things miniature in steam, operating alongside the narrow-gauge steam trains of the SBR. The 2021 event had to be delayed due to Covid restrictions, however the railway decided to hold a ‘Not so Giant Miniature Weekend’ in late June, the name indicating that entries…

An historic photograph has come to light in Switzerland of a roadmaking sceone involving two steam rollers and their crews together with their associated work gangs. After some diligent research by the DampfWalzen Club Schweiz - DWCS - (Swiss Steam Roller Club)’s Archivist, Ernst Huwyler, the identities of the rollers have been established. What has not been determined, however, is the location where the image was taken. It’s obviously near an electrified railway line and a tunnel mouth can be seen in the background and with those clues, it may be thought to have been relatively easy to ascertain where it was. However, even for someone with a good knowledge of the railway system in the country, this has eluded them. There have been many extensions, diversions and even quadrupling…

Earlier in the year Berrybrook Classic & Steam completed the sale of 1921 Burrell No. 3912 Pride of the Fens/Dragon Scenic showman’s engine and it was shown at the 125th Devon County Show at Westpoint Arena, near Exeter on 2-4 July before heading down to George Balsdon Engineering in Devon who are to rebuild the boiler assembly and much more for the new owners. Another Burrell Scenic to change hands on 28 July when it headed down the M3 to its new home in Wiltshire was 1920 Burrell No. 3865 No. 1, which is in perfect restored condition. Former owner Terry Maynard said, “I’m sad to see it go, but with my age and the need for some new hips I can only concentrate on one engine and that will…

This was basically the last of Andrew’s sales staged over the years and featured his enamel signs and other machinery to bring things to a close at Coldwells Farm, Morton Valance, Gloucestershire on Saturday 10 July. This time he called in Stroud Auctions to conduct the clear-up sale with on-line bidding that was part of the set up. The signs sold well, but we will concentrate on the machinery here, some of which sold very well for what they were. The first production Wallis and Steevens Advance No. 7773 a 1923 6/8 ton with its excellent boiler report got to £31,000 on the day and remained unsold. All told the sale went very well for what it was and was certainly an end of an era for this famous collector.…

Part of the build-up to the Bluebell Railway’s Road Meets Rail event over July 17-18 featured a furniture pantechnicon originally built by Creasy’s of Norwood, SE London, in 1905 says David Vaughan. The van had originally been horse-drawn before having an A-frame fitted to enable it to be pulled by a light traction engine. It was in the ownership of the firm of Friends of Forest Row, as it had been since new, and was driven on the road behind a Burrell Gold Medal tractor to Horsted Keynes. This pantechnicon had been fully restored to its original condition (see OG September 2010) and, although it had appeared at several events it had always been taken on a trailer as it had a wooden undercarriage and was on ironshod wheels. It…

Following OGs recent feature on 1901 Aveling & Porter LC8 No.4885 8hp showman’s engine Samson, Cheffins have sold the engine to a new owner in North Yorkshire and it’s to stay as a showman’s engine we are told. Sadly, the Chatham Dock Yard could not raise the required funds to purchase this engine, which worked as a road locomotive at the Dock Yard for some years. As featured in Old Glory over the last few months, we have followed Samson’s rebuild back to steam and showman’s engine. It could pay to tell us if you have an engine for sale, we are always more than willing to flag it up for you.…

A welcome weekend of steam, tractors, beer tents and entertainment - it almost felt like 2019 again! The Whitwell Steam & Country Fair was for me and many of the exhibitors our first traditional rally for a very long time, reports Simon Colbeck. It certainly felt like everyone was enjoying being back on a rally field, this being one of the few events to have survived on the calendar for this year. The Whitwell Steam & Country Fair owes its origins to Nick Hill of Waterhall Farm, Whitwell in Hertfordshire. In 1995 Nick had built a barn to house his collection of vintage agricultural machinery. These included a corn dressing machine, rolling mill, chaff cutter and potato riddle. These were all powered by stationary engines. Over the following years Nick…

If you have something for this column please send it to: colin.tyson@kelsey.co.uk Bressingham’s railway locomotives were in action during the weekend of their steam rally, June 26-27. The 10¼in Garden Railway - the first railway that Alan Bloom created at Bressingham - saw 1995-built large quarry Hunslet (named Alan Bloom) doing the honours. Over on the 2.5 mile 1ft 11in gauge ‘Fen Railway’, running was in the hands of 1883 0-4-0 Quarry Hunslet No. 316 Gwynedd. The locomotive is an ex-Penryhn slate quarry engine. Later in the day it was joined by new build vertical-boilered 0-4-0 Fernilee, an engine that was to have been resident at the Penryhn Quarry Railway which sadly closed. In 2017 this unusual engine came to Bressingham. Rail and road steam met when two Garrett 4CD…

