Banbury Rally 2018

[Gordon Bennett]

I visited Banbury traction engine rally held at Bloxham on both Saturday and Sunday (23 - 24 June) and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I know a lot of people from the area and have very good memories of crewing various engines at the event - and crewing on engines driven to the rally. This was before I became ill. Now I am known for my pencil drawings featuring engines, it seems I cannot walk too far along the engine line before someone recognizes me and asks how I am doing - I do find there are a lot of really nice people in this wonderful hobby we all share.

People inevitably ask about my artwork and I had with me a print of one of several ongoing projects. I received some incredibly positive comments regarding this picture and others over the weekend. I would like to thank all of the people who made these positive comments, they really are very much appreciated and very motivating.

Anyway, there were some wonderful engines there and below are seven photos taken by myself at the event. As before, there are no alterations to them other than a bit of cropping. Also, they are all over exposed. This is because if they are used in the creation of my artwork, I need to see what is going on in the darkest shadows - which were intense on Sunday with very strong sunlight due to the lack of cloud.

Below are three photos of Burrell "Lord Nelson", which I think looks amazing as a road loco. Can anyone put a name to the colour it is painted?







Next is Fowler "Tommy". Does anyone know who Tommy was? The engine looked and sounded just right and has to be a potential subject for a future drawing. I still like to see an agricultural engine on strakes - the engine just has the right look about it.





Burrell "William V" looks incredible. The way it looks now, I wonder how it compares to how it looked when it left the builders paint shop when it was new. It is difficult to get an idea of how shiny the original paint would have been from works photos. If there was such a thing as a time machine, the St. Nicholas Works would be on my list of places to visit!



Garrett 4 CD and Burrell roller "Ventongimps" are next. I became involved with the Burrell and helped the owner at the end of the restoration. I was also part of the crew the first year it was out - very good days, the memories of which are very special.



My final photo is of Foremost, with those massive rear wheels. I spoke with the crew and asked about the rear wheels. They are 7 feet over the strakes, with 3" of rubber on top. Quite a machine, with a lot of history - it worked in France in WW1 and was used to haul pantechnicons by the original owner.

One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing the BBMF Lancaster fly quite low over the site. The sight and sound was amazing. I did not photograph it as I wanted to enjoy the moment seeing it properly instead of through a camera viewfinder. The entire rally just stopped when it was flying over the rally fields - absolutely everyone stood still and looked at the sky.

I hope T-T members enjoy these photos of some of the engines.

Michael

[Jeff Shackell]

Michael, you ask who Tommy was. Fowler 15710 was purchased for preservation in 1955 by the late Arthur Napper of Appleford. He named the engine "Tommy" after Tommy Yeo who was a threshing engine driver for Wilders of Wallingford. Tommy and Arthur were great friends and it was Tommy Yeo who taught Arthur to drive a traction engine. There are a few photos around of Tommy at the 1955 Appleford rally and as the engine had not been in Arthur's ownership very long the name Tommy is painted on the smokebox door. The present Tommy nameplate and number plate lettering go back to the middle 1960's when the engine was painted by James & Crockerell. Jeff

[Jeff Shackell]

Michael, again. Burrell "Lord Nelson" was painted by the late Tim Tomlins, he bought a dark maroon colour of paint, possibly Dulux. It not being dark enough for Tim, who thought engines always look better in a dark paint, he added a tin of black and that is the colour. This was painting Tim's way and nothing wrong with that.

[Gordon Bennett]

Jeff, thanks for that information. Details like these are so important to the history of an engine and I hope over time, changes of ownership etc. these stories do not get lost.

I've heard of engines being painted in Dulux before and lets face it, when the engines were built the paint would have been mixed by the coach painter himself. I am sure each painter would have had his own ideas as to what looked best and mixed the colour accordingly. Somewhere near the official colour was the aim I imagine. So adding black to the colour is not as extreme as it sounds - possibly history sort of repeating itself.

Michael

[Mr B]

I think, but I could me wrong that Lord Nelson is Bullock Maroon, which is the same as Gladiator if memory serves.

Or perhaps that is where it started off before being 'blacked' a little