Tuesday 24 November 2009

Happy Birthday Keeling!



This year 'Keeling', a 1909 Burrell traction engine is celebrating her 100th birthday, she is owned by Dave Smith. 'Keeling' has an interesting history, she was the first traction engine to cross the tamar toll bridge.
Happy Birthday 'Keeling'!
Photos from the Newark tractor show will be posted soon.

Friday 20 November 2009

Severn Valley Railway, Ride on Tornado


Over the half term school holidays brand new locomotive 'Tornado' was in steam at Severn Valley Railway so me, mom and dad, Chris Beale, Peter Waghorn, Chris's Grandad and Chris's mate Jake decided we would have a day out on the railway includeing a ride on 'Tornado', and enjoy it we did.
A little bit about Tornado -

- Tornado's full title is 'Peppercorn Class A1 Pacific 60163 Tornado'

- Tornado cost £3 million to build.

- The first steam locomotive to be built in Britain for almost 50 years.

- Tornado was built at Darlington.


We arrived early at Severn Valley and decided to take a trip to Highley (because it was 'highley' likely we were going to get off, Petes bad joke, not mine) on 'Erlestone - Manor' and the views from the bridge at Highley (Right Picture) were fantastic.

Later we boarded 'Tornado' for our trip to Bridgnorth, we travelled in a teak carriage which was nice and comfy for the journey, we all enjoyed ourselves and very much want to go back soon.

Enjoy the photos...




Wednesday 18 November 2009

End of Season Steam Run


Once the steam rally season is finished the steam boys have what they call an end of season steam run, or pub crawl i heard someone say by mistake. The steam engines leave SE Davis's Yard where they are kept and make their way to the "Y - Not" for Breakfast with their living vans on tow, then onto the "Green Dragon Pub" at Sambourne, then onto the "Jubilee" where more ale is consumed. It didnt stop there either they then carried on to the "Moat House Inn" at Coughton (incidentally where we stop for half way refreshments on the new years day tractor run). Left Picture: 'Big Dazza' topping his roller up with water. The steamers stopped overnight at the Moat House and then made their way back to SE Davis's yard on the Sunday morning. Around seven steam engines took part on the road run and i was lucky enough to get a seat in the trailer towed by engine "Lucy". A good time was had by all and the weather was quite good to us. Enjoy the photos..., remember to click on them to enlarge them.


Thursday 15 October 2009

Cheltenham Steam and Vintage Fair 2009

sorry for the delay in updating the blog, to play the videos click on the play sign in the middle of them and then click the small play button in the bottom left of the video box.







Before i talk about the rally i would like to say a massive thankyou to Peter Waghorn, Chris Beale and mark Jones for letting me have a play with K7 fowler ploughing engine 'Linkey', i took up the offer of steering 'Linkey' and i really enjoyed it, i learnt alot about the engine, Chris Beale's knowledge of the engine is fantastic and i hope to get to know Chris better next year, 'linkey' was at the show ploughing with Michael Davies engine 'Achilles'. The turnout of exhibits was fantastic, steam engines, vintage tractors, vintage commercials, model steamers, organs and much more, one of the best turnouts i have seen. Tom Cullimore and his team organised a great show, Tom also does the commentry on the vinatge tractors and what he dosnt know about vintage tractors isnt worth knowing, the turnout of tractors was very good, highlights for me being a field marshall that had been restored to a very high standard with a ransome thresher on tow, another highlight, a ford super dexta which had been converted to 4WD and Joe Darby's 1964 JCB that featured in the DVD, JCB Backhoe loader. The show has a fantastic reputation, and it is clear that much hard work and effort is put into organiseing the show. Steam ploughing, timber cutting and road making made the show more unique. The weather is somthing that can make or break an event like this, the weather was kind to us on the saturday but i heard sunday wasnt so good. It was nice to see so many of the North Worcestershire Vintage Tractor and Engine Club members in attendance, Neil Lobb took along his Ferguson ted 20, Pete Summers exhibited his Fordson and Ransome plough and Peter Waghorn took along his Ford 2000 which i had the oppurtunity to drive, thanks Pete. The next event i am visiting is Newark where me and dad will be exhibiting our own tractors.

Enjoy the steam ploughing videos at the bottom of this post.