With their shared ancestry it is not surprising that Foden and ERF had many common strands. Edwin Richard Foden was a son of the founder of Fodens Ltd, where he worked until retirement. In 1933 he went back into business with his own diesel lorry just as the old company was entering the same field. Foden was a manufacturer through and through, whilst ERF believed in specifying the best and lightest components at the best price from outside suppliers. Though Foden made its own two-stroke diesels from 1940-70s, it actually relied on Gardner for most sales. ERF, going down the same premium route but from a different direction also preferred Gardner, as did their close rival Atkinson. There were three schools of thought about tippers. You bought the cheapest mass-produced…

PART 7 EXPANDED SHOVEL MARKET As well as the big strippers previously mentioned, Marion expanded the market for its smaller, fully-revolving steam shovels designed for quarry, surface mine and construction applications. The 5/8-yard 28 was introduced in 1911, followed by the 1-yard model 31 and 1½-yard model 36 in 1912. These steam shovels established Marion as a major supplier of medium-sized excavators. Sales numbers for the Models 28, 31 and 36 were 402, 279 and 253 respectively, certainly satisfactory numbers for this type of equipment. These three models were first available on traction wheels or rail mounted, but in 1915 crawler tracks were applied to a Model 28 shovel, the first Marion excavator to be so equipped. After this date all three were available with the crawler track option. In…

Part 3 A RESUMPTION OF RESTORATION Karen and I were married in 1991; with regard to the 2L2, I decided the best course would be to resume with the fabrication of a suitable frame on which to mount the engine. A welded frame constructed from 5-inch by 2½-inch parallel flange channel emerged. I had to hand a pair of Flexello heavy-duty fixed and castoring wheel sets. A pair of beams were made to take the wheels. These beams were designed to bolt to the ends of the main frame. This method gives the option of keeping the engine portable or to be quite easily permanently set down; the next task would be to finish painting. Brush painting was the method selected for finishing the many individual components. I had previously…

Norton & Brooksbank held the final dispersal sale of the late Frank H Walker on Thursday 1 July, he was wellknown on the preservation scene over the years, says David Reed. The sale was held at Rookery Farm in the village of Kelsall a few miles to the east of Chester and saw a wide selection of equipment go under the hammer. Auctioneer Simon Lamb was in charge of proceedings and guiding the prospective buyers through the various lots. With Covid-19 still in mind he was making sure that the current restrictions were adhered to. The sale was held due to the passing of 91-year-old Frank Walker, who had farmed on this land for 75 years. Kelsall is well-known in vintage circles for the superb vehicle rally that is usually…

Howard Pugh held a two-day sale over 16-17 July as a combination of the sales he would have staged at the Much Marcle and Welland rally sites in normal circumstances, but the success of this event raises the question whether he needs to go back to these rally sites? It will be interesting to see. The sale was one of two halves, the first section of tractors saw unbelievable prices achieved in more ways than one, which we will come to, but in the second half it went awry price-wise in some ways, so there was certainly something for everyone’s pocket. There are plenty of tractors to go for on the market at the moment, but occasionally one comes up that two people desperately want and that was the case…

Recently seen in the Manchester area in new ownership of Jack Thwaites is 1915 Marshall 7hp three-speed compound traction engine No. 68632 Ben Lomond. Thanks to its previous Dorset owner Mark Farwell the engine was transformed in many ways and was well-liked wherever it went. No. 68632 was a cancelled export order, painted blue to reflect the owner’s Scottish connections and was originally fitted with a steel canopy into the 1950s. It was stationed with John Young at Chelsfield, Kent all its working life. For various reasons the engine had a wayward early preservation life and was not well liked - it ended up with something bent in the motion when being driven by Ron Page when in Sam Killick’s ownership at Rushlake Green, East Sussex. The engine had boiler…

From Meridian TV comes the news that the organisers of Kent’s largest steam engine rally have been trialling olive stones to fuel some of their vintage vehicles. The alternative to traditional coal is one of the options being explored in an attempt to guarantee the longterm future of the event, and may also help preserved railways to keep running. There are fears that the possible end of British coal production next year will make the essential material even harder and more expensive to source. Others worry that possible new environmental legislation could scupper such preservation rallies. A classic steam tractor uses “about 25 kilos of coal every two miles,” explains event organiser Bill Giles. “It’s becoming more costly and the likelihood is once the Welsh mine licence runs out in…

