NEWSLETTER Nol1 March1982
Dear Apprentices,
At last I am writing to you again for another Newsletter - Yes, it is a .long time since the last one ! - and I hope you will understand. Having lost the help of Margaret I was not well and have been trying hard to keep my home and job going. If you waited a long time for a reply to a letter, I think I am up to date at last and hope you will forgive me.
I am able to report some very good news as we have now got a new editor for the newsletter. His name is Graham Gratwick and h~ will be pleased to receive contributions· from you for publication at Little Coddiford, Coddiford, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Crediton, Devon, EX17 4BD. Graham used to live in Sussex and helped to organise rallies there so some of you may know him. I've told him that you are good at sending in reports of events and steam news in your areas so please don't let me down!
We are very pleased that Kathryn Parrot and her father ~re able to invite us to Weeting again this year. Those who managed to brave the weather last year all agreed it was an enjoyable day. We are invited for one or both days and there will be space to park a caravan or tent if anyone wishes. I should like to hold a meeting at some point during the weekend to hear from you -and any interested adults you can enlist-about the activities we might arrange later in the year. We have one idea from the "Loughboro' Group" as they seem to call themselves, and I am sure we shall find other ideas for other areas if we pool resources.
I don't think your rally list· will be printed in time for this posting but we plan another Newletter quite quickly (to make·up !) and will enclose it then. It helps if you let me know you will be attending an event where an SAC morning is taking place but still turn up even if I don't know.
The N.T.E.C. Sales Stand Staff have again said they will be pleased to see you at rallies and will introduce you to so~eone if they are able to. Wear your badge and try your luck
Happy steaming in
P.S.
I hope to be at the meeting on the 7th April.
Enclosed is a "quicky" list showing which Rallies are giving free entry to 'SAC's' and which are holding an event on the Sunday morning - hope to see lots of you. You will either see the SAC flag or ,the NTEC stand to make contact.
One of our members in the Loughborough area, Richard Froggatt, has written in with news of a meeting he and his friends are holding in early April. Hopefully everyone who can will make the effort to attend this meeting to ensure more will take place in the future. Sylvia, our Chairman, also hopes to get to the meeting and I'm sure she looks forward to meeting as many of you as possible.
~HE EAST MIDLANDSBRANCH
The SAC, being a national club, tends to be impersonal and rather remote. Sylvia does a very good job of taking the club to people at rallies but she cannot be in two places at once or go round and see people during the off season and between rallies. For this reason several SAC members in the Leicestershire area have decided to form an East Midlands Branch of the club. Our aim is to be more personal and to provide activities throughout the year for anyone interested in the rally scene and steam engines as a whole.
We are attempting to hold regular monthly meetings, the first of which will be held on Wednesday, 7th April at approximately 8.00 pm. We would like to extend an invitation to any members or non members who may wish to come along. The meeting will be held at Thorpeacre church hall, Loughborough. A map of how to get to the hall is produced below. It is hoped to provide something of interest to everyone, a chance to have an informal chat with refreshments.
We hope to make this club interesting for all who come along but to do this WE NEED YOU. Without your support we cannot do any thing.As well as the meeting in the hall, we need your support at our first rally, Road/Rail '82. Please try to come to the meeting or rally, ( or both), if you can. We will be happy to see you.
Richard Froggatt
llOIJNJ>A8ol.l'r S1"uMn,Ar l>E~BY£"'1) oF J.OUqH!JoRo't
Further information is available from Richard at Knoll House, Charley, Loughborough, Leics. LE12 9YE. Have any of our members elsewhere in the country any similar ideas ?
Just a few days after the meeting of the East Midlands Branch at Loughborough, the same group are very much involved with a ially being held at Quorn, Road/Rail '82. The following article from Richard Frogatt explains just what has been arranged.
ROAD/RAIL '82
--~-Road /Rail 1 82 is the Great Centrals rally held at Quorn & Woodhouse railway yard each Easter. This year it will be held on Sunday and Monday, 11th and 12th April. Quorn is situated on the main A6 between Loughborough and Leicester, approximately 31z miles from Loughborough._ The site will be sign posted from the A6 as "Great Centrals Road/Rail 82".
