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No. 325 5

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STEAMBO hauled ouAT ...by steamt !

Should Shuttleworth’s Clayt yton t revert to original road roller?

Glasgow trolleybuses

remembered 50 years on

SENTINEL narrow gauge locomotives

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Contents 60

No 325 | March 2017 NEWS 6-23 News & Events 98 OG in Mini News

FEATURES 26 Shuttleworth’s Clayton

Ripe for reversion? Stuart Gray talks to Alan Barnes about whether the Shuttleworth Collection should ‘do the right thing’ and revert traction engine No 46817 to its original form as a road roller.

32 Where’s that fire?

Barrie Woods continues his search of some lesser-known Shand-Mason steam fire engines in a quest to visit every museum in his own book.

42 Farewell faithful friend

86

After 34 years of ownership, Peter Love has just parted with one of his own steam collection to pastures new.

48 Volvo’s mobile cranes

The development of the mobile crane was never a main priority for Volvo, with early models developed from its already proven agricultural and farm tractors.

54 McClaren mines rescue engines part two

How McLaren ploughing engines became involved in potentially essential and important wartime activities at coal mines.

58 The Beamish ‘Crewe Tractor’ project

An update on the completion of the first phase of the museum’s ‘Crewe Tractor’ project.

60 Sentinel’s narrow gauge locomotives

Sentinel not only built steam waggons but railway locomotives too and among its large output between 1923 and 1958 came a range of narrow gauge locomotives.

66 Aldridge Transport Museum

Malcolm Ranieri visits the Midlandsthemed Aldridge Transport Museum in Walsall, which relocated from Aston Manor Road in Birmingham in 1992.

86 Living with Lord Morrison

Alan Wilson’s lifelong interest in Billy Smart’s Circus saw the eventual ownership of a prototype Foden from the iconic fleet.

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36 Save money with a subscription to Old Glory 99 Advintage – The biggest Steam & Vintage Marketplace

70 An affair with Allis

Craig McDonald’s completion of his latest project – an Allis Chalmers ‘B’ of 1941 vintage.

76 Glasgow trolleybuses remembered

Fifty years on, Hugh Dougherty recalls the last days of Glasgow’s trolleybuses from his school commute.

4 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

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ON PAGE 36

70

News&Events Roland stands proud on Jeff’s Burrell No 3728 of 1916 Prince in October 2005.

Roland Burgess – past president, Sussex Steam Engine Club IT IS WITH great sadness that we report the death of Roland Burgess of Cross-In-Hand, Heathfield, East Sussex, on January 11. He was president of the Sussex Steam Engine Club for more than 20 years and involved with steam since the mid-1970s, writes Peter Love.

He was a ‘gentleman’ who was forgiving, kind and encouraging to so many with whom he came into contact, especially younger people.

More than 60 messages were received by the family saying such things as ‘Roland gave me my first experience of steering a steam engine’ to teaching various people to gas-weld cast iron and various other types of dissimilar metals, which he was very good at.

He had worked on the land all his life in one way or another and was a farmer for most of this time. His grandfather on his mother’s side was a farmer at Little Dudsland, Cross-in-Hand, 8 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

and then at Holms Hill Farm.

Roland’s father worked at the garage at Halland crossroads from an apprenticeship through to the end of his working life, helped on occasions by Roland.

Roland was always looking ahead, analysing and assessing things, but never forgetting the past. He worked for the War Ag, where he gained much work contracting with a Fordson Standard N, which he used with a mobile saw bench. He would also drive a threshing drum with the tractor where needed, including at the Jessett family farm at Hadlow Down where the famous rally still takes place. The Burgess family have attended since the late 1970s with various engines.

Roland was married to Nina, his dedicated hard-working wife, for some 67 years upon his death. They met at the annual Heathfield Fair and Nina was a farmer’s daughter from nearby Broadoak.

