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No. 320
DREELAN’S DORSET DOUBLE STEAM CARS Cotswold Tour
PRIDE
❮ ‘SUPER LIONS’
VERSATILE
4WD TRACTOR PIONEER
ROBERT WYNN THE STEAM YEARS
Contents No 320 | October 2016 NEWS 6-25 News & Events 90 OG in Mini Event
FEATURES 30
The Foden Flexible 6-wheeler
The focus is on Stuart and Carol Ritchie’s rare surviving Foden ‘Flexible 6-wheeler’ No 13536 of 1930.
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The 48th Great Dorset Steam Fair
Photos and comment from the annual pilgrimage to Blandford.
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Traction Engine Locomotives Pt2
Some further examples of road steam locomotives in the past that were adapted to run on rails from various engine manufacturers.
Cotswold Stone & Steam
Our photographer joins the Steam Car Club of Great Britain on its annual Cotswold tour.
Grampian Transport Museum
A museum that’s firmly rooted in its community as it continues its progress with a host of interesting exhibits and outreach.
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John Jempson & Son
In 1866 Joshua Jempson established his haulage enterprise at Rye in Sussex – starting with a single horse and cart. That laid the foundation of a company celebrating its 150th anniversary this month.
Versatile – the 4WD tractor pioneers
The history of the Canadian firm of Versatile Manufacturing Ltd, a pioneer in bringing the four-wheel-drive agricultural tractor to market.
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38 40 80 84 88 92 95 114
Enginelines Helpline Vintageworld Steam Archive Narrow & Industrial Museum Guide What’s On ‘Tail Lamp Tom’
READER SERVICES 36
Save money with a subscription to Old Glory 107 Advintage
Robert Wynn of Newport: the steam years
If Thomas Wynn had not decided to leave his employ as a railway carriage cleaning foreman in 1863, one of our most famous haulage companies would never have seen the light of day.
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REGULARS
Eric Nordevall II
A classic case of building a replica if the original is beyond all hope, in order that future generations can enjoy steam on the water.
4 | OCTOBER 2016 OLD GLORY
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Front cover: Mike Dreelan’s immaculately just restored unique Foden Speed 6 and Foden Speed 12 wagons at the recent Great Dorset Steam Fair. JAMES HAMILTON This issue was published on Thursday, September 15, 2016. The November 2016 issue of Old Glory (No 321) will be on sale from Thursday, October 20.
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Meet the team Derek Rayner
Colin Tyson Editor
Technical Advisor
Mike Dyson
Steve Dean Correspondent
Correspondent
James Hamilton
Colin Smith Advertising Executive
Malcolm Ranieri Correspondent
Correspondent
Contact us – details on Page 40
OLD GLORY OCTOBER 2016 | 5
News&Events Weald of Kent ticks all the boxes THERE are a number of criteria by which a steam rally can be deemed a successful event, writes James Hamilton. Was it eagerly spoken about in advance by engine owners and fellow enthusiasts? Were there engine owners racing to complete the restoration of their pride and joy so that it could make its debut at the event? Were there engines rarely, if ever, seen at other events in attendance? Were there engines that travelled a long distance to attend? Were there enthusiasts that had travelled even greater distances to attend? Was the site more than suitable for holding a steam rally with space to move exhibits as the owners wished? Were the steam engines positively encouraged to be active and seen in action by the public? Did the public arrive in a constant stream of cars that even on Saturday was filling the overflow car park before midday? Did the sun shine on the event? The Weald of Kent Steam Rally held near Woodchurch, Kent, is home to the ‘Woodchurch Warbirds’ that fly from the grass strip runway. This was the third Weald of Kent Steam Rally, held on August 6-7, and organiser Bill Giles put in a great deal of work to ensure that this year’s event was even more successful than the previous two. It has been a steep learning curve for Bill, the first event being the first that he’d organised. As an engine owner and steam enthusiast himself he is very clear about what he wants to achieve: a steam-centred event that entertains and informs the general public about steam engines and provides a really
enjoyable weekend for the owners. In this he is undoubtedly being successful and will hopefully continue to build upon that success next year. Making its first public appearance in steam since it retired from work was Aveling roller No 10465 of 1922, No 437 in the rolling contractor Eddison’s fleet, based at their Epsom depot. The roller became part of the Don Eastwood Collection and was acquired earlier this year at Watson’s auction in Heathfield, East Sussex. Also of interest was the rarelyseen Kelly Springfield 14-ton roller of 1910, the only roller of its type left in the world, and Terry Maynard’s ‘shake-down’ visit of his just-restored Burrell ‘Devonshire’ road locomotive No 3777 Queen Mary, an ex-WJ King quarry locomotive. Making its rally debut postrestoration was an Australian Stump Jump Plough, a direction
Making its rally debut post-restoration was this Australian Stump Jump Plough, a direction traction plough pulled by ex-Australian Fowler traction engine No 9691 of 1903. 10 | OCTOBER 2016 OLD GLORY
traction plough pulled by exAustralian Fowler traction engine No 9691 of 1903. The plough was due to be demonstrated at the World Ploughing Championships near York. Right: Making its first public appearance in steam since it retired from work was Aveling & Porter roller No 10465 of 1922. ALL: JAMES HAMILTON
Not seen at any other events, Ottomeyer ploughing engine No 4830 of 1958, 300bhp, used to plough on land reclamation in Ermsland, Germany, ploughing to a depth of 2.5 metres.
