[Bosiboz]

We had a pleasant day out locally at the Ilkeston Classic & Vintage Vehicle Show on Sunday. This is a well attended freebie event of mainly cars but with steam engines (large & mini), tractors & lorries thrown in . It was an early start on the roads particularly as it was Casey our apprentice's 18th party the night before! The Foster performed well as normal however the Garrett was not in a good mood having injested the low pressure piston rod packing and shot it out the chimney on the way there. On the way back she refused to steam and we limped and plodded back on 100psi until we gave up a couple of miles from home with the boiler water level reaching critical. Despite extensive work with the pricker and slicer the fire just would not burn and we ended up drawing the fire on the road side and lighting a fresh fire. This is the first time I've ever had to do this. Only then did she start steaming properly. What should have been a journey of about an hour took 3 hours.