Roland was in the Heathfield Silver Band, where he played at many concerts and competitions and marched in most East Sussex bonfire processions, playing his beloved cornet for many years.

He was early into electric welding, and welded parts for the old blacksmith in Waldron.

He was one of the first to use thermic lancing to bore holes into concrete. He needed to do

Aveling & Porter No 6847 Royalty looking its best at the Kent County Show. The engine was sold on to Bob Watts and is regularly rallied by his team.

STEAM AM M TRA RACTION A

Shuttleworth’s Clayton RIPE FOR REVERSION?

In 1991 The Shuttleworth Collection acquired Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth traction engine No 46817 of 1914, an engine which originally left Lincoln’s Stamp End Works as a road roller. Stuart Gray talks to Alan All Barnes about whether the Collection should ‘do the right thing’ and revert it to its original form as a road roller

T

he question of engine conversions has created and will, no doubt, continue to create, a certain amount of heated debate but the history and perhaps the future of this particular Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth does raise some interesting points.

Quite recently Stuart Gray, vehicle manager at The Shuttleworth Collection, prompted consideration of the future of the engine and whether a long-term possibility would be the return of the engine to its original configuration as a road roller.

As Stuart said: “The Collection is potentially interested in converting this engine back to its original road roller form but would need to know kn n if any original perch bracket, forks and front roll exist to enable the Collection

to undertake this important conversion.

The Collection would not be interested in reproducing these items due to the cost but if offered a set of original front rolls and perch bracket we could consider the task as a longer-term project. At the time when the engine was offered to the Collection its originality was not considered but we feel it is important enough to consider such a reversion if the parts were available.

“My own view and one I would recommend to our trustees is simple. If the correct roller front end parts were available then the Collection should move to acquire them as a potential and future project, to return the basic engine into something that it was when built. It would be of particular interest as few Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth rollers exist. It would, however,

be extremely unlikely that, despite the drawings being available, the Collection would invest in the construction of new components.

“The main thing is that we recognise the interest in returning such conversions back to what they should be, however, reality has to strike a balance and what we have is at least a worki king i engine that from our point of view represents a product from Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth and the Collection’s past.”

James Michell, one of the volunteers who look after the agricultural items in the Collection, has undertaken some extensive research into the history of the engine in an attempt to compile an accurate record of the engine. He was kiind enough to make his research material available to Old Glory.

James told me that he hoped that his findings would dispel some of the myt yths t which had been associated with the engine. “There have been references to the engine being built as a convertible but the entry in the Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth build records clearly states that No 46817 was built as a 5nhp 10-ton Compound Road Roller. The roller was completed on June 5, 1914 and was subsequently sold to the Stockton-onTees Council.”

The Clayton towing the Avro XIX Anson back to the hangar at Shuttleworth in May 2014. DARREN HARBAR 26 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

James’ research includes extracts from the borough of Stockton; council minutes which indicate that the new roller was soon put to work by its owners. The borough engineer’s report dated June 23, 1914 states: “New Steam Roller – I have to report the arrival of the new steam roller, which has passed a satisfactory inspection by the Vulcan Boiler Insurance Company and is now in use on the Yarm Road rolling tar macadam. It is heavier than required being 13½ tons instead of the 10 as ordered. In other respects it appears to be satisfactory.”

The additional weight could well be due to the specifications of this particular roller as detailed to James by the Road Locomotive Society: “This engine is unusual as it was fitted with a differential (unlike most rollers) and also a slip typ ype p of winding drum, the engine was fitted with a rectangular flat-topped Belpaire typ ype p firebox, unusual rectangular connecting rods, a balanced crankshaft, geared boiler feed pump and the makers’ most unusual crossover valve gear for the left hand or high pressure cylinder, the eccentrics for that cylinder are between the throws of the crank and by means of a cross-over lever, their motion is transmitted to the valve on the outside of the cylinder block.”

