Table of contents for December 2016 in Old Glory

THE Waterworks Museum - Hereford and the Stirling Engine Society worked together throughout 2016 to celebrate the bicentenary of the Stirling engine. In 1816 the Rev Robert Stirling, a Scottish clergyman, filed his patent with a complete drawing of a new type of engine working purely on the heating and cooling of air. Within two years he demonstrated a working engine. The hot-air engine was born and, following rapid development on both sides of the Atlantic, had its heyday in the 1890s, becoming known as the Stirling engine in honour of its inventor. This summer Hereford has become the hub of the celebrations in Britain, culminating in the largest gathering of Stirling engines in October. There is an annual rally every year in Hereford but this was something special with…

LINCOLNSHIRE Archives at St Rumbold Street, Lincoln, will be staging an exhibition entitled Tanks between 10.30am and 3pm for just two days – on Friday and Saturday, November 25 and 26. It marks the 100th anniversary of the first use of tanks in warfare and will examine Lincolnshire’s contribution to the design and development of armoured fighting vehicles in both world wars. The display will include original documents, photographs and artefacts showing the machines manufactured by William Foster & Co, Ruston & Hornsby, Ruston-Bucyrus, Aveling-Barford and Marshall & Co. Also explored will be the wider story of tank warfare using documents from the collections of the Lincolnshire Regiment. For more details view www.lincolnshire.gov.uk or tel. 01522 782040.…

DESPITE the torrential downpours on Saturday, October 1, the first day of the annual Leigh Arms Steam Party, spirits were high and enthusiasm won as an enviable array of large and small steamers settled down for the usual end-of-season socialising, reports Brian Dobbs. This informal gathering sees owners of engines and other heritage vehicles from Cheshire and surrounding counties converge on the Leigh Arms Hotel at Acton Bridge, near Northwich, for their annual steam party to mark the end of the local rally season. The Leigh Arms backs on to the Weaver Navigation which prompted the attendance of several visiting elderly barges and period narrowboats, including one steam-powered variant. For many, the highlight of this year’s event was the presence of two historic steam-powered vessels – Daniel Adamson and Kerne,…

AN HISTORICALLY momentous event took place on the River Thames in London on Saturday, September 17 when, for the first time in many years, a parade of Thames sailing barges took place in the Upper Pool of London – the stretch of water between Tower Bridge and London Bridge, the one-time heart of commercial activity on London’s river, writes James Hamilton. The Thames sailing barge came into existence in the late 19th century; capable of sailing in the North Sea, channel coasts and tidal reaches of the Thames, it was extremely versatile and transported cargoes such as wheat and barley, and building materials such as bricks and sand, around the coast and into London. It was equally useful at carrying the city’s waste away on a return journey. In 1885…

This story, by Douglas Ferreira, then editor of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway journal and the railway’s general manager from 1961-1994, appeared in the journal at the time. Permission for its use in Old Glory has been granted by the society, and adapted by Derek Rayner for this purpose. In the mid-1960s, 50 years ago, the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway Preservation Society placed a contract with York-based engineers H Clarkson of Layerthorpe for the construction of a new 15in gauge 2-8-2 railway locomotive to be called River Mite. As a result of this, an idea came to the society’s magazine editor, Douglas Ferreira, that it would probably be a good idea to have the new locomotive delivered to the railway by steam. In broaching this ‘fanciful concept’, with fellow society…

Dad’s story starts in 1927 on a farm that was miles from the nearest village of Staindrop in Co. Durham. He had to walk to school several miles across fields as the farm was remote on the large estate of Raby Park. In winter, his father would take him to school on a Shire horse when the snow was too deep to walk. When he was nine years old he moved to Spencers Wood near Reading, Berkshire, along with his five brothers and six sisters, and went to the local village school. Leaving school for work at 16 years old, he found employment at H Judd & Son, who owned the village saw mill. He worked alongside his uncle Charlie, out in the woods with the Unipower; dragging timber, loading…

