Inhaltsverzeichnis für December 2020 in Old Glory

I was pleased to see the picture in the October issue of OG October (368) of 1932 Fowler B6 No. 19782 The Lion, a showman’s engine that I have known for decades. It was while I was in Salisbury many years ago I visited Stan Bevis, who was a good friend of mine, that I had the pleasure of being introduced to his friend, Ernie Lucas. I still recall Stan mentioning at the time that Ernie was the current owner of ex-Anderton & Rowland 1932 Fowler 10hp B6 No. 19782 The Lion, the first of the four Fowler Super Lion class showman’s engines ever made and always said to be the best of them all. From a very young age I had been extremely interested in all manner of travelling…

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that five Sussex-based engines were able to attend the ‘officially’ sanctioned Autumn Show & Game Fair at the South of England Showground, Ardingly near Haywards Heath, Sussex on 4-5 October, says James Hamilton. The engines joined a selection of historic commercial vehicles including Scammells, tractors and stationary engines, displayed in a spacious area of hard standing. Tickets were by advance purchase only in line with Government policy and the punters came in their droves to the site. This turned out to be a godsend to the showground organisers who had staged the show as the weather was certainly nothing but wet on both days and would have more than likely put punters off. The engines arrived and departed under their own steam, unfortunately the…

Triple-header steam trains were the order of the day on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October as Kerr’s Miniature Railway went down in style, says Hugh Dougherty. Large crowds queued for a last ride on the railway which steamed into history at 6.00pm on the Sunday on a weekend blessed by excellent weather for the last rites. It was in total contrast to the last regular weekend of services on 3 and 4 October, when a weather emergency saw all Saturday trains cancelled, with the railway running only on the Sunday afternoon. “We did carry some passengers on 3 and 4 October,” said John Kerr. “It wasn’t as many as we’d have liked, but our last, special, weekend more than made up for that, with crowds from far and near…

A key element of BESTT’s approach is its steam syllabus modules which cover steam boilers, mechanical repairs - and now - marine steam. Each contains some ‘why’ as well as ‘how’ and also test exercises. All are available at www.bestt.org.uk/training_plan.html, so allowing training (and revision) from one’s own home. Using these during lockdown, BESTT Training Managers, Martin Wadeson, Peter Winebloom and BESTT Trustees, provided online training using a mix of courses, tests and teaching. Obviously, online training can only go so far and re-opening workshops in a Covid-safe mode has been a struggle. However with some great assistance, BESTT has kept the National Lottery-funded project of one year full-time traineeships going. North Staffs & Cheshire TEC and the Kent & East Sussex Railway agreed to host workshop refresher sessions in…

Colin Tyson gives us the news on standard and narrow gauge railways. If you have something for this column please send it to: colin.tyson@kelsey.co.uk Several of the nation’s heritage railways have been awarded cash from the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage to enable them to see them through the winter months, post-lockdown and to aid their recovery plans. They include the Aln Valley Railway Trust, Northumberland £21,300; Bluebell Railway, Sussex £727,200; Bodmin & Wenford Railway £260,000; Cambrian Railways £20,000; Colne Valley Railway £20,000; Epping-Ongar Railway £98,000; Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway £318,000; Lincolnshire Wolds Railway £25,000; Keighley & Worth Valley Railway £231,600; Kent & East Sussex Railway £301,500; Lynton & Barnstaple Railway £79,300; Mid-Hants Railway £600,000; Mid-Norfolk Railway £190,500; Middleton Railway £79,900; North Norfolk Railway £360,000; Northampton Steam…

The Leighton Buzzard Railway reported that its first weekend returning to operations post-lockdown was a sell-out success, with more than 400 passengers carried over the two days of late September across twelve departures. While this is less than the record numbers seen over a single weekend, due to the current reduced capacity in operation this is the maximum number that could be carried, with every compartment sold out in advance. Resident Andrew Barclay No. 1641 of 1919 Doll was to be found hauling the three early departures, with the return of Baldwin No. 778 of 1917 to service after an enforced absence of almost a year on the three later trains. Visitors were able to enjoy most of the features that have helped the railway to win many consecutive TripAdvisor…

