Old Glory - January 2014 - Sample Edition

HOMECOMING QUEEN: STEAM PADDLER HOME IN KENT

JANUARY 2014

SEMPER fiDELiS e latest Jimmer Marsh restoration stunner PLATE YOUR WAGON

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Chromiumplatingexplained PLUS 2014 rally claiming dates

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Alfie Cheyne Snr 1942-2013

No287

STEAM ON THE LEDGE

BRAUNSTON STEAM TUNNEL TUG

ROBEY WAGONS A long-lost re-creation

Sri Lanka survivors

New Zealand road run

◆ Machining a McLaren cylinder ◆ Aveling tractor centenarian ◆ Wagon archive ◆ Lister sheep shearer ◆ First World War military railways ◆ News & events

Contents No 287 | January 2014 NEWS 6-25 News & Events

FEATURES 32

Train for the troops Commemorating the narrow gauge military railway of the First World War at today’s Apedale Railway.

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McLaren workshop Neil Gough shows how he machined a cylinder block for his McLaren road loco.

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Club Corner: Fielding at 50 Special The 50th anniversary celebration rally and road runs of the Steam Traction Society at Maewa on New Zealand’s North Island.

News updates at oldglory.co.uk

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The Robey wagons of Sri Lanka The two legendary Lincolnbuilt Robey steam wagons near Columbo.

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Hasty: A Steam Powered REGULARS Tunnel Tug No steam tunnel tugs survive 26 Reviews so Keith Ward decided that 28 DownUnderbidder he would build a new one.

38 Enginelines 40 Helpline Close shave 62 Vintageworld A lovingly restored Lister 74 Steam Archive Junior Type A62 engine of 97 Events Diary 1932... and its matching 106 ‘Tail Lamp Tom’ sheep shearing clippers.

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News updates at oldglory.co.uk and at www.facebook.com/ OldGloryMag

OG in Miniature We report from the Midlands READER SERVICES Model Engineering Exhibition held in October.

30 Save money with a subscription to Old Glory Plumb Loco Part 2 100 Advintage – The biggest Continuing Mike Plumb’s Steam & Vintage Marketplace stunning restoration of a Burrell road locomotive once abandoned near Sydney.

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Rally claiming dates 2014 Get your new year diaries out and mark in the dates of your favourite steam and vintage events!

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Aveling tractor centenarian One of the rarest seen Aveling 3-ton tractors in the world, it’s been in the same family for 100 years!

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66 Save money when you subscribe

See page 30

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44 Front Cover: Just restored by Jimmer Marsh and making its public debut at the NTET AGM on November 16 was Alfie Cheyne’s Burrell No 3455 of 1913 Semper Fidelis. JAMES HAMILTON This issue was published on December 19, 2013. The February 2014 issue of Old Glory (No 288) will be on sale from Thursday, January 16.

Having trouble finding a copy of this magazine?

Why not Just Ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy each month?

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Meet the team Colin Tyson

Derek Rayner

Steve Dean

Mike Dyson

Roger Hamlin

Andrew Bruce

Malcolm Ranieri

James Hamilton

OLD GLORY JANUARY 2014 | 5

News&Events Hyde Park fair

THE Hyde Park Winter Wonderland DVD, advertised by Dave Homer Videos on page 85 of OG 286 is of the 2012 event and not the 2013 event, as implied in the advert text. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Model tractors

THE Model Tractor, Plant & Construction Show will be returning to the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, near Leamington Spa, on Sunday, February 16, 2014, for the third year running.

A number of fabulous full size tractors, both vintage and modern, will also be showcased at the event courtesy of the Warwick Tractor & Vintage Machinery Society (WVTMS) and Friends of Ferguson Heritage.

All tickets are £6 (accompanied under 14s free) with ample free parking at the venue.

Dorset letter

REGARDING the letter published

by John Burchfield (OG 285) and the response from Martin Oliver (OG 286), Mr Burchfield would like it known that he did make a correction to his original letter (as he didn’t mean to suggest that there were 100 organs listed and only 34 appeared) but was making reference to quantities in the past compared with this year’s showing.

The editor acknowledges this letter was received and, as the GDSF programme editor, should have picked up on this himself!

East African Fowler among Preston’s Christmas stars

AMONG the selection of newly arrived engines at Preston Services, near Canterbury, Kent, which will be on view at their Christmas open days on December 28-29, 2013, is an interesting Fowler road locomotive just brought back from East Africa.

