Old Glory September 2016 preview

BUMPER ISSUE! Britain’s Best seller for

29

years

SEPTEMBER 2016

No. 319

Dorset hosts Steam Plough Club’s 50th birthday

Queen Mary

steams again!

50

YEARS

Plus

Case DC4 Steam in and around York Pumping it large in Buffalo

CHRONICLES OF A COUNTRY HAULIER

ouble Having tr opy of c finding a azine? this mag

Contents No 319 | September 2016

local st Ask your Why not Ju t to reserve you newsagen ach month? a copy e

NEWS 6-23 News & Events 100 OG in Mini Event

FEATURES 28

Burrell Showman’s Tractor The May

She’s 103 years old and still in showland, doing the job that she was built for.

34

38

100-ton of steam gun

An update on the project to interpret the ‘100 ton’ WG Armstrong-built steam-powered gun at Fort Rinella, on the island of Malta.

Chronicles of a country haulier

WH Wallington & Sons of Chipping Norton have been country hauliers for 80 years and are also enthusiasts for road steam and restoring lorries.

44

Streets ahead: York Part 2

Engineman Geoff Streets recalls steam around and to the south of the City of York.

50

A Case of lease lend

54

Here’s Lucy: Part 2 the youngest Wallis ‘Advance’

Making its rally debut at Kelso was a newly restored 1941 Case DC4 tractor.

The restoration and return to its old haunts of Pontypridd for the youngest-surviving Wallis roller in the UK.

60

44

The 48th Great Dorset Steam Fair

REGULARS

24 72 74 84 88 93 94 98 103 122

Underbidder Enginelines Helpline Steam Archive Vintageworld Bookshelf Narrow & Industrial Museum Guide What’s On ‘Tail Lamp Tom’

READER SERVICES

115 Advintage – The biggest Steam & Vintage Marketplace

Some of the forthcoming highlights at the greatest steam show on Earth – at Blandford this August holiday week!

66

78

Fifty years of the hovercraft

It’s 50 years since the first cross-channel passenger-carrying hovercraft service began and 60 years since Cockerell built his first working model.

Pumping it large: Buffalo style Although now silent, the surviving Pumping Station at Buffalo, New York, was once the largest in the US.

4 | SEPTEMBER 2016 OLD GLORY

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ON PAGE 36

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Front cover: The Steam Plough Club celebrates 50 years at the Great Dorset Steam Fair. IAIN COLBECK This issue was published on Thursday, August 18, 2016. The October 2016 issue of Old Glory (No 320) will be on sale from Thursday, September 15.

38

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 74

OLD GLORY SEPTEMBER 2016 | 5

THE MAY 103 years old and still in showland The Downs family have enjoyed their association with Burrell Showman’s Steam Tractor The May since 1949, as Alan Barnes discovered

W

ith a total of 203 examples built between 1906 and 1927, the Burrell 5-ton tractors with their 4½ inch diameter x 7½ inch diameter x 8½ inch stroke DCC cylinders were the most numerous single engine type built at Thetford.

Eleven of these types of steam tractor were built new purely for showmen and amusement caterers – and in the main these were fitted with dynamo platforms, long canopies and various decorative fittings as requested by the intended owners. Two of this type survive in preservation, but only one of these engines is currently in steam and is now more than 100 years old – No 3453 The May is still working in showland and continues to do the job it was built for.

Recently I had the opportunity to talk to John Downs, the owner of this remarkable survivor from the heyday of fairground steam and he and his wife, Glyn, were kind enough to tell me how the Downs family came to own it.

“

With our ‘derelict’ engine now back at work in a very short time, it had not only paid for itself but delivered some profit

” “My family’s association with this engine goes back to 1949 when my father bought the derelict Burrell for scrap. The heyday of fairground steam had passed and following the end of the war almost all the showland families had replaced their steam engines with trucks

and lorries. I think that Pat Collins was the last of the traditional showmen to continue using steam power for his rides into the 1950s.

“The Burrell tractor was built in March 1913 and was completed to full showman’s specifications and fitted with a dynamo, long awning and twisted brasswork. It was supplied new to W Sedgwick, an amusement caterer based at Oldham in Lancashire, and interestingly it was the only tractor built to showman’s specifications which was built in that year. The standard of the finish to the engine must have been quite high as pictures of the completed engine were used by Burrell in its catalogues of the time. The engine was named The May after May Sedgwick, the daughter of the owner, and was used to haul one of the beast wagons which was part of their travelling menagerie show. The awning sideboards carried the legend Sedgwick Scenic Jungle and the engine was used with Sedgwick’s American Jungle show. ❱ OLD GLORY SEPTEMBER 2016 | 29

COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

CHRONICLES of a

country haulier WH Wallington & Sons of Chipping Norton has been a family firm of country hauliers for 80 years. Family members are also road steam enthusiasts and have restored examples of lorries used by the firm over the years, writes Malcolm Ranieri

The original Seddon lorry having a water pump fitted at the Hook Norton yard c1960, loaded with barley sacks for the usual run to Avonmouth or London.

Inset: The founder, WH Wallington, at work in the original yard at Hook Norton.