The Loughborough branch,( or should it now be called the East Midlands Branch?), will be in attendance each day from 10.00 am. Please look out for the grey living van with the SAC·flag flying outside. The SAC arena events will start at 11.00 am each day with provisionally three engines available, one of which will be a Foden overtype steam wagon. For any further information please write to either G.D. Nessfield at 40 Keats Way, Loughborough,Leics. LEll OJJ or R.M. Froggatt, address as on page two.
All SAC members attending Quern each day will have a group photograph taken and a free copy will be supplied on receipt of a stamp addressed envelope. Please remember to bring your membership card or wear your club badge.
Richard Froggatt
Mention of the club badge by Richard reminds me that these are still available if you haven't already bought one. These blue and gold badges are available at the very reasonable price of only 65p each. To obtain yours please send your remittance plus a stamped addressed envelope to the membership secretary, 101 Mill Lane, Sawston, Cambridge, CB2 4HY.
WANTED
Traction Engines past and present. Hard back copy if possible. Will pay any reasonable price. Please contact Andrew Lowles, 7 Howard Close, Dishley, Loughborough, Leics.
It has been suggested that we shpuld have a club poster for display at steam centres to give publicity to ourselves. Would everyone please put on their thinking caps,and write in with your ideas about what' this poster should contain and the type of format it should have.
WEETING, 1st & 2nd May
The club is fortunate in once again being invited by the Parrott family to visit their home at Fengate Farm, Weeting. Last year the club spent a day at Weeting where it had planned to take part in some threshing, chaff cutting and wood sawing. Unfortunately the bad weather restricted activities but everyone who went thoroughly enjoyed themselves none the less. This year it is again planned to have engines in steam and working. At present the activities intended include threshing a rye stack, perhaps gravel rolling and wood sawing as well as general work on engines.
This is a very good opportunity to become practically involved with steam engines and hopefully as many members will be able to visit as possible. If you would like to come along please bring some old clothes suitable for working with engines and don't forget to wear sensible footwear. It is very helpful to Sylvia if you let her know you are coming but please still turn up even if you haven't let her know. You can contact Sylvia at the address given on page 3, the same address as for badge orders.
The invitation includes the offer of camping and caravan space for anyone who wishes to make use of it over the weekend. In case you don't know where Weeting is, there is a map on page 3 of newletter No. 9 of March 1981. From Brandon, which is on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, take the A 1065 northwards, later bearing left at the level crossing to take the B 1106 towards Weeting. At the war memorial turn left following the road round. Thereafter I can't give any more directions but hopefully there will be signs to Fengate Farm.
Photograph below- Weeting last year with a group of apprentices looking into the murky depths of a Burrell traction engine which used to work in Lanes. for contractor Isaac Ball.
In the last newsletter the first part of an article by Neil Smith was included and the story now continues .....
A FEW RANDOMTHOUGHTSON THRESHING, by Neil Smith
In weight the popular size portable was around 5~ tons and this was reckoned to be a four horse load when it had to be moved on the road. The drum was about 4~ tons and this again was reckoned as a four horse load. Old photos can be seen of threshing tackle of this kind on the road and how nice they look for those who like horses, but they don't tell us what a difficult task it was to set the tackle to a stack. Not too difficult if the farmyard had a good surface, but so few had that, and quite often more than four horses would be needed to drag the drum into place at the stack side in the usual quagmire of the yards of those days. If that was a difficult job, just imagine how much harder it was to get the engine in and then get it set for the belt.' Hard and difficult work and the ever present· risk of being trampled on by a Shire or Clydesdale which themselves often weighed nearly a ton.
But if we think this method was labourious, which it must have been, it was certainly an improvement on what had gone before. It became the acC'epted method in a short time and by the 187O's was in widespread use not only in Britain, but in the grain growing countries of the.world.
One may wonder what kind of men were involved with the early sets of threshing tackle. No doubt some were farmers men, but it was far often that the set belonged to a contractor who only supplied an engineman, drum feeder and a band cutter -the remainder of the gang being from the farm on which the work was being done. Practices varied in different parts of the country, but that was the way it was in this area (Lincolnshire). It was also the responsibility of the farmer who was having the threshing done to supply the horses for the next move, and the coal while the tackle was on his farm at work.