Completed in 1897, this three-speed sprung road locomotive was built for a UK customer with a dynamo, a full length canopy and, most unusually, a ‘bollard’ crane. However, international events led to a change of plan and some last-minute additions to the specification in order to comply with South African and military regulations. It was then shipped to Durban.

The engine was reported to have taken part in the ensuing Boer War, together with other Fowler engines, before the sale in 1903 to a famous African pioneer, H S Henderson VC. Henderson drove it all the way to his ranch near Bulawayo, in what was then Rhodesia, a journey reported to have taken many weeks on unmade roads.

The Fowler’s subsequent life was, presumably, more mundane, although long and hard. It ended its productive life in the 1960s before its recent ‘discovery’ and repatriation. Among many other interesting new arrivals at Preston are a steam roller from Switzerland; a Breloux (French built) portable; Mollycroft showman’s living van; an S F V (French) portable; a replica Clarkson steam bus; a Foster 7nhp sprung traction engine; a complete marine steam plant; a collection of early stationary and marine engines; 4in and 6in scale miniatures; a

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Waller gas plant and a Marshall continental steam tractor.

All these will join the ‘resident’ collection of over 200 steam engines, including the trust’s collection of stationary and marine engines, many of which will be in steam. These, together with organ recitals on the dance hall and fairground organs, provide a warm and friendly atmosphere. The cafe and bar will also be open, and are always popular.

It’s free admission from 10am to 6pm at Preston Court Farm, Court Lane, Preston near Wingham, Canterbury, Kent CT3 1DH. Further info at www.prestonservices.co.uk

Dorset world roller record is official

Four steam at Abbey

PIPEWORK is currently being installed to permit the use of a mobile boiler to steam all four engines at Abbey Pumping Station simultaneously.

This will be a unique event worldwide and will take place at a Vintage Festival on June 28-29, 2014.

Abbey volunteers would be interested to hear if anyone has any reliable information as to when four beam engines last worked together in the one house, it is believed that these would have been the Severn Tunnel engines.

Out of Africa: 1897 Fowler road locomotive that has just arrived in Kent from East Africa.

Martin Oliver and the official Guinness World Record certification.

CERTIFICATION of the Guinness World Record for ‘the largest parade of steam rollers’, which consisted of 103 vintage steam rollers, arrived at the Great Dorset Steam Fair’s Child Okeford office at the end of November.

News of the certificate’s arrival came as a great relief to those that prepared the paperwork and accompanying material that was necessary to satisfy Guinness regarding the attempt.

The fantastic spectacle took place on August 31 at the showground in Tarrant Hinton, Dorset (see last issue).

The steam rollers assembled to form part of GDSF’s ‘Roller Special’ at this year’s show and the GDSF team could not be more thrilled at the outcome of the event.

The original record for the largest parade of steam rollers was

set by the Great Dorset Steam Fair in 2003 (exactly 10 years prior to the day) and included a total of 32 vintage steam rollers… so that was well and truly ‘flattened’ this year!

Martin Oliver, managing director, said: “The 103 steam rollers rolled themselves down in history, with the icing on the cake being the breaking of our own world record. It’s been the perfect end to a perfect year.”

Fittingly, the roller that actually broke the record was Lord Jellicoe, a Fowler that belonged to Martin’s late father Michael, the founder of the Great Dorset Steam Fair. It made history when it passed over the ‘new’ road as number 33 in the procession.

Can the record be beaten?

Anything’s possible but it would certainly be difficult to beat.

Got a story? Tell Old Glory 01507 529306 | ctyson@mortons.co.uk

A life on wheels – Alfie Cheyne (Senior) ENTHUSIASTS across Scotland and beyond were saddened to hear of the tragic accident that claimed the life of haulage contractor and steam enthusiast Alfie Cheyne Senior.

Alfie was a steam and diesel lorry driver with a great passion for steam. It was his lifelong dream to own a steam lorry and it became a reality when he acquired Sentinel Super waggon No 5407 of 1924 Midnight in 2002. He drove hundreds of miles in No 5407 in recent years during his retirement.

Alfie also owned Fowler showman’s conversion Jubilee.

He enjoyed a lifelong interest in the vintage scene and both Jubilee and Midnight regularly attended Bon Accord Steam Engine Club events.