T

he Wallington family’s yard is just outside the town of Chipping Norton, though when the firm started the business operated from the nearby village of Hook Norton. Chipping Norton is a market town in West Oxfordshire, with a population of around 6500. It’s an ancient town of several medieval buildings around a timber motte and bailey Norman castle, though only the castle earthworks remain today. The town became very wealthy in the Middle Ages from sheep farming and the wool trade and even today

38 | SEPTEMBER 2016 OLD GLORY

agriculture provides work for local hauliers.

In 1855 the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWWR) reached Chipping Norton. This railway became part of the Great Western Railway and in 1887 the Banbury & Cheltenham Direct Railway (BCDR) also served the town. In 1962 the station closed and passenger services were withdrawn between Chipping and Kingham, and two years later the BCDR was closed, leaving the town without a railway.

The village of Hook Norton had several works within and around the local area,

including several ironstone quarries. Brymbo Ironworks from 1899 was served by its own narrow gauge railway linking with the BCDR, closing as late as 1946. Perhaps the most famous landmark today is the Hook Norton Brewery, family-owned since 1849 and brewing traditional ales within its impressive Victorian towered brewery, which was steamoperated via a Buxton & Thornley stationary open crank engine until 2006, and which is still fired up on open days. An 18th century handpumped fire engine was in use until 1896 and is preserved in St Peter’s Parish Church.

ON THE WATER

HOVERCRAFT ’

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. All

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All , pioneering French aviator Louis Bleriot made the first flight across the English Channel in a heavieran-a r a rcra , e er o .

66 | SEPTEMBER 2016 OLD GLORY

, . unfavourable winds and a moderate swell, the hovercraft took two hours and three minutes to complete the crossing. s me e ec no ogy was s very

.

The use of gas turbine engines and aircraft technology led to the development of large, powerful hovercraft suitable for carrying both re g an passengers.

“You’ll believe a Fordson can fly”... the tractor rescue under way on June 11, 2016. ALL: DAVID VAUGHAN

Vintage rescue!

David Vaughan breaks free from the brambles to report on the recovery of a rare Fordson and other items for future restoration

W

hen a charitable heritage trust was formed to take over the collection of steam engines and agricultural artefacts accumulated over 40 years by the late Claude

Packing was added to protect the tractor as it was moved.

76 | SEPTEMBER 2016 OLD GLORY

Jessett, its trustees were faced with a mammoth task.

There were countless items in dilapidated farm buildings, various old van bodies and other vehicles abandoned in the hedgerows and brambles around the farm. In the ensuing years a huge amount has been accomplished, not the least of which was obtaining planning permission for some large purpose-built structures to house and display the collection.

The emphasis was initially on the steam road vehicles and the narrow gauge railway, but there has been progress made with tractors, stationary engines, motorcycles and farm machinery. Even so, given that the whole project is reliant upon volunteer labour, including that of the trustees themselves, there are still a lot of items yet to be recovered. All these have been recorded and assessed but the trustees saw little sense in getting items out of bushes etc. only to have them stand exposed to the elements and possible further damage by leaving them in a field.

During June a team of volunteers set to work recovering several

The tractor is lifted to its next‘temporary’position.

of these ‘hedgerow’ items for assessment and future restoration, one of which was a rare Fordson Major Roadless half-track with a Herston winch. The tractor had been in the same spot for many years and was largely hidden by brambles in high summer.

Recovery was accomplished using the trust’s large Samsung excavator as a crane.

The radiator and fuel tank were removed to avoid damage when straps were put around the tractor to facilitate lifting.

The Fordson was part of a large order placed by the Air Ministry for Fordson Roadless Crawlers in 1936. Apparently these were subject to a pitching motion when travelling at road speed, so

Roadless introduced an extended forecarriage arrangement in 1938.

This meant that the front wheels now controlled the steering and made the tractor more stable and easier to drive. The tractors were used for mowing, fuel bowsing and bomb trailer haulage, and snow clearance. Some, like the one in this collection, were fitted with a chain-driven Hesford winch and used, among other things, for airfield crash recovery work. Sold off after the war, these winch-fitted tractors proved their worth in Forestry Commission work. It is not known when or how Claude obtained this tractor, but it was possibly working in the nearby Ashdown Forest for a local firm of contractors.

TRACTION ENGINES

BROWN & MAY

DAVEY, PAXMAN & Co

Narrow&Industrial Reborn Penrhyn Railway hosts gala THE Penrhyn Railway based at Felin Fawr, Bethesda, held a steam gala over the last weekend in June when three visiting steam locomotives were operating on the line’s short demonstration line. The railway also hosted a TimeLine Events photo charter on the day prior to the event, writes David Williams.

The original Penrhyn Railway opened in 1801 to a nominal gauge of 2ft, but in practical terms 1ft 103/4in, to which it operated throughout its existence until closure in July 1962. Horsedrawn for the first 70 years of its existence, as the somewhat dilapidated track began to be improved, a variety of steam locomotives were acquired to work the main line and quarries from 1875. The most successful of the designs were built by

94 | SEPTEMBER 2016 OLD GLORY

Hunslet of Leeds, these being Charles (1882) followed by two further locos, Blanche and Linda, in 1892. The locos were designed especially for use at Penrhyn.