NAPIER HARBOUR BOARD (NHB) No 5 (Fowler No 16342 of 1925) is an 0-4-0T locomotive which, along with its sister loco (No 6), was used to build and then shunt the line known as the Ahuriri to Breakwater Branch at Napier Port, New Zealand, writes Phil Barnes. Both machines were used by the NHB until 1965 and were then stored until 1971 when they were sold into preservation. No 6 went to the Tokomaru Steam Museum and No 5 to the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society at Seaview, where it stayed until 1980. After this, No 5 moved to the Silver Stream Railway (SSR) where its condition was further affected by the weather and outside storage. In 2003, SSR member Bryan Bishop bought this chunky little loco for restoration;…

THE 39th Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition was held from October 13-16 at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, The Fosse, Leamington Spa, and headlined The Show for Model Engineers. It lived up to that and more, writes Malcolm Ranieri. The breadth of displays and stands encompassed models of all sizes from railways, steam and modern; marine, inland and seagoing; traction engines; road transport; aviation; horse-drawn vehicles and horological, scientific and automata. Outside the exhibition halls the Fosse Way Steamers paraded miniature working models of road steam and a working model rack saw bench, with around 30 examples from 1.5in to half-size 6in. The Coventry Society of Model Engineers presented their 5in gauge track for passenger rides in association with the Polly Owners Club. Lectures and workshops from experts on specialist modelling were…

Melvyn recalled: “It was my seventh birthday and my father bought me a twin cylinder Mamod stationary engine and from that day my interest in steam has just grown and grown. I am also very pleased that my son Nick and now my grandson Harry have also become steam enthusiasts. “It was in 1982 that Nick, who by then was 16, and I began to put on table-top steam model displays at some of the local shows and village fetes. A few years later we went ‘mobile’ when in 1986 we bought a scratch-built 4½in scale Burrell traction engine which we rallied for many seasons. Over the years we have had a number of different engines and our current engine is a 3in scale McLaren Road Locomotive. This engine was…

STAFF and volunteers at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, are celebrating a £10.9m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The funding is a major milestone in Beamish’s history and it will help the museum create a range of new ways for people to experience the heritage of the North East, in a major project called Remaking Beamish. It is the largest single investment ever seen at the museum. The decision by the Heritage Lottery Fund means that work to deliver the Remaking Beamish project will begin this winter. The project will add to the existing attractions at Beamish, will take around four years to complete and the museum, in Co. Durham, will remain open for visitors throughout. Over the past four years, buildings and thousands of objects…

THE bicentenary anniversary of Robert Stirling’s heat economiser was also celebrated at the 39th Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition in October 2016, writes Malcolm Ranieri. Stand F in the main hall was given over to the Stirling Engine Society (www.stirlingengines.org.uk) and showed a fine selection of traditional uses of the heat economiser engine for model and industrial applications plus the drive for boats in particular and I have been invited in the past to see this particular, virtually silent, use in action. However, over two centuries the Stirling engine has evolved in ways which the inventor could not have foreseen, including super conductor technologies shown on the stand and used to cool telecommunications applications down to temperatures of -196 Centigrade. It has also been used in military applications in respect of…

THE Dingles 24th Annual Collective Auction took place on October 15 at the Fairground Heritage Centre near Lifton, Devon, conducted by the well-known West Country auctioneers Kivells, reports Thomas Bowden. A total of 623 registered buyers compared with just over 400 in 2015 and there were 1050 lots up for grabs. Smaller items were auctioned under cover of a shed in the morning and auctioneers for the day were James Morrish and Ian Caunter. The smallest item was a flier for a cart horse pageant (£20) and the largest was a 10.9-tonne Volvo FL6 recovery truck complete with crane, which sadly failed to sell. No full-size traction engines were for sale but there were a pair of Mamods – advertised as being useful for spares. The new owner acquired both…