The roller obviously satisfied the borough engineer with its performance as a further minute in the council records dated November 24, 1914, shows that the accountant submitted a schedule of payments for authorisation which included “Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth – Steam Road Roller – £477 - 10 shillings”.

However the roller’s worki king i days with the borough were short lived, as by September 1916 the engine had been despatched to France as part of the war effort following the outbreak of war. Interestingly the council minutes note that the question of a replacement roller was raised quite quickl kly l as on October 3, 1916, the District Fund

Committee resolved that “the question of replacing the steam roller by the Government (which will be done by the Government) be referred to the Roller Committee”.

At a meeting held in November it was noted that: “The Deputy Borough Engineer submitted a report from which it appeared that No 2 Road Roller had been despatched for Government use in France and that the Road Board had the matter in hand and had promised to replace the Roller with one of identical build and was prepared to consider any alteration in the specification that the committee might wish.”

It would seem that the council had realised that there would be little chance of their original road roller being returned to them, although it would seem that the order for a new roller was not finally placed with Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth until the spring of 1918.

At present there are no details of No 46817 during the war years although James is planning to continue his research in the hope of filling in some of these missing details.

After the war it is assumed that the roller was disposed of during one of the War Department equipment sales but the actual date of the sale has not yet been established. However by 1921 it had been bought by W W Buncombe, a firm of rolling contractors at Highbridge in Somerset. Brian Gooding provided James with a record of the large fleet of engines which were operated by this firm and these included several other Clayt yton t & Shuttleworth road rollers. The records show that No 46817 was bought ex-WD but the date is not recorded – however, it was allocated Fleet No 20 and later registered as YA 2095 probably around 1921 when the Registration Act came into force. This is a Somerset County Council registration number so it seems likely that it was Buncombe which arranged for the roller to be registered. ❱

OLD GLORY MARCH 2017 | 27

MUSEUMS

‘Bromley’in 1897, brand new to the Fire Brigade. COURTESY JOHN MEAKINS

Where’s that

In his quest to visit every museum in the UK which is featured in his Traction Engine Museum Guide (he’s nearly there!), Barrie Woods made a short trip to Surrey and Kent to primarily visit the Kent Firefighting Museum at Ash (rather ironic!) near Brands Hatch

W

hile in the area I contacted Chris Drewitt to take a chance on visiting his engine, the Shand Mason SFE ‘Speedwell’ and the other Shand that is ensconced at Warnham Court, Works No 1897. While the return trip from Poulton-le-Fylde took a couple of days and covered 800 miles, it was well worth it.

My first call was to Drewitts Carriages and Tony Drewitt welcomed us. We entered the farm buildings and he introduced us to other colleagues, including Jim Marsh, whose engineering works appeared very 32 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

Shand Mason twin cylinder No 1625‘Speedwell’squeezed into its garage at the Drewitts Carriages premises.

busy with a number of engines under repair.

These include the lone 1900-built Robinson & Auden traction engine No 1376 Little Buttercup. Burrell Showman’s Engine No 3836 of 1920 Starlight was also under heavy maintenance. While there I discovered what to do with a showman’s engine roof while it’s under repair – suspend it from the roof well out of the way!

A couple of other engines were awaiting completion. In another barn were three further engines, Burrells 3442 and 3540 plus Wallis & Steevens No 7641. By now Tony had removed the tilts from the object of the day’s

visit, the Shand Mason No 1625 ‘Speedwell’.

The engine was squeezed into a garage with two other horse-drawn vehicles behind, both buses and both looking superb; indeed, both had operated in London, one in the Kilburn and City area which recently took part in the Lord Mayor’s show, the other around Putney and Fulham. ‘Speedwell’ had been acquired by the Drewitt family in 2011 from the Kent Fire Brigade’s museum collection (see overleaf) and the family then fully restored it to its present pristine condition. Drewitts also operates several more such vehicles, including a landau and a hearse!

Robinson & Auden traction engine No 1376 Little Buttercup is in Jimmer Marsh’s works, well on the way to completion.