A low-key event was held on October 18 by the narrow gauge rail group at Amberley Museum, entitled ‘O&K’s are OK’, whereby all four of its Orenstein & Koppel single-cylinder diesel locomotives were being demonstrated. The line-up included Monty - the only working example of a 3ft 2¼ in gauge locomotive in the UK (and probably in the world!) along with 2ft gauge examples The Major, Sonia and Redland. The locos were worked with industrial wagons in an industrial setting, whilst passenger trains were hauled by a Baguley Drewry locomotive.…

The engine was new in 1873 to Harman Visger of Chiseldon, Wiltshire and left the works on 12th February. It was delivered via the Midland Railway together with a plough, cultivator and anchor, to be used in a single engine system of ploughing. After a while it was decided to purchase a second engine and adopt the two-engine system of ploughing, this required the clip drum to be replaced by a standard drum. The second engine purchased was Fowler No. 2299 and they worked together until being laid up in the 1930s. In approximately 1944 they were sold to Watson & Haig of Andover. No. 1908 was stripped of its major components by fitter Nobby Hardiman and then sold to a nursery on the Isle of Wight for soil sterilising.…

Manitowoc 6400 Having achieved great success with its 7-yard 4600 excavator, and listening to demands from its American coal stripping customers, Manitowoc introduced the 6400 dragline in 1977. Carrying a 16 cubic yard bucket on a 160-foot boom, its capacity was more than double that of the smaller machine. Like the 4600, the 6400 boasted two engines, but this time one engine was mounted in the lower works to power the propel. The upper engine, a V16 Cummins diesel rated at 1,600 horsepower, drove the hoist and drag through VICON control, and also the swing motion. The lower engine, a Cummins six-cylinder diesel rated at 450 horsepower, provided independent hydraulic drive via gear reductions to each crawler. This engine drove two variable-displacement reversible hydraulic pumps which ran two hydrostatic motors…

Given that in Denmark there are only about six million inhabitants, spread over several islands, the road steam scene there is not exactly ‘small but active’ but rather just surprisingly ‘active’. The members and engines from the ‘Damptromle Klubben’ certainly travel and maybe some of therm are known to readers of this magazine since they are occasional participants in the road building area of GDSF as well as at other places. Whilst for obvious reasons there hasn’t been any traveling to rallies in 2020, the main home event, ‘Damp og Nostalgi’ (Steam and Nostalgia), took place as a ‘steam-themed-month’, rather than the usual two-day weekend show in mid-August in order to avoid the restrictions that would otherwise have applied to a single event. Christoph Beyer from Germany therefore took the…

Our eagle-eyed editor who has something of a penchant for Marshall engines spotted a portable for sale in a French auction recently. This involved the André Lurton Estate at the Chateau Bonnet, Grézillac - about 25 miles east of Bordeaux - and included some agricultural equipment and other items. The engine concerned was 3hp Marshall No 71779 of 1919 - a machine which does not appear in the 2015-published European Traction Engine Register and is thus a ‘new’ one for enthusiasts. At the sale, which took place at the end of September, the portable realised €13,000 - approx £11,750. There was also a small French-built threshing machine [a batteuse] by the firm of Merlin included, as well as several tractors, military vehicles and very expensive cars. These included a 1898…

www.kelseymarketplace.co.uk James Hamilton tells us more. In a few words, this is how the morning unfolded. Steve Cook’s low loader with The Lion onboard was due to arrive a 3.00am in the morning at New Bond Street; parking bays were suspended in front of Bonhams main entrance to allow him to park and unload the Fowler. Due to various central London road closures, it was a tortuous journey and he arrived 50 minutes late. Having cycled there I was getting a bit cold, but I was warmed by their arrival and being able to photograph the unloading, which started immediately. Once unloaded, Team Thomson, Dave and Ben Zehetmayer set about raising steam from cold. Having asked Bonhams to supply some wood to start the fire, they were less than impressed…