When Alfie left school in 1957 he took up a job with Hay’s Lemonade as the second man on the delivery lorry. That didn’t last too long and he jumped to Turriff Transport Co and was second man on the daily Aberdeen to Turriff carrier.

Alfie tried his hand at different jobs and worked at sawmilling and timber extraction and for a period Alfie worked at the Hamlyn North of Scotland Mill in Turriff, but still had a hankering to be moving on the road.

He then moved to Hutcheons of Turriff delivering animal feeds and from there to another Hutcheon Enterprise – the Parkmore Lime Co in Dufftown where he worked spreading lime.

In 1969 Alfie’s determination to become self-employed kicked in

Alfie Cheyne (Senior) drives his Sentinel waggon through Lecht in June 2004.

and he started business with three Fordson Major tractors and two lime spreaders. This was seasonal work and spurred Alfie on to buy his first lorry. The early days of road transport at Crossfields were not easy, depending on old Leylands which ultimately were someone else’s problem before Alfie got them.

The mid 1970s brought fresh challenges. Alfie bought a brand new Leyland lorry and that was a mistake. Not 18 months later it was lying in the yard with its engine in bits and had to be

A lifelong passion for things with wheels.

replaced with a new Scania. Alfie worked hard over the next 10 years transporting fish and shrimps throughout Scotland.

A part time business in CB radio extended right through the 1990s and he operated a community band radio mast at the Hill of Brackens for commercial twoway radio systems. In the 1980s and 90s Alfie enjoyed a varied haulage life mainly transporting bulk liquid animal feeds and fertilisers to farms throughout Scotland. And more recently spent the last 10 years in and

around the movements of ACE Winches.

He was well known for his stories of experiences in road haulage and steam preservation and will be sadly missed – particularly at steam rallies. He regularly travelled to the Bedford rally and showed his Sentinel there recently. He was also a keen supporter and attendee of the Scottish Traction Engine Society’s rally at Balado.

Our thoughts are with Gladys and the family at this difficult time.

Alfie Cheyne.

OLD GLORY JANUARY 2014 | 7

MILITARY TRANSPORT

Train for the troops

The wounded being taken back via light railway from an advance east of Arras in October 1918. The locomotive is a 20hp Simplex petrol tractor, heading up a train consisting of British Class D and E wagons.

With 2014 marking the centenary of what was, at the time, ‘the war to end wars’, Simon Lomax of the Moseley Railway Trust looks at the narrow gauged military railway and how the volunteers of the Apedale Railway are preserving its memory

A

Where’s that one coming? Canadian troops repairing a 60cm gauge railway under shell fire in July 1917.

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s fans of TV’s Downton Abbey will have seen, the First World War brought about a level of change unprecedented in human history.

Social norms which had existed for centuries were swept away in four years. It is absolutely true to observe that nothing was ever the same again. A key reason for this level of social change was that the First World War occasioned a degree of technical change unseen in any conflict before or after. These technological changes were wide-ranging, affecting every aspect of human conflict. From the machine gun to the submarine, from poison gas to aeroplanes – no war would ever be fought against such a backdrop.

We take a brief look at one aspect of this change – the use of narrow gauge railways in supporting the conflict.

Historically, fighting armies lived off the land. The men needed food, the horses needed fodder and both could usually be obtained locally – by force if need be. Spears did not need ammunition, and arrows could be made from branches. As weapons grew more advanced, so did the need for the logistics trail to support the fighting man. The counterpoint

Armoured Simplex tractor at the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway, Bucks, in 2009.

US-built Baldwin steam locomotive at Leighton Buzzard.

Protected Simplex tractor with troop train at Apedale, 2009.

of this was also true – the need to evacuate the wounded increased exponentially. The Crimean War descended into a bloody mess, largely because of the inability of the British Army to provide for the basic needs of its troops. Fortunately, the opposition was even more poorly organised.

Logistics also tends to be the ‘unsexy’ end of the military. After all, who would forego the glamour of a new tank or howitzer to go and look after the stores supplying fuel for the tank or the shells for the howitzer? That isn’t where medals are won! This was certainly true at the start of the First World War, and still holds true – witness the inadequate equipment for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Looking back to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the French had taken what can only be described as a right kicking. They resolved that such a thing wouldn’t happen again, and a defensive mindset settled onto the French military (finding its ultimate, futile, outlet in the Maginot Line, which Hitler famously cheated by being able to read a map). The British, on the other hand, had enjoyed a period of relative military success, and just knew that wars were won by sending their

dashing cavalry charges and sweeping ‘Johnny Foreigner’ from the field of battle.