As regards the actual machine owner, he might well be the local blacksmith for in country circles the blacksmith was a craftsman of great experience. His expertise would be needed to keep both drum and engine in working order and the men he employed with his set would have to be able to do repairs and maintenance whilst the set was away from home. Threshing was not a job that lasted all the year round, so the engine might be in use with a sawbench or other machinery at different times of the year. Indeed there might be no other work available at some times and the men would probably have to turn their hand to anything that came to hand, or to be laid off altogether for a time. Usually threshing-men could turn their hand to most things -even a bit of horse shoeing if needed -but the first requirement would always be that the set was ready for the next job.
Thomas Aveling is usually considered to be the first man to perfect a self-moving engine although he may not have thought of the idea himself. We may smile at his early attempts with their chain drive and unusual steering method, but in those days it was a vast step into the unknown .. The early experiments quickly gave way to the traction engine as we know it now and by the turn of the century had passed, nearly every engine builder concerned had perfected their own designs in this field. Those same designs were to last - with a few modifications - to the end of traction engine building. However, ~lthough the traction engine was to find universal favour in the threshing trade in Britain, there was still a great call for the portable from other places. If one looks at the records of many of the well known builders we find that their total production of portables far exceeded the rest of their products put together, and Ransomes fufilled their last order for such engines in the early 196O's, although the actual construction was by Robey's of Lincoln.
To'be continued.
A STEAMAPPRENTICEAT MASHAM1981,
by
Michael Dodgson
I would like to tell you about a wonderful weekend which I had at Masham Steam Engine & Fair Organ Rally on the 18th & 19th July last year, and I feel this rally should be included in this years good rally guide.
Masham is a very small town in a valley in the very heart of North Yorkshire, the ideal setting for a steam rally and is of easy travelling distance of my hometown, Hartlepool.
I travelled to Masham on the Friday night and watched a few of the engines arrive under their own steam. You can guess I was up bright and early on the Saturday and I had a walk to the temporary engine compound on the other side of the rally field. I watched the engines get up steam and manoeuvre expertly off the low loaders and took some very interesting snaps with my camera.
As soon as the NTEC stand was open I decided to go and have a chat as a SAC member. The staff were extremely friendly and !asked Mr. Russell Williams of Armley, Leeds, if there was any possibility of being introduced to some engine drivers, as I am willing to learn about the engines and know very little at present.
We had a walk over to the engine compound, talking about engines as we walked. He introduced me to Mr. Mitchell, an NTEC member from Leeds, who owns a Fowler steam tractor No. 15625, Reg. U 7148. We had a very long talk about engines and his engine which was built in 1920 has remained in his family since new and still looks immaculately clean. Mr. Mitchell introduced me to his friend, Mr. John Henderson, and his engine, an Aveling tractor No. 11451, Reg. PT 7442, built in 1927. Although John works in a haulage business in his home town of Northallerton he still finds time to look after his smart little engine. I learnt that both these engines are based at a local pleasure park near Masham which provides good security for them. In fact John's fireman works full time at the park driving a 15" gauge steam locomotive. At the age of twenty he must have a great job combining work with his fascination of steam.
I must have spent most of the day talking to them although I was never on the footplate. After a great morning and afternoon I went back to Russell Williams at the NTEC stand and he was pieased that I had learnt so much and I was to report back in the morning.
During the evening I took part in a Dutch street organ hand turning competition in which the person who hand turned the 62 key organ nearest to its normal speed won a trophy. Unfortunately I didn't get past the first round of forty contestants but it was good fun. As it got dark the night livened up. There was a fascinating sound of steam and music. The great sight of a couple of fully illuminated showmans engines with fair organs at opposite sides of the rally field seemed like they were having a competition to see who could generating the longest.
On Sunday morning I reported back to Russell Williams and he had arranged with Mr. Robert Oliver of Etherly near Bishop Auckland to see if I could do some work on his engine for the day. I was thrilled to bits to hear he had agreed. Mr. Oliver had brought one of his two showmans engines and it is practically a new engine as he rebuilt it almost from scratch. Five years ago all he had was a rusty old boiler, firebox, cylinder block, half a rear wheel and the back axle. To see the transformation is a sight for sore eyes. To think that Mr. Oliver performed this marvellous feat of engineering on his own made me feel proud to be working on it. The engine is an 8 nhp Clayton & Shuttleworth showmans road locomotive No. 48656, Reg. AF 3573, named "Old England"
The two men working on the engine were very helpful and cheerful characters, Henry Hogg who came from Jedburgh in Scotland and Bill Walker from Stockton-on-Tees.
