Issue 543 April 2016 Worth £ 3/0/0

Extracts the from the National Steam Centre Newsletter

D raught H orses n go ag l W ne nti s Se an’ ckm Ja ter Pe

W arw w ick B ith s ryce ickle ’s Fo mow rdso er n

Bob Atkin’s Steam boat Steam Ploughing with pair of Fowlers and Balance Plough at Scorseby April 2016 STEAM SUPREME 2

Gotts Ruston Proctor in front of BigFoot . It was full on in the arena thanks to the new arrangements ,

What a fantastic Rally , the best we have ever had at Scoresby The most amazing thing for me was witnessing Steam Ploughing , it is an extremely rare activity these days that few have ever seen in Australia , to be able to demonstrate it in a modern city of 4 million people is almost unbelievable. Continuos Activity Everywhere you looked some function and that club members ( namely the Morris boys ) fascinating activity was taking place . The show stopper for had the skill to restore and operate them all . the public had to be seeing BigFoot , our 110 ton Rapier Of course the other great attraction up the Top Paddock dragline walking . Judging by the hour long queue to see especially with the moms and kids were the gentle giants - through the machine and from the questions asked many of draught horses . our visitors could not believe we had got it fully operation from a derelict hulk retrieved from a coal mine 150 km away . The virtually continuous earthmoving demonstrations in the top paddock certainly drew the crowds who marvelled at the range of machines being operated trenchers , scrapers bulldozers overloaders face shovels all designed for a special

Above This years special attraction was a baby heavy horse , yes there is such a thing , and it was lapping up all the attention it could get. We are extremely fortunate to be able to have the horse people contribute to the SteamFest in such a regular way . Left The Cleavland trencher restored by Peter Morris certainly had the attention of the mechanically minded April 2016 STEAM SUPREME 3

Visiting Displays Quite a few visitors from kindred clubs brought along stationary engine displays and this year our 4 engine compounds were virtually full . What was particularly pleasing was that a large percentage of engines , both visiting and from within our club were driving some sort of machinery be it a saw , pump generator , chaff cutter or baler . I think this is particularly important as it helps todays city folk relate to the type of thing these engines were made to do .

Above Les May brought along his specially constructed display trailer featuring a 3 HP N type Ronaldson Tippet kerosene engine driving a centrifugal pump and water works while a centrifugal blower and floating ball . Left Always a popular hands on display the B-24 Liberator bomber cockpit brought along by Tony and Charles . Put a visit to their restored plane at Werribee on your To-Do list

Above This fine display of heritage vehicles gives a reminder of the extent of the Australian truck industry . The 2 Dodges left had many locally made parts while the Plough Book’s crew cab Inter would have been almost entirely Australian made . The Bedford , Acco and Kennworth were all assembled with many locally produced parts including the cabins. Only the Ford Trader in eye catching Peter’s Icecream livery would not have had much local content . Peter Lynch photo

New Steam This year there were a number of engines we had not seen before while for others 2016 was their first rally in steam . Of note was John Gotts’s Ruston Proctor traction engine’s first rally in steam .( See opening photo ) One not seen before was Roy Odgers .

Left One that fitted the visiting as well as the not seen before category was Phillip Hayes’s home made steam “ “ You could have a lot of fun trying to identify where all the parts came from but there was no doubt it was well engineered with an elaborate drive through chains and sprockets giving a wide range of speed from it’s twin cylinder engine supplied by a quick steaming vertical boiler. April 2016 STEAM SUPREME 4

Right Something new for this year a Replica Roper Steam Motorbike . It is based on Sylvester Roper’s 1896 machine Brian Smith photo noteable for being the first motorcycle to use pneumatic tyres as well as causing him to die of a heart attack when attempting to show off its top speed . Recently fabricated from raw materials it uses a coal fired vertical fire tube boiler and a single cylinder double acting engine acting directly on the back axle. Just who built it was not obvious but it was with the Sparks family display of superb large scale working miniature steamers on the arena .

Left Little Will on Buffalo Pitts Below Same Will , same engine but now in steam for the first time .

This year the Lloyd’s stone crusher was driven by something a little different their American Buffalo Pitts portable engine in steam for the first time since they acquired it . The talking point is its restoration extended over an entire generation . See Jo Lloyd’s adjacent before and after photos .