DECAUVILLE SYSTEM

Step forward Frenchman Paul Decauville. As part of a large farming family, Decauville had first-hand experience of the problems that mud caused on the family farm. This rendered traditional horse and cart transportation on sugar beet fields extremely difficult. Inspired to overcome these issues, Decauville ultimately developed an ultra lightweight and portable railway system intended for both military and industrial applications. Decauville’s main innovation was to utilise prefabricated panels of very light weight steel rail fastened to steel sleepers, to be laid directly on to the ground with little or no preparation. It was the stated intention that each piece of track material could be carried by a single man. Decauville showcased his system at the 1878 World Exposition in Paris (which was also famous for the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower). Trains on 600mm gauge hauled by Mallet steam locomotives carried visitors around the showground.

The French military started to take an interest

in the Decauville system as early as 1888. The idea of 600mm gauge tracks conveying supplies from standard gauge railheads to fixed fortresses fitted perfectly with the defensive mindset.

Among the German visitors to that Paris Exposition was Arthur Koppel. He took a keen interest in Decauville’s ideas, and returned to Germany, where he managed to convince the Kaiser’s military of the benefits. It is worth remembering that the German railway network was developed with (at least) a secondary purpose of supporting military adventures.

The Schlieffen Plan, which occasioned the start of the First World War, was (apocryphally) said to be based around railway timetabling. Hence, it is easy to imagine Koppel’s ideas finding a ready acceptance.

The British military knew better. Their thinking was shaped around the evolving motor lorry and not railways at all. These vehicles at the turn of the 20th century were a quantum leap away from modern juggernauts.

The military’s early lorries were hopelessly underpowered, required a mechanical genius to drive them, had a very limited carrying capacity, negligible off-road ability and, to cap it all, diabolical fuel efficiency.  OLD GLORY JANUARY 2014 | 33

STEAM EVEnTS

FIEldIng at 50

Roger Hamlin attended the 50th anniversary celebration rally and road runs of e Steam Traction Society at Maewa near Fielding in the lower half of New Zealand’s North Island in early November THE FOUNDATIONS

A shining beacon of excellence in New Zealand road steam preservation, not only in its facilities but also with a great crowd of willing club members, The Steam Traction Society at Maewa near Fielding started with a group of members of the Railway Locomotive Society.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s they were able to travel on steam-hauled rail excursions throughout New Zealand when the writing was on the wall for steam traction. On one such trip, Mike Barnes and Ron Alexandra started talking about traction engines and how they were being cut up for scrap. Another guy overheard and the subject continued.

In November 1963, Mike Barnes was going about his business when a man erecting electric power poles told Mike about a traction

engine he’d seen on a farm just outside Rangiwahia – well off the beaten track but not too many miles from where Mike lived.

That very evening, Mike and his father travelled to the farm and soon found the engine. They were told by the farmer that it was owned by Jim Waugh of Mangaweka, about an hour’s drive away. They soon found him, and enquired of the engine. It was a Ransomes Sims & Jefferies two-speed engine No 24090 of 1913. “Yours for £70,” came the reply. That was a considerable sum in 1963, but Mike’s father came to the rescue by loaning the money!

Mike in turn asked his mates, Ron Boyce, Ron Alexandra, John Pudsey and Ian Chamberlain, if they would each take a £10 share and that’s how the club was formed. It took 13 months’

A group shot from 1964 with the Ransomes, which includes the five members who founded the club.

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hard work preparing the Ransomes for the trip to their base at Marton – eight days to get it out of the farm, steaming it across a river (which was how it had arrived in the first place!); only one of the group had a steam ticket but the boiler inspector passed it for the trip to Marton.

They now needed to buy or rent a piece of land for what had become the Wanganui Traction Club, and get their (now) three engines under cover. They were offered land at Kapiti View, where they built an engine shed.

By 1972 time was running out at Kapiti, and as a rally was to take place at Tokomaru (Colin Stevenson’s land), the engines were allowed to stay there for the next year.

Stuart Dyke had a property at Maewa and spare ground further down the road where the

The club’s engines in 1964, when based at Kapiti View: Garrett No 29777, Fowler No 9167, RSJ No 12747 and Aveling roller No 8524.

