Steam on the Land

You most certainly do qualify and it's good to read an informative post from someone who knows what they are talking about. It's just that most of the steam men I've met aren't in the politically correct brigade, Fred Dibnah being an extreme example. The man in this context is a reference to species not gender, it's why the railways had a grades such as lady signalman until the Equal Pay Act. The job was the same as their male colleagues they just got paid less. One of my Aunts was employed as such at Coldham on the March to Wisbech line in WW2

 

I have a friend who rallies a traction engine on behalf of it's owner (who is happy for someone else to do it, but not at all interested in doing it himself). My friend (and his helper(s)) pick up the running costs for attending rallies (and have indeed purchased their own low loader for long distance travel), but the engine's owner picks up the tab for major engineering work. I think he's managed to end up with the perfect setup I have ridden on it, but only as a passenger - he occasionally threatens to use me to help at some point, but it never seems to work out

 

To be honest it isn't a word I tend to use in conversation anyway, much more likely to refer to "the steerer", the person "steering" or titles such as the "pointer", or one that has been referred to in my direction before now, "CoPilot Cooper..." (the link to the video clip higher up the thread shows me playing with someone else's engine in a navigational capacity, both pointing and telling the driver what lay ahead as they'd never driven the route before and thus didn't know what was in store around each corner. Incidentally, the driver of the blue engine certainly used to be registered on this forum, and the person steering the blue engine owns a 2ft gauge railway loco). If I was to say it in conversation then I suspect I would probably use "steersman" without a second thought, if only because 'man' is one syallable where anything else is two and thus more of an unnecessary mouthful.

In dealing with an insurance claim some years ago (if a Renault clio picks an argument with the front chainsweeps of a roller, guess which comes off worse! ) I referred to "the driver" and "the driver's assistant". I decided it was potentially a lot easier not to suggest the person steering wasn't the person driving! On that occasion I'd given it to friends to take somewhere and I was following behind in the car, groaning as I could see what had happened. Lol.

Indeed, being given someone else's engine to play with can be brilliant if the opportunity arises - even more so if they're happy to foot the bills

You need to express a more serious interest in having a go, turning up early showing eagerness to polish brass and wipe paint can be a good start - unless it's a tatty old engine that doesn't really need polishing and wiping.

Getting a go at steering out on the road is the most fun. On a rally field you're crawling at a snail's pace in wide open spaces. Out on the road you're going at a faster lick (a roller doing 5mph requires just as much concentration as a steam tractor doing 12! With the whizzy bits whizzing 2ft in front of 'yer nose), steering becomes much more important if you're to avoid the ditch/curb a couple of feet over on the left, whilst avoiding on-coming traffic doing 60mph towards you a couple of ft over on the right, not to mention negotiating junctions preferably without swinging out across the opposite carriageway.

 

I was at the Great Dorset Steam Fair about 10 years ago & when the engines were simply going up & down the hill, it was amazing to see what a gang of girl racers could do with a Burrell Compound Road Locomotive...........

 

Yes, impressive to watch - especially when you get a road loco dragging the low loader and railway loco up on its own (although the photos are always more impressive when there are two or three coupled together)


At the risk of being declared a heretic, the novelty of the hill wore thin fairly soon for me the year mine went - so long as there was at last 80psi on the clock I could put the levers forwards and it would go up without much bother. Once I'd done that a few times it was getting a little repetative, but then I never did put a load behind it. Some friends put the log trailer behind, redesigning the shape of the water pocket in the process, but didn't take it up the hill like that. When I subsequently had the tender off and saw just how little was holding the drawbar on I think they were lucky not to rip it off! Lol.

I think the trick to surviving 'Dorset is to be there as part of a group with others, so it's more of a social occasion. It's brilliant when you're there like that, otherwise the week can get a bit boring and lonely.

Incidentally, here's another pick of road and rail steam meeting...


After borrowing Dougal for the 2015 COSSES steam rally, Joe Walker's Fowler Road Loco towed it back from Shrewsbury to Llanfair for their Gala a fortnight later, then shunted it into the yard read for unloading.
(the trailer is on the front hitch having just been 'reversed' into the yard by the loco)

 

Super!
Memories of a grand day out.

Here's a clipette I took the previous year travelling with Richard and the DG8 chasing along behind the S6 on an evening jaunt across to the works.



It has very heavy steering and even on full lock the turning circle of a small oil tanker! Lol.

(I think it's become traditional to toot 'hello' to the signalman in the 'box on the platform above .
You can get a pretty good 'CHUFF' to echo around under there with the roller as well)

 

Just found this thread, so poked my nose in, regarding the Sentinel Waggons in Brown Bayley's at Rotherham, their last day of work was Maundy Thursday 1970, so although that's last week to me, it's really 47 years ago. One of the waggons was bought by a local enthusiast/industrial loco owner/car dealer, but he sold it on unrestored to a man down Wickford way, who spent about 4 years restoring it under a tarpaulin, doing the lions share himself, I think his son's got it now but some of this fleet are still unrestored.

Lloyd Jones brothers were still occasionally using a small Fowler roller into the mid'80's along with the Sentinel tar sprayer, I think that they only gave up when one of them died.

The last time that I remember real steam ploughing was 1976 on the Essex/Suffolk borders, the log hot summer had made the land so hard that nothing else could do it, the farm involved had derelict traction and ploughing engines laying everywhere, along with all sorts of tackle.

Like working windmills/paddle steamers/industrial loco's, there'll always be some-oner who knows where there's one that you don't know about, but there's lots of pinches of salt to take it with.

 

It's currently under restoration. Last seen going into the paintshop.

It's probably due back in Weston by September.