TWO local charities have benefited to the tune of £13,531 thanks to the generosity of visitors who took trailer rides around the Great Dorset Steam Fair arena in August, reports Brian Moore. All money raised is allocated to two designated charities on an annual basis, this year’s recipients being Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance which received £10,266 and Blandford Opportunity Group who were handed a cheque for £3265. Air Ambulance fundraising co-ordinator Leanne Colverson said: “This cheque represents a significant contribution to our overall money-raising efforts and is greatly appreciated.’ Sharon Kervern, group leader at Blandford Opportunity Group, which provides support to 30 young people with special needs, said: “This is a magnificent gift from the Great Dorset Steam Fair and will help enormously in our efforts to support young…

A LONG-DISTANCE traveller attending the 2016 Boconnoc Steam Fair this summer came in the shape of Aveling & Porter roller No 8707 of 1916 Cor, from Harderwijk in the Netherlands to the Boconnoc Estate, Lostwithiel, Cornwall. The roller is owned by SOMA engineering college, which purchased it in 1989. The restoration project was led by Theo Van Drumpt and Johan Beijer who, with the help of Johan’s sons Rene, Harm and Frank, care for and rally the roller. They wanted to attend a steam rally in Britain and decided upon Boconnoc, where the West Country engine owners made them welcome for the weekend.…

ARE YOU sitting comfortably? This seems a strange question for Underbidder to ask, but Cheffins produced a surprise at the October vintage sale by revealing a new building from which all the outside lots in Sale 5 were sold. There was plenty of room to sit down, a nice clear audio system and a profusion of large colour screens to see the lots being sold. It is a pleasant place to be, particularly if the weather chooses to spoil the fun. However… and call Underbidder old fashioned, but there is something of a buzz about being in a huge scrum of bodies moving from lot to lot in the great outdoors. The pushing, the jostling, the banter, trying to figure out who’s bidding, it’s all part of the action. Is…

The working era of the traction engines had almost ceased by the late 1940s. In those days the scrap man was kept busy with his gas cutting torch reducing a traction engine to a pile of pieces in a very short space of time. However, there were a number of people who, out of nostalgia perhaps, placed their engines in a quiet corner of the yard to let them rust gently away. A few were even prepared to buy an engine so that it would not be scrapped. Chris Lambert of Horsmonden, Kent, built up a representative collection of traction engines which were occasionally steamed for friends and like-minded enthusiasts. The famous race at Appleford between Arthur Napper and his friend Miles Chetwynd-Stapleton on Sunday, July 30, 1950, was supported…

Not far from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport stands a fascinating monumental steam engine, one of three more or less identical engines which were used to drain the former Haarlemmermeer (Haarlem Lake). These were the biggest Cornish beam engines in the world with a cylinder diameter of 12 feet, housed in pumping stations constructed on the banks of the lake and discharging water into an encircling canal. The airport itself has been built on land which is nearly 15ft below sea level on the bottom of what was once the largest freshwater lake in the Netherlands. With almost half the country below sea level the history of the Netherlands has been one of the struggles of a nation not only against the waters of the North Sea but being a delta nation,…

GLOBE-TROTTING Swiss reader Thomas Kautzor has recently visited Belize, on the western coast of central America. There, he found a Fowler traction engine on display at Old Belize, a tourist location with a museum, gift shop, restaurant and artificial beach. This includes a marina and was set up by a Texan at Mile 5, George Price Highway, outside Belize City. It’s adjacent to the Cucumber Beach resort and is essentially for cruise ship passengers who might not wish to venture further inland during their stop-over. Included in the various attractions is a rain forest walking tour and other items on display depicting various cultural aspects and former industries of the country. These included timber working, along with equipment associated with the Indian Church Sugar Mill, which included a cane-crushing machine.…