Tony Drewitt adjusts the pump arms on his 1889-built Shand Mason hand-operated fire pump. With the arms outfolded, 10 or 11 people could man the appliance; as only half-a-dozen firemen could travel with the vehicle, the service relied on local assistance at the fire!

Another pride and joy of Tony’s is a street barrel organ. This hand-pushed and handturned machine has been fully restored and features a barrel containing more than 8000 pins. Its principle of operation is identical to that of a music box, once so commonly found on bedroom dressing tables, however this one is slightly larger! The device was built by Chiappa in London in 1900. With the detachable handle fitted he regaled us for some time with melodies from the turn of the century and one or two later tunes including Swedish Rhapsody, Arizona and Daisy-Daisy.

The business end of‘Bromley’. The engine is beautifully looked after in its own log cabin.

In addition we also had the chance to study his manual Shand Mason fire pump dating from 1889. This too has been fully restored and is operational as was demonstrated to us at the time. With lunchtime approaching we all then repaired to the local inn, the Frog & Nightgown. Regretfully a refreshing coffee was all we had time for, as we were to dash off to our next venue to view Shand Mason No 1897 ‘Warnham Court’, believed to have been built in 1902. ‘Warnham Court’ is housed in a private museum near Horsham so we were most privileged to be given permission to view the engine. It hasn’t been out for many years, but is kept in excellent condition in a delightful building with many other historical artefacts, mostly related to deer breeding and other countryside pursuits. I am indebted to Jonathan Lucas for allowing this visit. ❱

Shand Mason‘Warnham Court’is displayed in a private museum. Built in 1902, a brass plate confirms its works number as 1897. Essentially complete, the vehicle looks well.

No 1144‘Bromley’is believed to have been built in 1897.

General view inside the Kent Firefighting Museum.

OLD GLORY MARCH 2017 | 33

STEAM AM M TRA RACTION A It’s farewell, faithful friend as Marshall portable No 59763 leaves East Sussex for a new life in Cheshire.

Farewell

FAITHFUL FRIEND Peter Love turns the focus on himself, as after 34 years of ownership he has just parted with one of his own steam collection to pastures new

T

he story starts in 1981 when I was nearing the end of a fouryear restoration of the 1923 Armstrong Whitworth 10R35 which, along with many people’s help, was rebuilt to concours standard: the question was, what was I going to do next?

I was keen to carry on and restore another engine, as my objective was to eventually be able to afford an ‘old banger’ of a traction engine, which would need rebuilding. That was always my boyhood dream since I first stood on Aveling & Porter 6nhp road locomotive No 4561 of 1900 Jimmy at the age of two in 1954 at the last Chris Lambert steam party.

42 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

Jack Wakefield is seen on the left as No 59763 is pulled out of the shed with the‘one-off’Fordson Diesel Major E1A.

Loaded up and ready to head south in front of Jack Wakefield’s yard where Fowler showman’s Girly hides behind the door.

The events at Chris’s were always held on the last Saturday in June and included a parade of the engines from his extensive yard around the village of Horsmonden, Kent. The yard is now a small exclusive housing development and appropriately named Lamberts Place.

My thinking was that the proceeds from a well-restored steam roller and a portable just might give me sufficient funds to head me in the right direction for a traction engine.

But I wasn’t interested in purchasing a large portable, as they are hard to manoeuvre at the best of times and are generally hard work, not a one-man engine at all.

My objective was a small 2nhp or 3nhp engine, which were certainly in short supply, and my long-suffering wife Jayne agreed to all of this. I started the ‘jungle drums’ as in those days finding such things was virtually impossible. There were no imports from South America and the like, which have subsequently totally flooded the market. Although some traction engines were coming back from Australia, some looked to be in shady circumstances at that time.

