Old Glory January 2015

1700s ELSECAR NEWCOMEN ENGINE RESTORED Britain’s Best seller for

27

years

JANUARY 2015

No 299

MAKING PROGR ESS Burrell showman’s engine returns

2015 RALLY CLAIM I DATESNG

◆ AUTUMN ROAD RUNS ◆ ISAAC BALL OF WHARLES – SUPER CONTRACTOR

NORTHLEACH

The demise of the Gloucestershire’s first rally local garage The

WOMAN

behind Paddle Steamer

WAVERLEY

KNOW YOUR ENGINE: FLYWHEEL KEYS

Contents 56 No 299 | January 2015 NEWS 6-26 News & Events 92 Old Glory in Miniature News

FEATURES 30

Progress through the Years Part 1 The life of John and Brenda Newton’s 1924 Burrell showman’s road locomotive No 3950 Progress.

38

Rally focus: Northleach The Northleach rally has had several reincarnations since its 1950s inception as Gloucestershire’s first rally but receives strong support.

44

Isaac Ball of Wharles Isaac’s great-grandson, Bryan Rawstrone, tells the story of News updates at oldglory.co.uk one of the most well-known www.facebook.com/ commercial steam contractors, OldGloryMag the surviving engines and those that didn’t make it.

50

Autumn road runs As the season quietens down, photographer Malcolm Ranieri visits the Davis, Honours Yard and SODEM annual road runs.

56

Bakers of Kellington Bill Gill tells the story of his antecedent’s long-standing business – S H Baker Ltd of Kellington – threshing contractors and engineers.

61

The demise of the local petrol station – garage Alan Barnes considers the demise of the local garage, where many of the petrol stations from the boom in car ownership of the 1950s and 1960s have now long gone.

74

Know your traction engine: Flywheel Keys Considering the size and shape of most keys they seem insignificant but they play a vital part in holding parts of the transmission in place.

4 | JANUARY 2015 OLD GLORY

78

The Woman behind Waverley As PS Waverley marks 40 years of sailing in preservation in 2015, we meet its chief executive, Kathleen O’Neill, to talk about her life at the helm.

82

A Winter’s Tale Barrie Woods got a surprise one day when out searching for a suitable photo spot for main line steam specials…

50

16

REGULARS 20

Road Roller Association Notes 26 Steam Archive 41 Helpline 42 Enginelines 68 Vintageworld 97 Events Diary 106 ‘Tail Lamp Tom’

READER SERVICES 36

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SEE PAGE 36

30

61 Front Cover: A nocturnal scene with Burrell No 3950 of 1923 Progress at Old Warden in September 2014 (featured pages 30-34).

ADRIAN WHITE This issue was published on Thursday, December 18, 2014. The February 2015 issue will be on sale from Thursday, January 15.

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Meet the team Derek Rayner

Colin Tyson Editor

Technical Advisor

Mike Dyson

Steve Dean

Correspondent

Correspondent

Colin Smith

Roger Hamlin

Advertising Executive

Correspondent

92

Malcolm Ranieri Photographer

James Hamilton Photographer

OLD GLORY JANUARY 2015 | 5

STEAM TRACTION

PROGRESS through the years

Alan Barnes records the life of 1924 Burrell showman’s road locomotive No 3950 Progress – with assistance from Barnaby Newton, the current owners’ son, and the National Fairground Archive

W

ith the recent completion of a complete repaint, the owners of 1924 Burrell Showman’s road locomotive Progress had planned for the pristine engine to make an appearance at the 2014 Great Dorset Steam Fair. While the torrential rain and muddy conditions experienced at the event were highly suitable for the First World War ‘cameos’, John and Brenda Newton decided that mud and their engine’s brand new paintwork were a far from ideal combination.

This was obviously very disappointing for all concerned, however, arrangements were 30 | JANUARY 2015 OLD GLORY

quickly put in place for the Burrell to appear at the Bedford rally in September. John and Brenda’s son Barnaby was kind enough to tell Old Glory about Progress and his family’s involvement with the engine.

“Burrell road locomotive No 3950 was completed in March 1924 to a full ‘exhibition finish’ which included gold leaf lining. The engine was delivered straight from the Thetford works to Burrell’s stand at the Royal Agricultural Show in Chester. After being exhibited at Chester, the engine returned to Thetford on a flat railway wagon and was subsequently sold to A Cox & Sons Ltd, timber merchants of Radley Road, Abingdon. Here the Burrell was used to haul

Part 1

loads of timber to the wood yard. Following a serious accident at the yard, which did not involve the engine, Mr Cox made the decision to wind up the firm and he contacted Bob Edwards who was a friend of long standing. This association had developed when, prior to the Abingdon Fair, Bob would park his engines and wagons at the Cox yard.

“Early in 1932, Bob Edwards visited the Cox yard to view the two engines which were operated by the firm, No 3950 and another 6nhp Burrell which was called Chaser. Bob considered that Chaser was an unlucky engine but a deal was agreed on the other engine and so No 3950 changed hands. !