Back in the summer, the weekend of 25-26 July saw a gathering of some ten engines at the Preston Collection in North Yorkshire, writes David M Warren. Preston’s famous 1913 Burrell DCC 7hp No. 3526 showman’s engine Lightning II was joined in the summer sunshine by stable mates 1913 Burrell DCC 5hp showman’s No.3509 Rajah and 1927 Fowler DNB No. 17289 10 ton roller, none of which were in steam, not having current boiler certificates at the time. These were joined by two Fowler traction engines, No. 1891 B1 No. 6624 and 1905 No. 10106 from not so far away near Thirsk. Five other engines took to the road for a trip out to Kirkby-in-Cleveland, first away was Mike Gaines-Burrill with his locally-based ex-New Zealand McLaren M type 7hp compound…

Almost 450 heritage organisations in England, including the Great Dorset Steam Fair and Hollycombe Steam in the Country, have been awarded cash from the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage says Colin Tyson. Great Dorset Steam Fair Ltd received £236,200, whilst Hollycombe has received £895,000. The funds will be used to help towards monthly operating costs over the next six months. This vital funding is from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage and the Heritage Stimulus Fund - funded by Government and administered at arm’s length by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Both funds are part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund which is designed to secure the future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues with…

EMRT have an exciting new website which they know will be of great interest to all those in the county and the city of Nottingham, the heritage railway world, but especially around Ruddington as it is all about the Heritage Centre next to the Rushcliffe Country Park. So indeed! What on earth is EMRT….? This is answered by this website unveiled today. EMRT is short for the East Midlands Railway Trust, a registered charity which owns the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre at Ruddington and the old railway line from there to Loughborough. And we are looking for more helpers in the management of the property as we are on the cusp of great changes. So do take a look now at www.emrtrust.co.uk and see what you may not realise is…

BAM’s £7m contract for the development of the old Newark Works building is part of the Bath Quays South project, which BAM is already delivering next door (valued separately at more than £21m). Newark Works was home to one of Bath’s most famous engineering companies, Stothert & Pitt. Stothert & Pitt made dockside cranes that kept ports around the world moving until the advent of containerisation contributed to its ultimate demise as a manufacturing entity. BAM’s contract covers the full refurbishment of the old buildings including new roof structures, replacement windows, and full internal reconfiguration to create 40,000 sq ft of workspace with ancillary retail and leisure facilities. The 16-month build programme has just started and it is scheduled to be completed and ready for businesses to move in by…

From Universal Hobbies comes a large, 1/16 scale model of a Fordson E27N Major tractor [1], in dark blue with orange wheels. ‘E’ signified England, ‘27’ the 27hp power output and ‘N’ was Ford’s code for an agricultural vehicle. These were built in Dagenham from 1945 to 1952. They retained the earlier Model N’s 4.4 litre sidevalve engine and three-speed gearbox. A low compression head for running on TVO or high compression head for petrol were available. The model is nicely detailed and retails at £75. In the same range and scale is a 1949 Ferguson TEA-20 [2], the classic grey Fergie, built in Coventry until 1956 when it was replaced by the FE 35. ‘TE’ stood for Tractor England, with the TEA-20 having a Standard petrol engine as used…

The Heritage Railway Association has opened its nomination process for its 2021 Awards, which reflect achievements of the previous year. New categories are included, in recognition of the exceptional impact of the Covid pandemic on heritage rail operations, as well as a new award for diesel locomotives. The Heritage Railway Association will stage the 2021 HRA Awards event on March 3, 2021, at the Principal Hotel, York (subject to any restrictions prevailing at the time). The review and presentation will conclude the Association’s two-day AGM, Conference and Spring Seminar event. “2020 has been the hardest in the history of UK heritage rail,” said HRA Awards Committee Chair Steve Oates. “But it’s brought out some of the very best in our members. We’ve seen resilience, resourcefulness, creativity, and a dogged determination…

I first set eyes on Kerr’s Miniature Railway in September 1974, writes Hugh Dougherty, when as a member of a Glasgow University Railway Society party we’d caught The Red Lichtie steam special, behind A4 Union of South Africa, for a trip to the Angus town from Edinburgh and back. We were young and up for a laugh, so it was into the coaches of Kerr’s Miniature Railway, the ‘wee train’ as it was known locally, that seven of us crammed, along with our mascot, a giant stuffed panda which answered for some reason to the name of Anthony, into one of the KMR coaches, to be hurled briskly up the line and back in the teeth of a biting North Sea wind. The diesel at the head of our train,…