All three engines are happily preserved, Charles at Penrhyn Castle Museum and the later locos as part of the working fleet of the Ffestiniog Railway.

Strong attempts were made to secure the line for preservation in the 1960s but this did not come to fruition and the lifted rails went instead to the Ffestiniog Railway at Porthmadog.

One of the newer preservation projects, the reborn Penrhyn Railway was established in 2012 by local farmer Jonathan Ball. Since Jonathan’s untimely death, a young and enthusiastic team has taken on the task of expanding and operating the

Visiting Penrhyn was Roger Lees’new-build vertical-boilered 0-4-0 Fernilee.

DAVID WILLIAMS

railway. The line is based at the Felin Fawr Industrial Estate at Bethesda where the original railway’s workshops and foundry were located. The operational demonstration section runs adjacent to the site of the famous scrap line where discarded locos were placed in store prior to, as it transpired, rescue by numerous groups and individuals for preservation. Although currently only a few hundred yards long, plans are in hand to extend the line the short distance to the site

of the nearest of the three former inclines which the system boasted.

The railway also has a supporters’ group which funds a particular project each year.

Two covered coaches have been loaned by the South Tynedale Railway at Alston, Cumbria, allowing the railway to offer rides on the demonstration line regardless of the weather. This is a prudent step, given that the line is just a few miles from Capel Curig, often recorded as one of the wettest locations in the UK!

Event Diary AUGUST 18 Dogdyke in Steam

Dogdyke Steam Drainage Station, Tattershall Bridge, Lincolnshire LN4 4JG. Enquiries to: Chris Page, Tel: 01522 683755 www.dogdyke.com Opens: 5pm-8pm.

19-21 Island at War Steam and MER, Isle of Man Enquiries Tel: 01624 662525.

19-21 Cornish Steam &

Country Fair Stithians Showground, Stithians, Cornwall TR3 7DP Enquiries Tel: 07729 816888 www.weses.co.uk

19-21 Bristol Model

Engineering Exhibition The Leisure Centre, Thornbury BS35 3JB. Enquiries to: Andy Field, Tel: 01174 058580 www.bristolmodelengineers.co.uk Opens: 10am.

Regular updates at oldglory.co.uk

20-21 Tracks Across the Field Alton Road, Froxfield, Petersfield, Hampshire GU32 1BD Enquiries to: Duncan Wilkins and Ross Bartlett, Tel: 07794 746554 www.whtic.co.uk

20-21 Model Tram &

20-21 Deeside Steam & Vintage Rally Milton of Crathes, Crathes, Banchory, Aberdeenshire AB31 5QH Enquiries to: Michael Morrison, Tel: 07900 233548 Email: framormotors@btconnect.com

20-21 Tractorfest & Country Fair Beech Lane Field, Sissinghurst Road, Biddenden, Kent TN27 8EX Enquiries to: S Boon, Tel: 07934 270500 www.tractorfest.co.uk

20-21 Vintage & Steam Weekend

& Vintage Rally Lincolnshire Showground (A15) North Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN2 2NA Enquiries to: DG Macdonald, Tel: 01507 605937 www.lsvr.org Opens: 9am.

Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, Singleton, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0EU Enquiries to: Sue O’Keefe, Tel: 01243 811348 www.wealddown.co.uk Opens: 10.30am.

20-21 Kington Vintage Show Kington Recreation Ground, Mill Street, Kington, Herefordshire HR5 3AL Enquiries to: Trevor & Jill Dickerson, Tel: 01544 230758 Opens: 10am.

Railway Exhibition Crich Tramway Village, Town End, Crich Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 5DP Enquiries Tel: 01773 854321 www.tramway.co.uk Opens: 10am.

20-21 Lincolnshire Steam

20-21 Yesterday’s Farming

Manor Farm, Puckington, near Langport, Somerset TA19 9JA Enquiries to: Glynn Banks, Tel: 07754 593545 www.yesterdaysfarming.co.uk Opens: 10am.

20-21 Blues & Twos Weekend The Trolleybus Museum, Belton Road, Sandtoft DN8 5SX Enquiries Tel: 01724 711391 www.sandtoft.org 20-21 Open Weekend Scottish Vintage Bus Museum, Lathalmond, Dunfermline, Fife KY12 0SJ Enquiries to: Eddie Taylor, Tel: 01383 623380 www.svbm.org.uk 20-21 Truckfest East

Norfolk Showground, Dereham Road, Norwich, Norfolk NR5 0TT Enquiries to: Tel: 01775 768661 www.livepromotions.co.uk

21 Bus Festival British Motor Museum, Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwickshire CV35 0BJ Enquiries Tel: 01926 645029 www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk 21 Mottram Agricultural Show

Mottram Show, Old Hall Showground, Mottram, Cheshire SK14 6LT Enquiries to: Brian Travis, Tel: 01457 763249 www.mottramshow.co.uk

OLD GLORY SEPTEMBER 2016 | 103