A works photo of No 3950 when new in 1924. NEWTON COLLECTION

OG 30 1.JPG) (use biggest, heading in sky?) Burrell No 3950 Progress at the South Cerney fairground in

The only known photograph of No 3950 during its short time as a road locomotive with A Cox in the late 1920s. NEWTON COLLECTION

No 3950 during conversion to showman’s specification in 1933.

NEWTON COLLECTION

Progress, without its dynamo, on the road to Cheltenham Fair in 1933.

R TAYLOR / NFA OLD GLORY JANUARY 2015 | 31

The demise of

THE LOCAL GARAGE Alan Barnes considers the demise of the local garage, with many of the petrol stations from the boom in car ownership of the 1950s and 60s now long gone

H

aving driven around for a day or two with the fuel in the car’s tank having been reduced to mainly fumes, I reluctantly decided that I had to make another contribution to the Government’s tax coffers by investing some hard-earned cash in a gallon or two of petrol.

Only a few short years ago I could have had the choice of visiting a dozen or so local garages which sold petrol, but today these have all closed and the sites where they stood have been redeveloped. I now have a round trip of nearly 10 miles to visit a filling station, but even in the towns themselves the number of outlets has halved in the past five years.

In 1970, there were just over 37,500 petrol forecourts in the UK, but since then their numbers have declined by over 75% and today the figure is considered to be no more than 8500 in total.

The reduction has been caused by a variety of reasons, but mainly economic pressure whereby smaller retailers have been unable to compete on fuel prices with the big players in the market.

Another major factor was the decision of the supermarkets to enter the petrol forecourt business, and arguably the entry of Tesco into the market when it opened its first filling

station in 1974 marked the beginning of the end for the small independent.

Today the small country garage is clinging on by the skin of its teeth, but unable to rely on the small profit margins from fuel sales, most of these garages are providing other services, offering repairs or perhaps using part of the premises as a small general shop.

While the number of filling stations in the UK is certainly falling, it seems hard to imagine that when the first motor cars appeared in the country, nearly 120 years ago, there were no such garages at all. These would not begin to be opened until the early 1900s – some 15 years after the automobile arrived. !

The AA’s first filling station at Aldermaston, which opened in 1919. AA ARCHIVE Top: The Old Forge Garage at Penshurst, Kent. ALAN BARNES OLD GLORY JANUARY 2015 | 61

This filling station at Benson, Oxfordshire, with its fine thatched buildings, was demolished in 1942 to make way for an extension to the nearby military airfield. STILLTIME ARCHIVE

A typical 1940s garage setting. STILLTIME ARCHIVE

An eclectic recovery fleet awaits at the‘Open All Hours’Peamore Garages of Exeter.

Among the first of these filling stations and repair works to be established was the Imperial Motor Works in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, which opened in 1902.

With the motor car introduced into the UK in 1895, intrepid enthusiasts who took to the roads in those early years had to rely on their own resources as far as fuel and repairs were concerned. At the outset this did not create undue problems, as the owners of the handful of motor cars in the country at that time were wealthy individuals eager to try out the new technology. If they encountered difficulties they had the money to pay for the prompt recovery of any ailing vehicle and its subsequent repair.

MRS BENZ GOES FOR A DRIVE

The‘Chinese Garage’at Beckenham is now Grade II Listed. STILLTIME ARCHIVE

Alston Road Garage, Middleton in Teesdale in 1928. BEAMISH ARCHIVE

62 | JANUARY 2015 OLD GLORY

It was a woman, Bertha Benz, who was destined to become the pioneer of ‘motoring’ in Germany when in 1888 (and apparently without her husband’s knowledge) she drove his newly constructed Benz Patent Motorwagen No 3 from Mannheim to Pforzheim – a distance of some 65 miles.

Accompanied by her two teenage sons, she made the journey ostensibly to visit her mother but it became clear that her ulterior motive was to display her husband’s new automobile to a wider public. Until that historic journey, the Benz vehicles had only undertaken short test trips of a few miles and this was by far the furthest journey undertaken by anyone in a motor vehicle.

Today a journey of 65 miles would not pose undue problems, unless of course you are driving your Rover in the wilds of Northumberland without sufficient fuel, but I shall come to that later. However, for the intrepid Bertha there were quite a few obstacles to overcome, not the least of which was obtaining adequate supplies of fuel. The Benz Motorwagen ran on ligroin, a solvent which was only available from chemist’s shops, but the resourceful Mrs Benz had made contact with suitable shops along the route to ensure that adequate supplies were available.

The first refuelling stop on the trip was made in Wiesloch, just south of Heidelberg, where the local pharmacy secured its place in history

This Robey tractor has an attractive brass cap on the end of the crankshaft which acts as a key protector, thus ensuring that the key cannot come loose.

Know your traction engine:

FLYWHEEL KEYS Mike Dyson talks about the keys that hold flywheels and gears in position on a shaft.

Considering the size and shape of most keys they seem insignificant, but they certainly play a vital part in holding parts of the transmission in place 74 | JANUARY 2015 OLD GLORY

On the left is the single key and on the right two keys have been used so that the boss is not pulled oval.