Arena Changes Our arena was laid out differently this year by temporarily extending the south fence right up to the mobile steam shed. This extra holding area made it possible to momentarily side line the background activities at intervals through

Left Winching demonstrations supervised by Leigh Delaney . With the drive pins removed and wheels chocked a special drum on the rear axle can be engaged to draw in a cable . In this case it is winching the clubs McDonald footpath roller piloted by Ray Bedford. The roller is back in full working order after many years of clutch trouble caused by collapsed bearings . Thanks to Ray sponsoring the cost of gearbox parts and much work by Frank Hedges and Brian Wright. activities , such as rock crushing , the day to conduct special demonstrations traction engine winching and general such as BigFoot walking , the Grand Parade circulation of and rollers always and on Sunday a Military vehicle convoy available to fill in lulls to keep the without the vehicles involved in support public interested . At the same time this activities having to leave the arena. allows operators to show off their It has been found important to have these machines to have bit of fun . A win win . April 2016 STEAM SUPREME 5

Below A new arena activity this year was Straddle Truck demonstrations which proved to be a useful way of filling in any lulls in arena activities as the action of the mechanism could be demonstrated at short notice by picking up and dropping off a simulated load , a special pallet made up by Peter Jackman to hold a large tractor tyre. Originally used for transporting packs of timber around the streets of Port Melbourne there may be an opportunity for the club to obtain this machine.

Below Ken Sievright is still at it making his superb redgum models . Fittingly this year it is the straddle truck complete with a pack of timber just as this one used to cart along Lorimar St Fishermans Bend .

Public Address Another innovation that worked particularly well this year was information sheets for each major mobile exhibits . By including a picture with the key details of each machine and placing them around the arena fence the public could identify what they were looking at and learn a bit about their history. This is a good substitute for a rally program avoiding the difficulties of preparation and printing although a handout at the gate showing a map and timetable is still required. Smaller versions were used by Sparks as information cards for his commentary during the Grand Parade. Actually it was remarked how lucky we are to have the services of our commentator , Sparks he has done it every year for at least 35 years and knows a lot of the background of members and the subtleties of their machines so can anticipate what is about to happen and draw the attention of the public to it so they do not miss it . Below Warwick’s Fordson EN27 P6 tractor made it’s debut at the rally making a fine display towing Ian Stewart’s pto driven Ronaldson Tippet orchard sprayer around the arena and up the Top paddock. For one visitor the tractor so brought back childhood memories of his uncles similar machine in Queensland that he wanted to tell me all about it and had me photograph him sitting on it to show his brother.

Above A line up of our rollers , steam , petrol and diesel powered , unfortunately today they are all “ Steam “ Rollers to the general public . Jo Lloyd took the initiative and made up signs with their mug shot and details so they could be properly identified . April 2016 STEAM SUPREME 6

Eye Catching Displays Left Blair Family Display . This year they thought a nice change would be to group everything together in a compound down by the lake . With recent discussion of Mobilco equipment they brought along their collection consisting of a self propelled slasher , Bo-Bo chainsaw and cylinder mower . Top left can be seen Jarrod’s portable while to the right they looked after the Steam merry- go—round engine for Joy Davies. Below The Lyttelton engine room display was a hit with kids of all ages . Brian set up a hand pump in conjunction with the ships fresh water steam pump that brought endless pleasure to all involved. The success of his efforts are evident by the substantial donations in the Lyttelton collection box by the end of the rally . We should have more donation boxes

Below An attention grabbing display of driven machinery set up by the Stapmanns perfectly demonstrating the use of a stationary engine to drive the Museums grain crusher.

Above Warwick ,not generally a fan of English cars was completely taken by the stylish lines and superb condition of this pre WW 2 Riley saloon belonging to Mr Osborne of the Vintage Radio display . “I could not resist telling him all about my early encounters with these vehicles . A good rally seems to do this to you ! “ April 2016 STEAM SUPREME 7

More SteamFest Rally Pictures Left Lloyd’s Marshall road loco pulling two loaded waggons.

Note the smart new shed identification signs in the background .

Peter Lynch photo

Below Andrew Jackson’s very early Cat Sixty crawler Peter Lynch Photo

Above Bill side’s sleave valve Brass Minerva Peter Lynch photo

This was spotted on the Ladies of Steam Facebook page within hours of our rally . It shows member Vivienne Horwood operating Hayden Sharpe’s twin Tangyes at the SteamFest on Sunday . The international site “celebrates ladies of all ages hard at work and enjoying running the engines we all love “ and appeals for pictures , videos and messages to post on their site .

It has been suggested that here is an opportunity to get the club some international exposure by featuring some of MSTEC’s other ladies . Obviously there is Jo but we should not forget the contribution of Christine and Kaylene , Janine and Arena .