DV What happened when you were demobbed? I did whatever I could to earn a few bob and I scraped up enough to buy a couple of Rushtons and some spares. I think they were ex-RAF. After the war there was a lot of ex-army stuff going cheap. A lot of my mates ran ex-army lorries and there were plenty of bulldozers and other plant. You could buy a D8 that had hardly got any hours on it for £1,000 up at the Ruddington sales. I tried my hand at farming but I was no good at that so I went back to contract work and sometimes I hired my tractors to Doug Hamilton on threshing work. Now he had a Rushton tractor, it was a crawler, and he wanted…

In all of his five visits to New Zealand, Phil Barnes has always managed to visit the Bush Tramway Club (BTC) and on the last occasion, he found two more machines from their eclectic collection which were of interest. The first was Planet No. 2168, built in Bedford in 1939 which was shipped out to work for the PWD (Public Works Department) at Arapuni. By 1962 it had been sold to Bisley Industries in Hamilton before moving on to ‘Farmworld’. Subsequently this small four-ton loco went to the Goldfields Railway from 1983 to 1985 after which it moved to the BTC. One notable aspect of it is that it appears to be still fitted with exhaust scrubbers as a result of it being used in tunnelling operations by the PWD…

A visit to the Satpura National Park was part of Elizabeth Hibbert-Foy’s recent Indian wildlife safari. This location is in the Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh and was some four hours drive from the state’s capital of Bhopal. It’s a vast area and took a whole day to drive from one end of the park to the other. It turned out to be more forest than jungle, with hills and rocks and it was said to be extremely good for leopards, of which there were plenty, as well as sloth bears and the Malabar Giant Squirrel. Having been told all that, despite what was said, tigers were seen - but not a leopard! The group stopped at the convenient anti-poaching location of Churna Camp for a break and Liz was…

After a very extensive restoration, which is now three-quarters finished but stalled, renowned Foden owner Mike Wilkinson approached Hywel Mason from Pembrokeshire, who runs the famous plant and construction company, with the idea of buying 1914 Foden 6hp DCC No. 4752 SN1647 road locomotive Sandy MacNab. After a meeting around the table a deal was agreed. The engine is now at Johnson of Banks, Southport for the completion of the restoration. The Mason brothers have been part of the backbone of the so successful GDSF plant working, which came to a sad end in 2018, although a static display and a ring parade continued each day of the 2019 show of course. The brothers’ famous Welsh-Irish tractor road runs, for which the Irish come across on the ferries to attend…

The weekend of 5-6 September saw the Farwell family of Dorset host a private get-together of a number of engines within the current government coronavirus rules of the time, reports Paul Ritchie. Sadly, this meant a limit to the number of people being able to attend, but nonetheless those fortunate to be there had some of the rally experience that has been lacking so much during 2020. Several owners took the opportunity to road across the venue over the previous weekend, which was held on land formerly used by the Great Dorset Steam Fair before its move to Tarrant Hinton. That weekend would of course have been the Great Dorset Steam Fair, if it had not also been a victim of the coronavirus show cancellations. From their base in Huish…

Historic Govan dry dock, which has been out of use since 1987, is to be redeveloped as a maintenance facility for heritage ships, writes Hugh Dougherty. Govan Number 1 Graving Dock, an ‘A’ listed structure built in 1878, and which dry docked hundreds of Clyde steamers in their heyday, is to be re-opened to ships, thanks to an ambitious plan hammered out by site owners, Bishop Loch Developments, and developers New City Vision. The company is forming a charitable trust to run the dock and says that it can provide dry docking for ships such as PS Waverley, TS Queen Mary II and Glenlee, all of which are berthed nearby, as well as other heritage ships from around the country. Specialist divers and engineers have already emptied the dock of…

Kerne was launched in 1912 as a typical Thames lighterage-type steam tug. However. rather than commercial service towing barges on the Thames she was immediately bought by the Royal Navy in the build-up to the First World War and from 1913 until 1948 she served at Chatham Dockyard on the River Medway as HM Tug Terrier. Renamed Kerne and coming to the Mersey in 1948, she was the last coal-fired steamship to leave commercial service on the river in May 1971. Her job was towing barges on the Mersey, Manchester Ship Canal and River Weaver Navigation for The Liverpool Lighterage Company. Our Steam Tug Kerne Preservation Society, a charitable trust, bought her in 1971 for active preservation and has maintained her and steamed to popular public events around Merseyside since…

