Steam rally breaks engines record

A RECORD 100 steam engines took part in the annual Stoke Row Steam Rally over the weekend.

Organiser Tony Waistell said it was the highest number of full-size steam engines the event had seen in its 41 years.

More than 10,000 people attended the rally, which featured around 1,500 exhibits including miniature stream engines, classic cars, motorcycles, vintage tractors, lorries, military vehicles and plant machinery.

Other attractions included a fairground, farm animals, a craft tent, live music and dancing and re-enactment displays from living history groups.

Mr Waistell said: “I think it was one of our best shows ever. We had a great attendance and the weather was kind to us and brought everyone out.

“The show is getting more and more popular and more and more people are wanting to exhibit.

“I would like to thank the committee for all their hard work to help put it on. They are all exhibitors as well and they really care about making it a good show.”

Nigel Barker, 68, travelled from Chipping Norton to display his 1913 Burrell Gold Medal tractor, which was restored after it was abandoned in the former Goodey’s scrapyard in Twyford.

Mr Barker said: “It’s what we call a general haulage engine for hauling timber, bricks and things like that around farms.

“It ended up in a scrapyard at Twyford, where my father purchased it in 1956 and we’ve had it ever since.

“It was all complete but it needed a new firebox because they are all pressure vessels. They have to have very strict boiler tests every year because they run at 200 psi pressure.”

Mr Barker described the steam engine community as very sociable and the rally as a great family event.

He said: “My son and granddaughter have been here and my daughter is normally here with her two sons, so it’s a family thing. We’ve got friends that we see just at steam rallies.”

Ben Brown, from Pangbourne, attended with his 1902 Marshall General Purpose Engine “Old Timer”.

He was joined by his son George, seven, who enjoyed helping his father drive the engine.

George said: “I like making the fire up, steering and pulling the levers.”

Mr Brown added: “He does find some of the whistles too loud though.”

“Old Timer” is one of the most famous traction engines in the world as it was previously owned by Arthur Napper, who is widely considered to be the father of the steam traction engine movement.

After buying the engine in the Fifties, Napper challenged a fellow farmer to a race on the engines for a firkin of ale.

After 100 spectators turned out to watch the match, the sport quickly caught on and soon other enthusiasts began searching scrapyards for similar engines.

As well as original builds, the rally also exhibited a number of picture-perfect replicas.

These included a 9in Foden steam lorry displayed by Darren Marcham, from Woodcote.

He said: “It was built in 2009. I bought it from a dealer in Kent. The full-sized ones were used for taking stuff to and from the railways and the dockyards, like the lorries do now.

“We take it around a few local shows and it always creates quite a bit of interest. Everybody thinks it’s 100 years old but the number plate gives it away a little bit.” Mr Marcham said he had been a steam engine enthusiast for almost all his life.

He said: “It started with a little model toy only a few inches big and setting fire to the kitchen table.”

Some of the other vehicles on display included retired military vehicles that have been
repurposed.

Matt Foster drove 140 miles from Suffolk to display his Matador AEC Truck that he bought when he was just a teenager.

He said: “I first saw it when I was 12 in a timber yard in Luton. When I was 17 I went back with my first pay cheque from my first job and bought it.

“It took me 10 years to restore it and now I restore them for a living, so I turned my hobby into a job.

“It was built in 1942 for the British army. It would have been used to transport about 12 soldiers in the back of it.

“It would have towed a big gun, firing ammunition shells behind, about seven tonnes, and it would have probably been out in France on D-Day. When the army sold this model in the late Sixties, they were very popular with recovery companies.

“It spent the rest of its working days in the woods, hauling felled trees.”

One of the biggest attractions of the weekend was a Wild West-themed show put on by the Wyoming’s Authentic Western Society, a re-enactment group.

The show, about a monetary dispute that turns violent, included cowboys riding on horseback and firing blank rounds from pistols.

Re-enactor Amanda Harman said: “We do the American West, about the 1860s to 1880s, just to help educate people about what it was like.

“It wasn’t all about the cowboys and Indians, it was about the townsfolk as well.

“Men, women, and children are involved. It’s a family affair sort of thing. I’ve got my children here and my sister and my dad are here as well. We do various shows and most of them end up in a sort of altercation between characters. We’ve got handguns, long guns and shotguns.”

Another living history group, the Earl Rivers Regiment, set up a 17th-century style camp to educate visitors about the Civil War.

The group is part of the Sealed Knot Society and is based a local regiment stationed at Wallingford Castle during the war.

Hannah Monger, who is part of the group with her husband Derek, who played Charles I, said living history offered a form of escapism.

She said: “You just forget about everything and go and enjoy
yourself.

“It is great because the Civil War doesn’t tend to be taught in schools quite so much so it’s an ideal opportunity to teach. We do a little display with the muskets and the pipes.”

Next year’s rally will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8.