A stunning restoration, Burrell ‘Devonshire’ road locomotive No 3777 Queen Mary.
associate sponsor
GREAT DORSET plenty to see and do FAMILIES with children of school age – these were the very welcome additions to the Great Dorset crowds at this year’s show, held at Tarrant Hinton, Blandford, from August 25-29. It proved that the decision to move the show back into the school summer holidays had been the correct one to sustain the show’s future, which also saw it avoiding clashes with other outside events in Dorset, thereby helping the tourist economy on the Jurassic coast. It was the third year of the continuing First World War theme, with the trench system and associated vehicles, war horses and re-enactors areas busy througgh the show, this year in commemoration of 100 years since the Battle of the Somme. Thankfully the weather ensured that there weren’t Somme-like conditions under foot!
Steam Plough Club 50
over the show days. It included a 1917 Fowler Living Van, a set of Fowler Wing Harrows of 1885, a water cart, cultivator and a 2-furrow balance plough. Other implements on display included a mole drainer, a McLaren trencher, a Fowler combination implement, an Australian Stump Jump plough and a mud scoop used for dredging.
STEAM TRACTION
TRACTION ENGINE LOCOMOTIVES
Works photograph of the first Fowler traction engine locomotive built in 1866. Note that the coupling rods are not yet fitted. A NEALE COLLECTION
Andrew Neale studies some further examples of road steam locomotives adapted to run on rails from various manufacturers
PART
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ohn Fowler & Co in Leeds built its first traction engines in 1865 and the following year produced an experimental single cylinder traction engine locomotive with four wheels of equal diameter. These were presumably coupled by side rods although none had been fitted when a works photograph was taken. As with all subsequent Fowler traction engine locomotives, the drive was by gearing and no locomotives with chain drive were ever built. A second such locomotive but with twin cylinders, works No 923, was supplied to Muspratt Brothers & Huntley’s chemical works at Flint in January 1868. Three years later another standard gauge machine was built for an unknown customer but the surviving works photograph shows it had gear drive to the rear axle and conventional circular side rods coupling the wheels. A further 14 traction engine locomotives followed between 1874 and 1889 – beginning with three single cylinder standard gauge four coupled locomotives for the Dowlais Iron Co at Merthyr Tydfil followed by a 2-cylinder 0-4-0 for Cory Brothers at Pentre Colliery near Pontypridd. The three Dowlais locomotives were scrapped around 1894 but nothing more is known about the Cory 46 | OCTOBER 2016 OLD GLORY
Fowler No 3409 as originally built in 1878 as the shunter for the Fowler works. A NEALE COLLECTION
locomotive. However as the sole-known locomotive at this colliery, which did not close until c1937, we can presume it was reasonably successful. At the same time as the second Dowlais locomotive, Fowler built a similar machine for its own use as works shunter, named Lion. Around 1902 it was totally rebuilt with a new boiler, chimney and fitted with a compound cylinder block so that it could be used as a test bed to trial a new design of valve gear and crankshaft. No doubt to the relief of its driver a substantial canopy was also fitted. In this form it lasted until 1927 when its duties were taken over by a redundant steam wagon and it then lay out of use until scrapped in 1932. Fowler also supplied a total of six 3ft gauge
traction engine locomotives for two Durham collieries for tramways serving their coking ovens. The initial pair of 0-4-0 locomotives went to the Bearpark Coal & Coke Co at the end of 1876, a third somewhat larger locomotive followed in 1885 and finally a repeat of the original pair was supplied in March 1888. All four lasted until the final closure of the coke ovens in January 1921. Two similar locomotives were supplied to New Brancepeth Colliery in April 1888 and March 1889 which survived until closure of the ovens in January 1910. Before considering the traction engine locomotives built by other firms a short note about the ‘convertible’ engines built by Aveling & Porter and John Fowler is appropriate.
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Versatile D100 and G100 from 1966. Just over 100 tractors were built during this first year and almost all were sold before the end of the year.
