Table of contents for June 2020 in Old Glory

We’re into the third month of lock-down and the inevitable has happened – postponement of the Great Dorset Steam Fair until 2021. It was obvious to everyone that even if lock-down has ended by the August Bank Holiday week, then large scale gatherings would still not be allowed – social distancing would be impossible in those beer tents! Martin Oliver explains all the reasoning behind the postponement on page 8. Perhaps by then the steam boys will have organised a ‘virtual online Dorset’ – just as they have with the May Twitter Steam Rally, which has taken off in a big way. Come Dorset week, why not get in five days worth of cider, Cornish pasties for lunch, Thai meals for supper and sit back listening to Dr Busker CD’s.…

The county of Lancashire was very heavily industrialised over several decades and therefore was the home of many businesses associated with activities such as cotton processing and manufacture together with transporting not only the raw materials but also the finished products. In addition, collieries produced coal to provide steam for powering the cotton mills. There was also machinery manufactured that was used in these huge buildings that were to be found in many places in and around the county. Not only were there a large number of traction engines involved in such activities but also steam wagons and, inevitably, steam rollers which maintained the roads used by these vehicles. Haulage contractors feature very strongly in the RLS Lancashire records, especially in Liverpool, where there was so much incoming and outgoing…

Before this year’s rally season was decimated, the Heritage Steam Gala at Bressingham Steam Museum & Gardens near Diss in Norfolk had become an established annual early season event and one eagerly anticipated by enthusiasts for the mix of narrow gauge rail, road and agricultural steam engines that attend. Last year two engines made their public debuts; a very unusual locally built engine seen at work for the first time in possibly 40 years and three visiting Hunslet narrow gauge locos. It was the first public appearance ever in preservation for Burrell single crank compound traction engine No 2770. Built only 14 miles from Bressingham at Thetford, it was completed in September 1905 and new to Surrey County Council. After 22 years the engine was returned to Burrells to have…

How much do we charge for a hearse, Mr Williams?” asked the ticket seller on the Severn Princess ferry. The smart reply was “Better make it the same as a large van but if there’s an occupant in the rear, charge for an extra person”. Well, business is business. The ferries – the Severn Princess, Severn King and Severn Queen – plied the lethally dangerous waters of the River Severn between Wales and England. The slipway at Beachley near Chepstow was adjacent to the confluence of the Rivers Wye and Severn and the ferries ran to the Gloucestershire shore at Aust. For motorists this service avoided a long road journey and the Severn View Services on the M4 motorway now overlook the former route of the ferries. My brief acquaintance…

A VERY special occasion took place in early March in the US to mark the start of the 50th anniversary of the 3ft gauge Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, reports Malcolm Rogers. He visited this splendid line which spans the borders of New Mexico and Colorado and climbs over a 10,000ft mountain pass at Cumbres and skirts the 600ft deep Toltec Gorge en-route. A twoday photographic special was organised in connection with this special anniversary and also to demonstrate the line’s 1920s-built OY Rotary steam snowplow. Although the OY is a fully-functioning locomotive, its steam is used to power the circular cutting ‘fan’ on the front of the engine. It cannot move itself and, on this occasion, this was achieved by two K36 class locos Nos 487 and 484 constructed…

A VISIT to Andalucia in southern Spain and the city of Cadiz provided the opportunity of travelling to the local RENFE station of San Fernando Centro where, within a couple of hundred yards walk of the station building, in the Paseo General Lobo, a Leeds-built locomotive was to be seen plinthed in a tree-lined enclosure. The 0-6-0ST was constructed by Manning Wardle (Works No 1822) at their Boyne Engine Works on Jack Lane in the Yorkshire city. However, there seems to be some considerable confusion with regard to the locomotive’s history. The manufacturer’s works records indicate that it was originally supplied on November 4, 1914, to C.H Walker & Co, a contractor on harbour works at Buenos Aires where it became Buenos Aires Harbour Works No 125. Walker also had…

Names such as Rudd, Hickey, Coulson and Ward worked around the city demonstrating their skills and expertise in managing large engines and sometimes not such large engines with heavy loads. Perhaps the best-known London haulage contractors were Hickeys who were based in Richmond, Surrey. They were established in 1881 as boiler repairers. They soon became boiler makers and machinery dealers and were involved in the haulage of machinery using teams of horses which later gave way to steam power. Their first large haulage engine was a Clayton & Shuttleworth compound road engine named Goliath of which little is known. In 1914 Hickeys purchased a secondhand Burrell engine. This was 8nhp No 2701 named Black Prince which had been supplied to timber merchant James Harris of Hook Norton, Oxfordshire. Aft er…

