Tail lampTom Telling iT like iT is
Time for a National Traction Engine Museum? IT’S A miserable, wet, typical May day as I write this – one of those days where you don’t know what to do with the day, living where there is very little in the way of covered all-weather type ‘diversions’. So far this year, I have not yet attended a single steam event, mainly due to poor weather conditions, and I’m suffering from steam withdrawal symptoms. Railway enthusiasts are a little more fortunate. There are various local indoor museums in some regions of the country and of course the National Railway Museum at York and STEAM at Swindon where one can occupy oneself for a whole day wandering around in the dry looking at the exhibits. But road steam enthusiasts don’t really have anything similar. Why not? Stripping aside the likes of your Thursfords and Bressinghams, why can we not have a National Traction Engine Museum – a place to display our glorious past. Traction engines were just as important as railway locomotives in our great industrial history. Such a museum would be unique and could be a national tourist attraction – even somewhere where enginemen can keep their charges under cover until needed for taking to an event, much like Graham Atkinson does with his Flower of May Collection of vintage engines and organs at Scarborough. A ‘national collection’ could be assembled which would consist of a diverse range of both full size and miniature engines showing how our hobby developed. Perhaps individual engine owners could be encouraged to show their engines on a ‘turn-key’ basis where a specific amount of restoration or maintenance work would be carried out in the museum’s workshops for a subsidised nominal charge to the owner. Hopefully, this would allow engines, which are not currently in steam to be restored into working order for us all to enjoy again. The workshops would have an indoor public viewing gallery where visitors could see work being carried out such as at NRM York and at Crich. I took advantage of a similar facility when I visited the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida – where I was able to see modules being built
Dunrolling: engine exhibits under cover at Thursford, Norfolk. BARRIE C WOODS
for the International Space Station. You were able to take photographs from the viewing area and there were explanatory boards listing details of the work being undertaken. The museum could also house a ‘national collection’ of paperwork, ephemera and drawings, allowing restorers and researchers to access the records in person or electronically. Cinemas could show films of traction engines in their heyday, with galleries of photographs, restaurants and shops, an organ recital concert hall and an outdoor arena for regular events and rallies. The desirable list is pretty much endless. Something near to a big collection that’s all indoors and open to visitors is being proposed by John Saunders and his family. He’s jumped every planning hurdle so far but it’s now at the ‘running it past Eric Pickles’ stage. Fingers crossed John!
The views expressed by ‘Tail lamp Tom’ are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.
NEXT MONTH
▲ Hull’s hiddengem: StreetlifeMuseumofTransport
▲ Simon Vickery’s just-restored Ruston roller No 114059
l Stroud VTEC 40 years l Herts Steam Club 50 years l Dordt in Stoom l August issue on sale from July 17, 2014. 114 | JULY 2014 OLD GLORY