STONE & STEAM REALISING A QUARRYMAN’S DREAM

BY EMMA COWAN

Joe Bradley will be a familiar name to Plant and Civil Engineer readers. A past winner of the PCE Quarry of the Year award in 2016, his company, Patrick Bradley Ltd, was founded in 1942 by Joe’s father Patrick, quarrying stone at Tamneymore, Garvagh for the construction of roads and an aerodrome at Aghadowey during World War II. In the mid-1960s the quarry transferred all its operations to Craigall Quarry, Kilrea. In the 1940s, Patrick Bradley bought a six/seven-horsepower Fowler steam engine to drive a stone crusher at the quarry and it continued to work for the business until the ‘50s.

With quarrying methods and equipment changing dramatically over the decades, the steam engine ended up abandoned and rusting at the disused Tamneymore Quarry. There is always somebody interested in an original steam engine and, Patrick sold it to a local man who started restoration but never finished the job. The engine ended up being bought by sawmill owner Willie Smith, of Scotland, who restored it to its superb condition over two decades.

The opportunity arose after Willie’s passing for Joe to be reunited with the Steam Engine. When it went to auction in Forfar, Scotland, Joe placed the winning bid and brought ‘Tamneymore’, as the engine was named by the Bradley Family, home to Kilrea.

When talking to Joe about his story he told me; “From the moment the engine came home it has brought a lot of enjoyment to me and the family, travelling throughout Ireland and England attending shows.”

Joe was able to couple ‘Tamneymore’ with an original vintage stone crusher which he acquired, and he has travelled to several shows, providing a popular working attraction on the steam rally circuit. Joe continued: “The furthest I’ve taken Tamneymore is the Great Dorset Steam Fair in 2018 for its fiftieth-anniversary event. There were over 500 steam engines there.”

While stone crushing remains much the same process today (albeit on a much bigger scale) as it was in the 1940s, the pairing of the crusher with the mighty power of a steam engine is something to behold.

You can see Joe and his family with his magnificent and immaculate Fowler engine operating an original crusher at the Shanes Castle May Day Steam Rally, on Sunday 30th April and Monday 1st May at Shanes Castle Estate, Antrim.

For more information visit www.shanescastlesteamrally.co.uk