The engines and crews line-up for their 50th anniversary photo on November 9, 2013. ROGER HAMLIN

Wayne Clark arrives on site with‘founding engine’Ransomes Sims & Jefferies No 24090 Henrietta.

next door neighbour had a sawmill, which was paying £50 a year to dump sawdust. This arrangement soon changed and the club now had its own ground, purchased with the help of a mortgage.

They built a big shed to house the engines, then club rooms at the end, then later extended the rear of the shed for storage. By 1989 a workshop was added with a host of machine tooling and an electric crane for lifting engine parts; flush toilets, showers and central heating, then more storage, was added

and a portable engine fitted and a line of stationary engines appeared. A sawmill has since been donated and is powered by one of the engines. More land has been added, totalling eight acres.

PLANNING THE RALLY

One of the first tasks was to invite clubs and individuals to bring an engine or two for the historic 50th event. The engine that started it all – Ransomes Sims & Jefferies No 24090 – was now owned by club member Wayne Clark

Paul Johnstone’s Fowler No 12921 is unloaded from its container at Fielding, having travelled up from South Island for the event.

of Hawkes Bay and he jumped at the chance to bring it down for the celebrations. He’d owned it since 1992, buying it from Chris Pask who owned it for at least nine years. Others offered to bring engines when they knew that a threeday road run to Rangiwahia to where RSJ No 24090 was found all those years ago was on the cards.

The road run would require much planning.

It would use a lot of coal. Mining company Bathurst Resources, based on the west coast of South Island, was contacted and, unbelievably, offered the club 30 tonnes of coal completely free. It was hoped that five of the original six members who purchased the Ransomes would attend to pose in front of the engine again after all these years. A celebration dinner would be held on the Saturday night on site in the big shed, and past and present members invited; in the event 120 people attended. Six ‘non-club’ engines were booked to appear, with one coming up from South Island – Fowler road loco No 12921 owned by Rob ‘Tex’ Johnstone.

THE EVENT

Club members rescue Burrell 6nhp No 2774 of 1905 from its last working site at Utiku in 1965.

On Thursday, November 7, Wayne Clark arrived on site with ‘founding engine’ Ransomes No 24090 on a low loader, having journeyed 100 miles from Havelock North in Hawkes Bay. In light steam it was soon placed in a spare shed till required on the Saturday.  OLD GLORY JANUARY 2014 | 45

IN THE WORKSHOP The nickel and chrome bath tanks.

Electro-plating

Black art or science?

Perhaps the nearest thing there is to modern-day alchemy, chromium plate can make or break your vehicle restoration, advises Jerry urston

H

The pedal set from a go-kart arrives on site for chromium plating.

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ours of work, cleaning, painting and respraying are let down by dull or damaged plate.

This is why I visited Nuneatonbased Marque Restore with a box of (not so shiny any more) bits removed from several of my project vehicles and more specifically my 1947 Allard car.

Alan Olner, the owner of Marque Restore, has a pragmatic approach to plating and his opinions are encouraging. As a classic motorist he maintains that your vehicle had a decent coat of chrome when it was built and rechroming should be a straightforward job, little more than a strip, gentle repolish and replate will restore the high shine.

That hazy dullness that you see on vehicles’ chrome (sometimes on examples only a few years old) is because of abrasive cleaners which have scratched the surface or even cut through the thin chrome surface to expose the underlying nickel, which then tarnishes. The other chrome damage you see is most likely to

A petrol cap as brought in.

Stripped of its old chrome.

Black art or science? The cleaning tanks in the Dickensian-style workshop.

be as a result of poor workmanship in the first place. This includes poor adhesion, with the finish coming off in sheets, or rust pricks – these appearing almost immediately when it gets damp. These symptoms usually point to some sort of problem with the surface preparation or the original plating process and they usually show up very soon after the job has been completed.

Poor storage can make life difficult for even the best chrome. Dust and dirt on the surface can trap moisture and acids activated by this gradually eat through the finish to the metal below.

More work will be needed if the original chrome needs replacing because of this sort of damage to its surface. Once the atmosphere has got at the underlying metal it will begin to rust, resulting in at first little rust blisters, then telltale spider tracks as it migrates under the finish. If left unattended for long enough deep rust-pits will form. These are a nightmare for a plater to deal with.