On Sunday 25 October 2020 a small celebration took place to celebrate the 125th anniversary the Langley’s 1985 Fowler A4 6hp No.7459 Endurance traction engine. The engine has been in the ownership of the Langley family since July 1972 and is now heading for the third generation with Ian Langley making great progress on the engine after carrying out major boilerwork repairs and it is set for the 2021 Appleford Rally July celebration event, as this engine took part in some of these early events says James Hamilton. The date coincided with the Bluebell Railway’s Off the Rails event, a gathering of heritage transport at Horsted Keynes and Sheffield Park stations. As Ian has the use of the Searle family’s 1901 Fowler B5 Scottish used road locomotive crane engine No.8920…

The 3ft gauge Giant’s Causeway & Bushmills Railway has reported that it has closed ‘indefinitely’ from October 18, ‘because of Northern Ireland Government Restrictions/Covid etc,’ and apologises for the inconvenience. The line tried unsuccessfully to extend closer to the Giant’s Causeway last year with a scheme that met with local council opposition. The line is a revival of part of the original Giant’s Causeway and Portrush Tramway which was the first railway in the world to be powered by hydro-electricity. It closed in 1949 and was then revived in the 1990s with equipment, including steam locos, from the Shane’s Castle Railway in Co. Antrim, home of well-known preservationist Lord O’Neill.…

Construction of the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s new museum collection and heritage rolling stock protection shed has been completed at its Aberystwyth terminus. Costing £531,000 to build and equip, the state-of-the-art structure can accommodate the equivalent of 36 VoR bogie carriages on its three roads in secure covered accommodation. Two full length roads, each long enough to accommodate 12 carriages, will house VoR’s two standard seven-carriage service rakes when not in use, with additional capacity for further stock storage. The third road incorporates a ‘building within the building’ partitioned from the main element of the shed with an electric sectional door. The equivalent of 10 bogie carriages in length, this storage area has been constructed to house historically important locomotives and stock in a heated and ventilated temperature-controlled environment. The…

The Slough Trading Estate not far from today’s throbbing Heathrow Airport is where thousands of First World War military vehicles were debriefed for civilian life. Some were auctioned off ‘as seen’ whilst many of the RAF type Leylands went to nearby Ham for reconditioning by their original maker. There were several businesses rebuilding vehicles actually on the trading estate with some specialising in a particular type or make of chassis. Some forty years ago, I visited the estate to try and find out more about one of the most significant, the Peerless. I visited a pub called ‘The Peerless’ but no one seemed to appreciate the significance of the name. Peerless had been a Cleveland, Ohio-based maker of luxury cars that, in 1911, had added commercial vehicles that quickly gained…

The chance find of a colour photo of a single-furrow balance plough, which included an adjacent notice in German, in an archive led Old Glory’s German friend Busso Hennecke on a trail of discovery. Busso provided the notice’s translation:- ‘The plough was used between 1960 and 1970 to plough the forest ground after the trees had been cut down. Afterwards the area was used for growing corn before it was afforested again after two years.’ He ascertained that the photo was taken at a Forestry Office in the Mildenburg area of Germany. So, the question was duly asked of Busso as to whether the plough still existed. He subsequently discovered that the item did indeed still exist, together with an adjacent four-wheel water cart. It was featured in a German-produced…

www.kelseymarketplace.co.uk One of three Super Lions to survive, 1932 Fowler 10hp B6 showman’s road locomotive, The Lion, from the final days of steam, was the pride of Bonhams, selling for £911,000 at The Golden Age of Motoring Sale at New Bond Street, London on 30 October, says James Hamilton. Following a lively bidding battle between bidders in the UK and USA, The Lion was finally sold when the gavel of auctioneer Malcolm Barber fell in favour of the Bedfordshire-based Saunders Steam Collection, one of the largest steam collections in the UK. The new owner, Mr John Saunders, said that The Lion was a late birthday present to himself and that he was looking forward to displaying the engine at steam fairs and shows next year – the current situation regarding…