A typical gib head key with (A) showing the taper and (B) the parallel sides.

A flywheel boss fitted to a shaft and fitted with a gib head key. A screwed stud on the shaft prevents the flywheel coming off should the key work loose.

I

don’t know how often flywheels or gears become loose on their shafts but it never seems an easy task to correct the problem. Recently we encountered problems with our flywheel becoming loose on the crankshaft as the old key had become worn. Yes I’m sure with a bit of packing it could have been made to fit. Pieces of soft drinks cans and old hack-saw blades can be really useful. However, it seemed prudent to make a new key and spend time making it fit accurately.

Some years ago, I had left my engine at a rally site and on the following Sunday went off to raise steam in readiness for the journey to the next event. If you can imagine the scene: one or two engines sheeted awaiting owners, early

morning sunshine and the only noise, the sound of birdsong. Then the peace and quiet was disturbed by the sound of hammering in the next field.

On investigation, the sound was coming from a large road loco and the owner was hammering away at the flywheel key with little success. The key was at the top of the shaft and although I’m not an engineer, I thought that I ought to point out to the owner that every time he struck the key it moved up and then slipped back to the original position. I tentatively suggested rotating the flywheel and shaft 180° before hitting the flywheel key again. Without the weight of the flywheel on the key, three hammer strikes were sufficient to drive the key in tightly. I later enquired if the

engine arrived safely at its destination and was pleased to learn that there had been no more trouble with the flywheel key.

So often a loose flywheel key is caused by bad fitting. However, a flywheel which is not a good fit on the shaft, no matter how good the fit of the key is, will only last a short time. The only way to solve this problem is either to sleeve the flywheel or perhaps even have a new flywheel. Keys not only have to withstand the normal stresses set up by the moving parts of the transmission but they can have additional strain placed on them such as when using the reversing lever for an emergency stop. It’s usually at moments of greatest strain that any weakness comes to light with the result that the key becomes loose. !

OLD GLORY JANUARY 2015 | 75

Tail lampTom TELLING IT LIKE IT IS

Beware of the rivetcounter...

Imagine. You have just spent a small fortune from your hardearned savings to firstly, purchase an engine and secondly, to restore it to full working order. The whole restoration process has taken several years work – spending your spare time in the evenings and at weekends working in a cold, draughty workshop or shed, undertaking the restoration of your dream machine.

I don’t know the meaning of the words ‘spare time’ – even though I’m retired! Spare time is not part of my lexicon and instead I use the word ‘prioritise’. Do my jobs in their order of importance (or as directed by my wife!) I have still not succeeded in changing the bulb on our automatic driveway light even though it blew some four months ago. One day, I will succeed in catching up with all of my outstanding ‘one-day’ jobs (one day I’ll get around to it).

Anyway, said proud owner of new beautifully restored engine, enters it into a local rally and to give others the chance to admire

it. This will be the first time that said engine has been seen in steam for over 20 years.

Eventually, the day of the rally arrives and the owner is lucky enough to be within roading distance. Therefore, he is up at the crack of dawn lighting-up, before departing for the rally site. After parking up with the other engines on his arrival, he has time to give the engine one last clean and oilround before engaging in conversation with other engine owners, while the visitors start to arrive. All too soon, the time has come for the engines to enter the arena and to slowly steam around a few times before lining up for a photo call. Once this has been done, the engines return to their ‘peg’ where visitors are able to take further photos and to have the opportunity to converse with the owners. It’s an all-too-familiar scenario.

The day’s events have, thus far, passed very smoothly with the engine behaving itself and there have been many compliments

passed to you by visitors. The dimmer members of Joe Public you can cope with; “What’s your engine worth? Did you know Fred Dibnah?”

Then, you notice that while you are talking to a group, that there is one person who is examining your engine in minute detail. He is the ‘rivet-counter’. Before long, he approaches you and asks if you are the owner. You reply in the affirmative, but you wish you hadn’t. Without any encouragement from you he launches into a tirade about the fact that your pride and joy never carried ‘that livery’ during its working life. Your canopy wording is incorrect and of the wrong typeface. He will then inform you of every single error that he can find with your engine and he will not take the hint that you need to leave as someone else wishes to speak to you, or that you are desperate to answer a call of nature. By the time he has left, you feel suicidal and you start having thoughts of how you could have

invested your hard-earned on family holidays or that new car you’ve always wanted instead.

Wherever you rally, you will always get a rivet-counter. The best way to deal with them is just to ignore them and not to become despondent. Remember. You have saved a piece of our rich industrial heritage and they have not.

The views expressed by ‘Tail Lamp Tom’ are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

NEXT MONTH

▲ TheAlexSharphouseCollection

▲ The National Fairground Archive

● The Wantage Traction Engine ● J & F Howard of Bedford ● Steam Sphere newspaper ● Schneider wagon ● February issue on sale from Thursday, January 15, 2015. Why not save money and subscribe? – see page 36 106 | JANUARY 2015 OLD GLORY