REPLACE YOUR CHROME

Alan isn’t shy. He points out tactfully but firmly that there is no other option but to have the chrome replaced once it is damaged or dulled – it won’t repolish. He acknowledges that a damaged surface can be preserved by using grease or some sort of water dispersal spray but he can’t really see the point as plating is supposed to be both decorative and

protection by itself. The thing that really winds him up though is people not bothering with anything at all. “In the long run it will just cost them,” he sighs. “The more damage there is to the underlying metal the more remedial work has to be done.”

DON’T ‘TRIPLE-PLATE’

Alan is similarly adamant that there is absolutely no need for the triple plating (copper, nickel, chrome) that people rave about. “Steel is sacrificial to copper”.

He continues, citing Mercedes car bumpers as an example: “The surface look great because of the thickness of the plate but turn the part over and you’ll find that it has rusted away from the inside out.” Copper he maintains should only be used in exceptional circumstances, as an electrically deposited filler to deal with rust pits that can’t be polished out without losing undue amounts of metal from the part being dealt with.

How you should present a part for plating was something that I needed to ask. Can you save money by pre-preparing parts? The answer is yes. “If you want to save a few quid hand the bits over disassembled, paint stripped and clean.” Would having them media blasted (shot, sand or similar) help? “No, not really...

In many cases some of the media becomes embedded into the surface making polishing difficult or roughs up the surface badly, meaning yet more work. 

Being polished.

Out of the chrome bath.

OLD GLORY JANUARY 2014 | 93

Tail lampTom Telling iT like iT is

Conversions: when to use the ‘C’-word MenTIOn the word ‘conversion’ to most steam enthusiasts and it’s like waving a red rag to a bull.

Quite frankly, I do not understand why there is a problem.

A person buys a engine and they decide to make it more in keeping with their wishes – for example, they may have always wanted a showman’s engine but could not afford the inflated prices which they command. So, they bought a humble roller which was all they could afford and they converted that engine into what is commonly known as a ‘showler’, so what?

As long as they register it with the DVLA as such, they will not need to hold a Category ‘G’ driving licence. I have no issues with conversions as long as the engine can be easily converted back to its original form at a later date. I would much rather see a conversion than an engine being scrapped as unwanted.

This brings me on to the subject of retro conversions. A few years ago I was a co-owner along with a few other like-minded enthusiasts.

This particular engine had been modified in preservation and had

had various bits of ‘bling’ added to it including brass nameplates, RRA membership plaque and a Foden star adorned the chimney, even though it wasn’t a Foden.

These were all items which it had not carried during its working life.

I managed to get hold of some photos of the engine during its working life in the 1950s and drew up a specification for its restoration to that period.

All of the other co-owners thought it a good idea with the exception of one man. He was up in arms and demanded to know if I’d personally seen the engine in the 1950s. I replied that I hadn’t as I had not been born until 1954.

This particular individual ranted and raved for nearly half an hour before announcing that he was happy with the conversion as long as the engine could be restored to its preserved state at a later date!

In one way he had a point as, at that stage, the engine had been in preservation for nearly 20 years longer than its working life. The engine concerned attended the GDSF in 2013 in its 1950s guise.

Rebuilds (while in commercial

Aveling & Porter AD 14070 was much appreciated in Germany, but not, it seems,

by British purists.

use) are a different matter as often they were undertaken to make an engine more suitable for a specific task. For example, in the 1930s roads were being built which used asphalt as a surface material as this was more durable than surfaces previously used.

One of the problems laying asphalt is trying to get a ridge free surface – and conventional three point rollers tended to cause a ridge to be formed as the asphalt cooled while it was being rolled.

Thus, the Tri-tandem was

introduced to try and remove the cause of this problem.

Wirksworth Quarries had three of its Robey tandem rollers rebuilt

by Harry Goode of Royston in the 1930s into Tri-tandems. Two of the three rebuilds survive – the third was scrapped in 1963. Of the survivors, one is with the Robey Tri-tandem Partnership and the other is privately owned. I would not want to see these unique engines rebuilt to their original form, as we’d lose the last two Tritandem rollers left in the world.

The views expressed by ‘Tail Lamp Tom’ are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.

NEXT MONTH

▲ AlanMcEwenwithmoreofhisearly boilermakeryarns

▲ John Forshaw’s 1896 Ransomes portable engine

l Savage centre engine restored l Motorcycles of the Dene Motor Co l Foster tractor centenary l February issue on sale from January 16, 2014.

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