However, I also wanted an engine that had a proper UK history, which can be traced and gives the engine more value than an overseas import – well, to my mind it does anyway as its history for me is very much part of the rich texture of the engine.

In August of that year I happened to see the now late Bill Briggs at Astle Park, Cheshire, while in the parade ring with Brian and Harry Allison’s Aveling tractor Oberon. He told me that great northern Marshall ‘guru’ Jack Pierson had died and at Hetton-le-Hole, in Jack Wakefield’s yard, stood one of Jack Pierson’s engines. At one time he had several strewn across the north in various farms and yards, but all had been sold by his distant family who lived near Watford, except the little 1912 Marshall 3hp portable No 59763. Bill added that the money being asked for it was much too high, but apparently it had a boiler certificate and he told me where I could find a phone number for Jack Wakefield.

I asked skilled engineer, the now late John Bailey of Borough Green, to come with me and one Saturday morning in October 1982

his wife Pat kindly drove us to Kings Cross at some unearthly hour where we caught the train to Durham. Here we were picked up by Jack Wakefield in his cream-coloured Triumph Toledo and headed for Hetton-le-Hole.

When we arrived there were plenty of things to see in Jack’s yard, including his 1913 Fowler A8 No 13922 showman’s compound Girly, which I had not seen before, and a rare Guy military vehicle in the semi-scrap area. Also spotted was Ruston Proctor portable No 52173 of 1918 and the Mann 1386 tractor belonging to E Wakefield at the time; and there was possibly a Robey roller. We were then shown No 59763, the engine we had come to see, and it was rather humble compared to those and more that were at the yard.

Jack was in his slowing-down days, but had not lost all his memory then, and had been an extensive preservation engine dealer in the 1950s-70s and created many conversions along the way. However, one of his favourite engines was 1912 Burrell Gold Medal No 3397 Cock of the North, which had moved on to Cheshire at that time. Over tea in the living van Jack told me he was a retired threshing contractor and used Fordson E27N Majors with Perkins ❱

The firebox removed with the Z-ring and the collapsed crown clearly seen.

December 1984 and the new backhead is in place; good progress is being made.

Getting ready to rivet the new barrel on with the assembled crew of Bob Whitehead, Les Warren, Brian Hope and others – all pretty black by the looks of it.

OLD GLORY MARCH 2017 | 43

CLASSIC PLANT

VOLVO’s

Volvo Boxer 350 tractor with Moelven crane. MOELVEN ARCHIVE

BM Volvo 600 Mobilkran. MOELVEN ARCHIVE

MOBILE CRANES

The development of the mobile crane was never a main priority ty for Volvo as far as its range of construction plant and machinery ryy was concerned, with wii early models being developed from the industrial versions of its already proven agricultural and farm tractors, writes wrr All Barnes Alan

BM Volvo 600 mobile crane. VCE ARCHIVE 48 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

BM Volvo 600 ready to pour concrete. VCE ARCHIVE

A

few interesting models were developed before Volvo’s crane manufacturing was phased out at the end of the 1980s. The first of the cranes which entered production was the BM Volvo 600 Mobilkran which was powered by the 3-cylinder BM 1113A diesel engine used in the BM Volvo tractors. This was paired with a manual gearbox providing 10 forward and two reverse speeds. Essentially the machine could be described as an industrial tractor fitted with

an extending hydraulically operated boom which was mounted behind the cab. The crane on the standard model was a Moelven Series 200 which featured a boom which could be extended to a maximum of 14 metres, although machines fitted with the larger Series 230 and 250 cranes were also available.

The Norwegian company, Moelven, had been founded in July 1899 and was initially involved in the production of wooden barrels and wagon wheels. By the 1960s it was specialising in the fabrication of sectionalised

BM Volvo MK 691 mobile crane fitted with log grab. VCE ARCHIVE

houses and industrial buildings along with site construction work. The company developed its own shovel loaders and dumper trucks and by 1965 had added the first of its mobile cranes to its small range of construction machinery.