DUE TO THE ongoing implications of the Coronavirus outbreak, this year’s 52nd Great Dorset Steam Fair, planned for the August Bank Holiday weekend, has been postponed until next year (Thursday August 26 to Bank Holiday Monday August 30 2021). Steam Fair Managing Director Martin Oliver said: “The GDSF Board of Directors has been closely monitoring the unprecedented Coronavirus situation over the past few weeks and we have explored all options. However, it has become increasingly evident that it would be both irresponsible and unfeasible to continue with the event this year, during these uncertain and challenging times. This difficult decision has not been taken lightly. However, the safety and wellbeing of our visitors, exhibitors, traders, staff and contractors is always our primary concern, combined with the effect to the local…

GRAHAM SELLERS was well-known in the steam community and I had the pleasure of meeting him several times, says Peter Love. An excellent coachworks painter and liner and much more, he enjoyed a fine reputation, as did the engines and equipment in his collection which was based around an Rumely-Advance maker theme. This included some rare engines and a selection of Rumely Oil-Pulls and a very scarce Nichols & Shepard gas tractor. This is one of the top USA steam/early tractor sales of the year. It takes place on June 20 at Coldwater, Michigan, and a number of readers came with Jayne and I to this site on one occasion. The online sale is being conducted by Aumann Auctions and there is so much to go for here. Steam engines…

AR DEMOLITION LTD is a family-run business based in the heart of the Midlands, owned by cousins Richard Dolman and Andrew Thompson. Over the years Richard and Andrew have become well-known in quarries up and down the country for their expertise in decommissioning quarry plant and machinery with their fleet of demolition rigs and associated equipment. _e largest project completed to date was part of a large upgrade at Glensanda Quarry, located near Oban on Scotland’s West Coast. One particular quarry that AR has worked closely with over the years is Croft Quarry in Leicestershire, known for the high standard of granite it produces and in its later years was the largest granite quarry in Europe. Croft Quarry is steeped in history. It has been said that when the Romans…

The Sentinel Waggon Works built its first steam rail cars and geared vertical boiler shunting locomotives in 1923. Their immediate success, particularly the two railcars supplied to the Jersey Railway (which substantially lowered running costs and probably for a time saved the railway from closure) quickly generated more sales. From the start Sentinel capitalised on their success by a vigorous sales campaign including lavish adverts in trade journals such as Locomotive Magazine and the Railway Gazette and a steady flow of catalogues and brochures. Their efforts inevitably attracted the interest of rival engineering firms and this article takes a brief look at the various efforts to compete with Sentinel in this field. At this time the terrible industrial depression which was to last for many years was just beginning. Richard…

The story of how Steve Gosling ended up buying his Thornycroft goes back to the mid-1980s when he started his engineering degree at Imperial College, London. Far from home he spent his spare time in the care and operation of the college mascot - a 1902 James and Browne car and also the rebuilding of a 1926 Morris lorry which some years previously another student had rolled over while attempting a hand brake turn. Steve was obviously bitten by the restoration bug as after he finished university he started looking for a suitable restoration project of his own. A veteran car was beyond his budget but a commercial vehicle perhaps not so. After a few false starts he came across an advert for a Great War vintage Thornycroft‘J’ Type lorry…

It is two years since it was decided to produce an Old Glory ‘special’ in time for the 2018 Great Dorset Steam Fair; Showman’s Engines was an instant success, selling out quickly and having to be reprinted, it is happily available once again. The idea was to produce a ‘Then and Now’ format, with editor Peter Love seeking out old pictures of these engines in their working days and contrasting these with pictures of them over the years since, in preservation and in some cases, still earning a living, but sadly, many that are now but a memory. It was therefore a natural progression to develop a series looking at road steam vehicles in their various forms, of which the catch-all ‘Traction Engines’ is the largest category, including as it…

In today’s modern ‘PC’ world, Cecil Rhodes would have been dubbed as a great white supremist. He was also at the time, one of the richest men in the world and an unashamed hardened Imperialist. His manipulative tactics are legendary in the convoluted history of the British conquest of black Africa. However his aspirations of building a railway from Cape to Cairo to assert authority and stimulate economic growth remains an unfulfilled dream. Nonetheless what was constructed opened up the wealth of Africa to be exploited by the Empire. The nation of Rhodesia was named in his honour and its railway network would become one of the most efficient railway systems in the world. It became the spine of infrastructure to what was to become the ‘bread basket of Africa’.…

DURING a holiday in Tenerife in January seeking some ‘winter sun’, Phil Barnes, armed with a copy of OG 315, went to find the German-built Henschel 0-4-0WT loco which languishes on a section of rail over the Avenue de Anaga road tunnel next to the BP fuel depot on the north side of Santa Cruz. This 21-ton loco, built in Cassel in 1924, was one of five shipped to Tenerife between June 1925 and March 1928 for use as a works loco for the ‘Ports of Tenerife’. There, it was used to haul large blocks of stone from the quarry known as Cantera La Jurado to what is today’s port of Santa Cruz. The method was to transport the blocks along the 1220mm (4ft) gauge railway to the water’s edge…