THE Fairground Heritage Trust (FHT) has been awarded £90,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) to help safeguard Shaw’s Moonrocket, the only historic thrill ride of its kind still fully intact and functioning. The money from NHMF launches the trust’s £17,000 fundraising appeal to secure this unique piece of fairground heritage. Built in the 1930s, the Moonrocket was the ground-breaking forerunner to the white knuckle rides now a staple of theme parks and fairgrounds across the world. It represents an era when speed, thrills and excitement were the height of fashion. If the trust is successful, the ride will be open to the public at Dingles Fairground Centre, Devon next year. You can play your part by purchasing this new and updated version of the Moonrocket booklet, containing colour…

THE Long Shop in Leiston, Suffolk, has survived in its near-original condition for 163 years, although the passage of time has taken its toll. The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded initial support of £2m, including development funding of £161,200, towards a £3m project to revitalise the museum and transform the site into a beacon of industrial heritage. The restoration of the Victorian factory buildings is part of an overall project to showcase its unique collections, improve facilities and thereby attract new audiences and visitors from within and beyond the region. Run by the Garrett family from 1778-1932, Leiston Works produced agricultural machinery and early portable steam engines, which powered the agricultural and industrial revolution in rural Suffolk. The museum’s name reflects the length of its main building where a boiler…

SOME of us perhaps don’t bat an eyelid if we unexpectedly find our way ahead filled with two steam engines but to several people making their way along Heath Road, Petersfield, the sight of Dennis Leadbeater’s Burrell showman’s Lady, Pride of England and the Marshall traction engine Victoria, Empress of India owned since 2002 by Lloyd and Wendy Wakelin had them reaching for their phones, reports Peter Hammond. The outing was to celebrate Victoria’s birthday, it being 130 years ago since she was delivered new to Walter Seward’s engineering and threshing company that he had so recently set up in this Hampshire market town. The story of Sewards can be found at www.sewards-of-petersfield.co.uk where a full history of Victoria can be found alongside engines associated with the business. The Marshall…

DATING from the 11th century when the then Bishop of Hereford built the first castle, the medieval market town of Bishop’s Castle is situated among the Shropshire hills, merely 1.5 miles from the English-Welsh border. The castle itself survived until the 1700s, the stone reused to construct some of the surviving buildings today. Constructed in 1642, the town is home to the Three Tuns brewery, the oldest licensed brewery in Britain, and while some of the original building still exists, the main building is a Victorian tower brewery erected c1888, writes Paul Stratford. The origins of the Michaelmas Fair date from medieval times when September 29 would herald the end of the farming year. Labourers, craftsmen and servants would gather in the town along with the local gentry and landowners…

THE £3.4m restoration of Glasgow’s Albert Bridge, built in 1871 of cast iron, received the royal seal of approval on October 18, when the Earl of Wessex visited the refurbished bridge, reports Hugh Dougherty. Prince Edward unveiled a commemorative plaque and thanked all those involved for ensuring that the bridge, which cost £62,328 to build, and which is named after the Earl’s great-great-grandfather, Prince Albert, will continue to carry traffic. Glasgow City Council headed the project which involved replacing corroded, 145-year-old ironwork with exact replica sections, restoring and repainting the Glasgow City and heraldic crests that are a prominent feature on the bridge, and manufacturing and installing replicas of the original gas lamps, a feature of the bridge when it opened. Peter Bryce, Glasgow City Council engineer in charge of…

THE ELEVENTH Stotfold Mill Working Steam Weekend brought the award-winning Bedfordshire watermill’s season to an excellent conclusion, writes Adrian White. Thousands of people congregated at the watermill and its adjoining green to see many vintage traditions and skills in action with the proceeds of the event going towards the continuing upkeep of the restored mill. The threshing demonstration in front of the mill proved most popular with families, watching the mill making flour completely from scratch in front of the visitors’ eyes – the resulting bags of flour being snapped up by happy visitors. Stone crushing was in the hands of Aveling & Porter No 9246 of 1920 William and the various wood-sawing displays were also popular. Vintage tractors competed in a ploughing event alongside the Saunders Collection’s Fowler K7…