Henry gave me a cloth and some polish and I was given the job of helping Bill polish the brasswork. I polished the nameplates and the flywheel. With it being such a newly restored engine, some machine marks are still clearly apparent but these will wear off in time. In fact this was only the
third time out being its first year since rebuilding. After I had completed the polishing I met Mr. Oliver who showed me how to oil the connecting rods which incidently are off a Fowler showmans engine. We went round al.1 the oilers and grease nipples including oiling the governor. The morning flew by so quickly it was soon time for dinner.
After dinner Mr. Oliver invited me up on to the footplate where I received my first ever driving lesson and also my first ride on an engine. As Bill and Henry directed us to the arena I watched the connecting rods and pistons moving and heard the tremendous sound they made. We went around the arena and after the service we drove round to an organ. Mr. Oliver put on the driving belt for the dynamo and then left Henry and Bill in charge.
The engine was started up and the lights illuminated. As the afternoon wore on I became familiarised with the various controls and learnt how and when to use the injector and how to keep a good fire. I was then introduced to Mr. William Carr from Norham, Berwickshire, who was sent to relieve Henry and Bill who had earned a well deserved rest. William was 90 years old althqugh the way he shovelled the coal into the fir_ebox you would have thought he was still a young steam apprentice. He had many a good tale to tell me about his life on showmans engines including when he worked on many engines attending the old Town Moor fair at Newcastle.
During the afternoon we got filled up with coal and water and time passed for too quickly. It was soon time for the grand parade and Mr. Oliver arrived to stop the engine and remove the driving belt. We made our way towards the arena with William steering, Robert Oliver operating the regulator with of course yours truly sitting in the coal bunker witnessing the whole event.
It was then time for the presentation of the trophies and it was not surprising when Robert Oliver won the J. Ling Cup for the best showmans engine attending that years rally.
With Henry now at the steering wheel we made our way to the engine compound to put the engine onto its low loader. I then said my goodbyes and gave a very special thankyou to Robert for providing me with this unforgettable experience and he said he would make me welcome whenever I see him at any of the local rallies.
Before I departed I gave my thanks to everyone on the NTEC stand, especially Russell Williams who made my weekend so enjoyable.
THE CHANCEOF A LIFETIME
by Paul Coulson
On Sunday 19th July 1981 I had the chance of a lifetime, to steer one of the only pair of Burrell ploughing engines left in existence into the grand arena parade at the Bicton steam rally in Devon. After seeing this engine sold at the late Tom Paisleys sale I was delighted to see Burrell ploughing engine No. 777, 11The Earl 11 , painted in its original colours of red, orange and olive green. This colour scheme made a complete change to the usual black. Once in the arena .a presentation was made to the owner, Mr. Varley, of a silver plaque by Lord Clinton, ( the owner of the estate). I then got down and allowed Lord Clinton to steer 11The Earl" out of the arena. I believe that I am the first steam apprentice to steer "The Earl" at a steam rally and hopefully not the last.
(Both of the remaining Burrell plough engines were bought by Tom Varley of Gisburn at the late Tom Paisleys sale in October 1980 and they were sold in a stripped down state. Tom very quickly rebuilt the first so it could attend the Bicton rally as its first ever showing. The second engine, No. 776 of 1879, will hopefully be out this year. If you see them have a good look because they really are very different from virtually every other engine at a rally.)
Photograph above-Another from Weeting last year showing an apprentice undergoing tuition.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Is your subscription now due for renewal? If it is please send£ 1.50 (plus a stamped addressed envelope if possible) and your membership card to; Membership Secretary, 101 Mill Lane, Sawston, Cambridge, CB2 4HY.
A lot of material for publication has been held over until the next newsletter which, all being well, should follow fairly soon after this one. In the meantime please keep sending in any news or articles you may have. We had hoped to make this newletter a bumper issue but fate threw a spanner into the works preventing us from so doing.
Dates for your diary. April 7th " ll/12th May 1st/2nd East Midlands Branch meeting, Loughboro' Road/Rail '82, Quorn, near Loughborough Weeting