One of its early mobile cranes was based around the BM Volvo Boxer 350 tractor which was adapted to take a boom and jib.

Following the initial development work later models were introduced, again based on Volvo tractor chassis.

The crane range was later developed to include deck cranes and rescue cranes with production continuing into the 1980s. Despite the commercial success of several of the Moelven products the increasing costs of development work led the company to take the decision to discontinue the industrial section of the business at the end of the 1980s.

In 1989 the mobile crane side of the business was sold to a Dutch company and the company continued with its core business. Today it remains one of the leading Scandinavian companies in the production of building materials and systems for the construction industry.

The association between Moelven and BM Volvo continued but it would seem that only the first model, the BM Volvo 600, introduced in 1968, carried both the company names. It appears that the model was restricted to the Scandinavian market and only remained in production for a short time before the next model was introduced. â?ą OLD GLORY MARCH 2017 | 49

STEAM TRACTION

McLAREN

ploughing engines at MINES RESCUE stations

Derek Rayner does some more digging into archives across the country to tell the story of how a quartet of McLaren ploughing engines became involved in the last war – and their conversion for potentially essential and important wartime activities

T

he Colliery Guardian article that I discovered in the archives of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers at Newcastle credited its picture to the Yorkshire Observer, so I needed to refer to that publication. This was a Bradford daily newspaper and, working back in the Bradford public library’s copies from the Guardian date, it didn’t take me long to find in the Observer for March 13, 1940, the relevant item, titled Yorkshire Pits will not be ‘Tombs’ in Air Raids.

The Observer reporter had seemingly visited

the Wakefield station the previous day and was clearly impressed by the newly arrived emergency steam winder.

I gleaned several items of fresh information from this article – the machine was to be tried out at a disused local colliery the following Saturday and miners’ representatives from local collieries were to inspect the arrangement there. The occasion would also provide an opportunity to make awards to rescue personnel. It went on to say that a bridge over the beck at the entrance to the Mines Rescue Station at Wakefield had had to be replaced

2

to bear the weight of the engine and explained that covereed accommodation for it was under construction.

Later, before this station closed in the mid-1980s, a visit was made to Ings Road where the discovery was made that the bridge had been strengthened again in recent times but the engine shed had been demolished in the 1970s, when new staff houses had been put up on the site – and a garage for one of them had used the same concrete floor!

McLaren Nos 1554/1555 lined up at the auction sale of IC Sturgeon’s tackle at Aldham, Suffolk, in June 1933. RG PRATT (RLS) 54 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

PART

An excellent portrait of Wrexham station’s McLaren No 1558 (CCA 588) standing out of use and taken at Gresford Colliery on September 24, 1950. JAMES BOYD

An illustration which accompanied the Yorkshire Observer article gave only a slightly better chance of reading the registration number on the McLaren’s tender. It was certainly HL 9xxx and probably HL 982x.

However, before closing the volume and preparing to leave the library, I idly scanned a few more pages at random relating to war reports, local sports news etc. – and suddenly an image metaphorically jumped out of one of the pages. For there, on April 11, was another photograph of the Wakefield McLaren engine; a splendid three-quarter rear view, clearly and quite definitely marked HL 9828.

The caption indicated that it was being demonstrated at Wrenthorpe Colliery, although it actually took place at a disused pit shaft at Newton Bar, just outside the Wakefield city boundary and a training centre for mineworkers and mines rescue practices.

This report claimed the steam winder’s demonstration was a complete success and that coal owners from other areas had shown considerable interest in the emergency equipment. The reporter confirmed it was being housed at Wakefield and, somewhat engagingly, described it as having ‘the appearance of a steam roller...’

Further work in the archives

A further snippet from the Colliery Guardian confirmed certain aspects from Harry Potts’ diaries in that the Wakefield engine helped out at Frickley (prior to June 7, 1940) when the mine’s steam winder drawing coal from the Barnsley seam failed. Three quarters of the 3000 employees were able to resume work through the efforts of ‘Lizzie’ while repairs were completed to the existing engine.