Engine identification sought way out west I HAVE bought Old Glory magazine from day one and now subscribe out here in Perth, Western Australia. I am a member of The Machinery Preservation Club of Western Australia and among our many artefacts we have this lovely steam engine which we take to shows, rallies and events. It is one of our premier exhibits but unfortunately we do not have any details of the engine. We think it may be an Allen, but we’re not even sure of that. Can anyone help? We assume that the model number and makers’ plate would have been on the crank case covers, similar to Bellis & Morcom. Unfortunately these covers were removed before we attained ownership of the engine and see-through covers fitted. Can anybody…

Like so many readers of Old Glory I grew up as a steam-mad little boy in the 1950s. Any book about railways that I read then heavily featured steam locomotives with pictures of British Railways building new ones at places like Swindon and Crewe with only a slight mention of diesel locomotives as the motive power of the future. The chance discovery of Railway Adventure, Tom Rolt’s beautifully written account of the rescue of the Talyllyn Railway in 1951, opened up my eyes to a whole world of narrow gauge railways although I quickly realised that the narrow gauge railway as a passenger-carrying common carrier was rapidly becoming a dying species. Although I was also vaguely aware that at some point steam would also disappear from BR, this was still…

On a recent trip to Tavistock, I took the opportunity to meet Dave Davies and his team. Dave has been involved with the Robey Trust since its inception and although he retired recently has returned as company chairman for a while to continue spearheading the trust, partly due to the number of new projects in hand and to assist with the new team in achieving these aims. Dave was with the recently appointed Naomi Cornish, company secretary and Simon Williams, vice-chairman, both very keen participants in the trust. We had a meaningful discussion about the various projects in hand and a tour of the works. Then Simon took me outside to view a pile of waste material that has been adjacent to the existing site since the trust moved there.…

THE FIRST railway museum on Cyprus officially opened in September, the initial inauguration having been postponed due to forest fires on the island in June, reports Barry Illingworth. It has actually been open since 2014 and is located in the railway station near the village of Evrihou on the lower slopes of the Troodos mountains. Of the original station, only the main building has survived and this has recently been restored. The station’s platform and some track have been reinstated using original rails. On display outside are a hand-pump inspection trolley and a freight wagon under cover in the yard. The 2ft 6in gauge Cyprus Government Railway (CGR) operated from 1905 to 1951 and ran from Famagusta in the east to Morphou in the west, passing through Nicosia. An 0-6-0T…

SANDRA, the daughter of Markus and Maria Ziegler – well-known members of the Dampf Walzen Club Schweiz (DWCS) and frequent visitors to the UK – was married on September 16 in Basel, reports Graeme Thirkell. Following the ceremony, she and her new husband, Walter Salvador, were pleasantly surprised to find one of the family’s steam rollers in attendance at the event. Fowler Class D2 No 8244 has been owned by the Ziegler family since 1960 and was supplied from Leeds to John Fowler & Co, Magedeburg, Germany, in 1898. It was purchased by the Swiss town of Biel and worked there until the late 1950s. Following a period out of use, the roller was fully restored to her original condition during the early 1990s by the writer at Shildon, Co…

OVER the past 40-odd years I have attended many rallies, mainly in the West Country. In all those years I have only ever seen a motor roller on show on one occasion and that was at the Morval rally near Looe in Cornwall in 2011. The roller in question was a green Aveling-Barford 3.5-ton diesel roller dating from, as far as I can recall, 1948. Surprisingly, it was not exhibited alongside the other steam engines but was in a corner of the rally field with the classic and vintage cars and was positioned in between two cars. Seeing this roller caused me to ask myself why we do not see more internal combustion-engined rollers at rallies – after all there must be at least a couple of hundred still in…