ANY NY HISTORIES COMPAN WORDS: ALAN BARNES ARCHIVE PHOTOS COURTESY: JOHN WYNN, JOHN HARRINGTON, PAUL HEATON.
Robert Wynn (centre) with horse team and load c1900.
The Steam Years: Robert Wynn & Sons of Newport
The way to Wynn If Thomas Wynn had not decided to leave his employ as a railway carriage cleaning foreman in 1863, one of our most famous haulage companies would never have seen the light of day
eaving the railway, Thomas decided to set up his own carrier business in Newport, Monmouthshire, and with a couple of horses and carts he laid the foundations for a transport business which would, in time, see the firm’s vehicles hauling some of the largest loads ever to be moved on the UK’s roads. However Wynns was destined to become more than just a haulage company as this was just one element in its range of specialist activities. Over the years, the firm became involved with timber extraction, overseas heavy haulage, land reclamation, the operation of tankers, tippers and cranes and the seating
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of heavy machinery and equipment on a range of industrial sites. Thomas Wynn’s decision to set up his own carrier business was by no means an arbitrary one, for his experience gained while working for the railway in Exeter, Paddington and Newport had enabled him to identify
The famous firm began with horse and cart haulage.
By 1895 Wynns had a stable of 200 horses.
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a potential business opportunity. While the railways could be used to move a large volume and variety of goods quickly and efficiently, the onward distribution from the railway stations to their final destinations was usually handled by pack horses, carts and even hand barrows.
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Burrell Simplicity
Narrow&Industrial
Motor Rail Simplex loco No 1935 of 1920 Nocton with disabled access Class D wagon No 2572 and at the rear, Motor Rail Simplex loco No 7481 of 1940 Wilton in the wooded section.
Much progress on the Lincolnshire Coast IT HAS been a remarkable few months on the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway, one of the first lines in the country to be opened by railway enthusiasts (in 1960, at Humberston, near Cleethorpes) and which now operates at
Skegness Water Leisure Park at Ingoldmells. Much progress has been made recently in the restoration and operation of the railway’s collection, much of which dates back to the British Army’s trench
The LCLR’s original Motor Rail Simplex from its opening in 1960, No 3995 of 1926 Paul, and Ashover Light Railway No 2, await duties outside the terminus. BOTH: D ENEFER / LCLR
railways in France during the First World War. Some of it is older, such as steam locomotive Jurassic, built in Bristol in 1903 for a lime works in Warwickshire, as well as farm and industrial wagons. The grant for the restoration of Jurassic by the Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled the boiler and firebox overhaul to progress at the North Norfolk Railway workshops, with work on the frames, motions and fittings being carried out by volunteers at Skegness. The LCLR has returned to service, after a grant from the People’s Millions Fund of the National Lottery, its shrapnelsplattered First World War Class D bogie wagon No 2572 (built in Lincoln in 1917) as a disabledaccess carriage. Much has been done to maintain the track, which uses rails originally laid in the
trench railways of the First World War); the former Ashover Light Railway (Derbyshire) carriage No 2 of 1924 has been repaired and put into a livery closely resembling its original; former Humberston Brickworks Simplex diesel loco Wilton (built by Motor Rail Ltd of Bedford as No 7481 of 1940) has been fitted with a new metal body and another Second World War-era Simplex (Motor Rail No 8874 of 1944), has had its bodywork repaired, repainted in a new livery and the name changed from Major to Major JA Robins RE to honour the first president of the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway Trust, Major ‘Tubby’ Robins, who died last year. A station building in the style of an Ashover Light Railway wayside halt has been erected, as has a water tower.
Manx mixed gauge extravaganza
Manx for the memories: Island based road steam exhibits in Douglas station yard at the July gala.
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A CENTRAL FEATURE of the July 27-31 Manx Heritage Transport Festival was the Mixed Gauge Extravaganza at Douglas station on Saturday, July 30, reports Cliff Thomas. This unprecedented attraction showed off steam on three railway gauges and the road. A third rail was added to each of the IoMSR’s 3ft gauge lines on the southern side of the main platform. These enabled John Boyes’0-4-0VBT Steamplex (a locomotive completed in 2013 based on the chassis of 20/28hp Simplex Motor Rail No 5877 of 1937) from the 2ft gauge Groudle Glen Railway and Laxey Mines Tramway’s 19in gauge replica Lewin 0-4-0T Ant with an ore wagon to work demonstrations up and down the platform lines as service trains on the 3ft gauge Douglas-Port Erin line arrived and departed. A Stanley steam car was displayed on the intervening platform while further road vehicles were in steam in the yard, as was IoMSR Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T No 8 Fenella.