From the discovered timeline associated with these mines rescue conversions, it appeared

that one engine was converted at McLaren’s works in Leeds and sent to Wakefield in February 1940 for the testing of the concept.

Then, satisfied that the adaptation had proved effective, the other three engines were completed and sent off to their destinations.

The start of the project then became of interest and it seemed that the idea could well have been thought about in the dark days before Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in 1939.

I made another visit to Wakefield Archives Office; this time in respect of material relating to the Frickley engine. The former licensing office’s file on the index DWY 90 was made available; this should have gone to Swansea at some stage previously but it fortunately seemed to have been retained at Wakefield for some reason!

The first item in the file was a RF5 form on which J & H McLaren were applying for a licence on behalf of the Carlton Main Collieries Association at Barnsley. This organisation seemingly was the owner of ‘Compound steam engine number 1554’. This application, complete with a postal order for five shillings (25p), was dated September 25, 1940; the licence to run from October 1.

However, the fee was deemed unnecessary as the engine’s use came within the provisions of Article 15 of the Emergency Powers (Road Vehicles and Drivers) Order 1940 (SR & 0 1940 No 741) and it was thus exempt from duty, though annual recertification was required.

The last entry, incidentally, was an acknowledgment of the certificate dated March 30, 1942. The engine apparently survived at Frickley for some time after the war, to be seen there by industrial locomotive enthusiasts but its final disposal, almost certainly for scrap, was on a date not recorded.

Another letter on file made it quite clear the machine was housed, along with other associated equipment, in a substantial block of old stable buildings about 300 yards from Frickley Colliery. This information confirmed the location and owner of the third Yorkshire emergency winder.

Trying to find similar information for the Wakefield station’s HL 9828, I made an approach to DVLC Swansea at the time, for information that was assumed to be on file there. It took an appreciable amount of pointed correspondence before the centre admitted that the licensing records acquired from the many local authorities on centralisation had been destroyed around 1980, due to difficulties with and the cost of storage. Fortunately, however, a record card was later found in the West Yorkshire Archives at Wakefield which indicated that HL 9828 was a ‘Designated Vehicle for Mines Rescue Work’ and was described as a ‘mobile steam driven winding apparatus.’ Although an interesting survival, it confirmed what I already knew but added little fresh fact.

A North Wales connection

The relationship, if any, between the trio of Yorkshire winders and McLaren No 1558, the engine photographed in the Wrexham area, was puzzling. An approach to Frank Clews at the NCB’s then archives department provided no immediate answer but he kindly pointed out possibly useful publications, which I tracked down at Leeds University.

The North Wales Coal Owners Rescue Station was revealed as being located at Wrexham and the Carlton Main Collieries Association, or rather its parent company, had a stake in the ownership of the Llay Main Colliery near Wrexham. ❱ OLD GLORY MARCH 2017 | 55

CLASSIC TRANSPORT

Two BUTs 9613T trolleys pass just before Muirend turning circle, which still exists today.

The way we were: 16-year-old Hugh Dougherty with TB121, his regular bus home from school.

50 YEARS ON

Glasgow trolleybuses remembered

Glasgow’s trolleybus system was something of an enigma. It was the only post-war system to be opened, the last in the UK, and took nine years to reach its full extent. It lasted just 18 years and was hastily abandoned with perfectly good eight-year-old vehicles sold for scrap. Hugh Dougherty recalls their last days from his school commute

Ballogie Road terminus, where an existing road stud still exists, just in front of the bus, in February 1966 while a youth lounges on the traction phone as the 108 waits time to leave for Paisley Road Toll.

76 | MARCH 2017 OLD GLORY

Trolleybuses in line at the holy of holies, Hampden Garage, where the author drove round the yard under unofficial supervision.