Gerald and Julia Whittaker’s brilliant ex Marshall Hill showman’s living van that was built at the Phillips, Emlyn Engineering Works, Newport, Monmouthshire in 1923 is making its first public appearance right now! The van has travelled to the Pinkneys Green site near Maidenhead behind James Wren-Davies’s 1904 Burrell No. 2668 8hp showman’s Britannia and will be stationed at the Carters Old Tyme Fair from 27-30 August. Do go along and enjoy the old tyme rides and the showman’s living van, which I am sure Gerald and Julia Whittaker will be delighted to show you around, but take your slippers as it’s that good!…

Despite Covid restrictions not being fully lifted in England, Andrew Borthwick and his team pressed ahead and delivered an excellent two-day event at Lambton Park, Chester-le-Street on 10-11 July. The site here has been used for traction engine rallies on and off since the 1950s, says David Warren. Some 23 engines were present along with an excellent crowd. A good number of the engines were making a first appearance or returning following extensive repair work. Having recently come on loan to Michael Davison and his team at Trimdon, 1920 Fowler R3 No. 15116 8hp showman’s engine Bertha was seen in public for the first time in the northeast following a 19-mile road journey with two trailers in tow and made a fine sight. Another Fowler engine out for the first…

The group of long-standing locomotive department volunteers that own Bluebell’s class 09 shunter D4106 has acquired ex-British Railways class 33 D6570 Ashford from the D6570 Ashford Group for use on the railway. It is one of a class of 98 locomotives built between 1960 and 1962 for the Southern Region of British Railways. With a Sulzer eight-cylinder 8LDA28A engine rated at 1550hp these were the most powerful fouraxle diesel locomotives built for the BR modernisation programme. For over 30 years they were a common sight across the region on freight and passenger workings and were frequent visitors to East Grinstead on trains from London Bridge. D6570 entered service in October 1961 and was initially allocated to Hither Green depot. In 1980 it was named Ashford and in 1985 re-allocated to…

1942-built Peckett No. 2000 arrived at the Helston Railway, Cornwall, on June 25, having been transported from Beamish. The loco was seen undertaking crew training duties on July 21 in blistering heat and OG correspondent Phil Barnes was lucky enough to be offered a cab ride (which he took!) from the south to the north end of the line to where a ‘new’ station access footpath has been created across the tall road bridge at Prospidnick Farm. The farm is also the location of the railway’s parking site and you can get a very good cooked breakfast and a cup of tea in the sole-remaining Class 103 DMU whilst waiting for the train. The location of the DMU marks the site of the new station which is an ongoing project…

What a wonderful sight! On Sunday 25 July 2021 at the Marshall Club’s ‘Marshall Yard Meet’ right where all of these machines had been made at the Britannia Works, Marshall No. 34042 10 ton single-cylinder roller, the oldest survivor in its original form, which was supplied on 14 July 1900, was shown to the public for the first time since the very early 1970s, says the editor. It was certainly a wonderful glorious home-coming for this ex-Gainsborough Urban District roller. The very first steam roller that Marshalls made (1894 No. 24243 12.5 ton) also went to Gainsborough UDC. Thanks to Paul Ducksbury and the family’s efforts and friends this engine is right back where it should be and in ‘first class’ order after extensive work to the boiler, tender and…

The round timber industry in this country has been around for a very long time, long before the invention of the steam engine, with most of the heavy work being undertaken by horses. Having felled the tree in the wood or forest, the problem was to transport it to the sawmill - with the absence of roads or tracks, the horse was very well suited to the job. With the advent of steam power, sawmills were quick to use steam portables and stationary engines to drive the saw benches, with the added advantage of being able to fuel the engines with the timber off-cuts, thereby keeping the costs down. Soon they were using road steam engines of various types to pull the timber out of the forests and transporting it…

Well-known Marshall fan for many years, John Stephenson from East Yorkshire has done so much for preservation over the years and is the man who was able to track down the two-cylinder Marshall 16-30 in Canada which was seen working at the GDSF in the special 2001 vintage tractor display. John then sold it on and after other owners it was eventually sold in America at an Aumann Auctions Pre-1930s sale for the highest price in the world ever paid for a veteran tractor (so far!). John has decided to downsize of his collection, including his 1930 Marshall 7hp No. 85620, one of the last Marshall 7hp traction engines sold to the domestic market. It was shown at the Manchester Show and retains the Marshall special show lagging with a…