WHILST TOURING around Sri Lanka, some 25 miles north of Colombo, the capital of the island country and in Negombo, Don Heron came across a motor roller of some age which fascinated him. What caught his eye in particular was the utilitarian looks of the machine and the fact that it had been manufactured in Romania. He went on to wonder how it came to be in its present location – a question he was unable to get answered!…

The passing of David Coupland of Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire, was announced on March 6. David was well-known for his transport video business, says Colin Tyson. “I remember Dave with his wife, Shirley, coming to the Old Glory offices at Stamford each month in the 90s with his advert copy for the next issue. His videos covered steam rallies and one of his specialities was covering heavy haulage loads out on the roads” His funeral was held for close family only under current lockdown conditions at Alford Crematorium on March 24. Our condolences go to Paul ‘Sooty’ and his family.…

WHETHER PS Waverley sails again in 2020 remains an ‘open question’, according to Paul Little, Waverley Excursions General Manager. Not only has the impact of social distancing slowed the fitting out of the ship’s boiler room, where its two, new, Cochran-built boilers were installed at the start of April, but the charity is awaiting further Government decisions on social distancing and restrictions on gatherings. “We want to be honest with everyone, especially as we were on course to sail again in 2020 before the current crisis struck,” said Paul. “The new boilers have been installed and bolted down, but further work in the tight space of the boiler room has necessarily been slowed, and, crucially, electrical work has not been able to progress at all because of social distancing restraints.”…

Born in Barnet and living his entire life in North London it was inevitable that Roy Miller would take time to document the last working steam in the Capital. The 1960s were to be a decade of immense change for London’s transport networks, particularly on the main line and industrial railways as steam gave way to diesel and electric traction. Roy had a particular interest in steam ships and fortunately photographed the last days of the steam powered Woolwich ferries. _e service, which still runs to this day, commenced operation as a free ferry service for Londoners in 1889. It connects Woolwich, on the south bank with North Woolwich in the East end of London and at the time of Roy’s visit in 1963 the paddle steamers were in their…

The significance of Brunel’s Great Western steamship which made its maiden voyage to New York on April 8, 1838, is often overlooked. This ship was the very first one to be able to cross the Atlantic from England entirely under steam. Up until that time it was thought that it was an impossibility to undertake such a voyage as there were no ships in existence that were capable of carrying sufficient coal. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was to prove them wrong! Today, you can fly between Bristol and New York in around eight hours. In 1838 the same journey took between 28 and 55 days by sea until Brunel’s Great Western left Bristol and arrived in New York 15 days later. Luggage restrictions are nothing new. On the Great Western one…

Although some of their vans are modern Mercedes Sprinter Custom units the fleet also includes some classic vans which date from the 1960s. The owner of the business, Tony Roach, kindly took the time to tell a little about the business and the ‘classics’ currently in use. As Tony recalled “I have been in the ice cream business for over 40 years and still have a very soft spot for my first van which I bought in 1979 and which is still in use today. The purchase of the van, a 1965 Bedford CA, marked the beginning of the business which is still going strong today. The Bedford, Registration ACU 611C, was built in 1965 by Smiths vehicle builders with the custom ice cream van body being built on a…

In 1897 Thomas Harrington started a business building horse-drawn wagonettes, flys and Landaus at his premises in Church Street, Brighton, Sussex. Within three years the original works was expanded and new showrooms were acquired in King Street. For many years Harringtons concentrated on the construction of custom-built car bodies. The standardisation of car body designs by manufacturers in the 1920s caused the decline of that part of Harrington’s activities and Mr Harrington turned his attention to producing bodywork for luxury coaches. This proved a successful move as travel by motor coach was becoming fashionable among the growing middle classes. In 1930 the company transferred to new purpose-built headquarters known as the Sackville Works in Old Shoreham Road, Hove, then considered a separate and upmarket neighbour of Brighton. There the company…

ONE OF the founder members of the Melbourne Steam Traction Engine Club (MSTEC) died on April 5, aged 89. He would have been 90 in July. Over the years, Dave Mickle had collected many items of equipment that interested him - and during that time, he’d owned steam rollers by Fowler and Albaret and also a Yorkshire WG steam wagon. During his long life, Dave travelled widely, journeying to Britain in 1970, by the overland route on the Trans-Siberian Express and again in 1975, this time coming via South Africa and visiting Shildon in Co Durham and the Stockton & Darlington Railway 125th celebrations. He again came in 1980 and also went to other locations as well - all with steam and/or railways in mind. During his first visit in…

NEXT MONTH – JULY ISSUE PLUS: Next month – • Steam Archive – Fysons of Soham • Raynham Day Revisited • The Roy Miller Colour Files • Forncett Industrial Museum • The Abberford Colliery Railway • Yelverton Rally 1973 • Archive and much more • July issue on sale from Friday, June 26 • Shops not open? Can’t get out? Save money and subscribe? See page 36…