Barleylands

In article , Peter A Forbes writes

I took 25, mainly of steam engines standing still; as usual, I videoed the stationary engines (and the ploughing engines, especially the pair of very old Fowler singles) as I like to capture the sounds too.

Yes, it was a very good display. It was particularly nice to see the small grey Moteur Ceres, the well-loaded larger Listers which were in good voice, the large New Holland which hadn't been re-painted, the little 1/3hp Madison, the Austinlite plant (I like generators), and the Crossley 1030 with its 'hyper-active' valve-gear.

Nor from me either.

We arrived about 1030hrs and left at about 1530hrs. I didn't see anyone I know either.

That's exactly what my brother Geoff and I are thinking; we don't buy programmes anyway, but UKL8 each, especially on top of a 100-mile round trip, is really getting a bit like 'funny money'. I wonder where it goes

- into the pockets of ever-greedier insurers perhaps? We'll have to think hard about going next year.

I generally eschew most of the stalls there, as they seem not to sell much of interest to me (apart from the Food Hall - mead and smoked cheese - and the New Forest cider man, both of whom got my custom today).

We were parked even further away; it must have been over half a mile from the car to the engine lines.

I often wonder about building some sort of small trolley-like device, with large wheels to ride over bumpy fields, plenty of space for purchases of various kinds, room for a battery to power the video camera (the internal one is getting old and tired, and UKL 70-odd to replace), perhaps a seat for a quick rest every couple of miles wandering round... hmmm - I'll need a trailer for it; and how about a small engine to power it with? Perhaps I'll have to start saving up for an Autotruck or something similar :-)

Regards, Andrew.

No such luxuries for me :-) I've spent the last two days sorting yard and sheds so as to get as much inside as poss before the winter. I'll miss a favourite local rally too. It used to feature terrier racing but some dolt entered an on-heat bitch and I'll leave the rest to your imaginations ! I'm amazed at the rubbish I've collected (those cruciform CVs fitted to the front of very early S1 Land Rovers really are ridiculous devices). Whilst doing that I've been musing on spark plugs. I ran the 5hp Petter-Light on an old mica-bodied three side-electrode KLG K4 all season. Its sweet and enables a wide range of mixture adjustment. 5hp Petter Ms under load are notoriously finicky about plugs and although I've tried something like 30 other plugs the only one that comes close is an old 8COM. The newer ones won't do the job. There are lots of so-called plug equivalence tables on the web but none cover pre-WW2 and I believe that mica bodies went out of general use with the coming of leaded fuel (say mid to late 20s). Any thoughts? (or surplus KLG K4 or 5 :-) As an aside I was amused to see that when the USAAF switched over to leaded fuels it initially had to import ceramic Lodge plugs. ttfn

Gentlemen, I'm off to Old Warden tomorrow, mostly Steam with abismal engine display, Rally organiser would rather not have given choice. Good points are Old Warden airfield is open to rally visitors so will take a few pics of the flying old timers to show on webshots. Spent today having a little tidy up and can now walk from end to end in garage.

Martin P

I'm bound to ask end of what to end of what? :-) Roland

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 18:28:54 +0100, Andrew Marshall

Yes, the Moteur Ceres was nice, I had a bit of trouble getting a shot because of young kids running up and down the fence. Parents just ignored them, while photographers were getting ratty having so many wasted shots with kid's heads and arms in the frame.

Rita liked the Austinlite, and asked to go back and take a picture :-)) VERY unusual that was, but I got a couple of pictures. It was very complete and not overdone, very 'Kim-like' :-))

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

Gentlemen, Last week at Haddenham there was two Baby twins sitting in thier own steerable four wheel carts joined together andt the lead cart had what looked like a battery powered caravan mover which father was holding like those old fashioned manual milk floats. Both carts were well made and painted green with wooden sides.

Martin P

Nothing like an accidental tap on the head with a camera lens to stop that :-))

Garage opening to wall :-))

In article , Peter A Forbes writes

Yes; that's infuriating, isn't it. I assume the brats were inside the fence to have got into your viewfinder (as some were when I was trying to take pictures, both today and on many other occasions), and if so, I wonder what will happen when one of them falls over a running engine... their parents will blame the poor owner, I suppose.

Typical. AFAICS, some of them seem to lose interest after the, erm, initiation process of parenthood, IYSWIM :-) / :-(

I don't blame them! At least with the digital camera (Fuji 2800Z), I can erase the shot and take it again. With film, it gets very pricey very quickly (one of the main reasons why I bought the digital camera - I can take to the digital printing shop a CD-RW which has on it only those shots which are worth printing, instead of having to pay for the whole lot, dross and all, to be printed from film).

I find the Austinlite a very appealing piece of kit too. I took a short video of it running, from which I may grab a still or two, or may just copy it to VHS with the other Barleylands footage, plus that from Haddenham which is still on the camera's tape.

I have to say that I do prefer to see engines with a bit of evidence of use on them (such as the heat-discoloured paint around the exhaust valve area on one of the Wolseleys at the show) rather than a totally pristine engine.

When my engine (nothing special, just a rad-cooled 1.5hp Lister D driving a 110v alternator) is ready to run again, I won't be taking it to rallies, but will be setting it up as a standby generator at home - enough power to run (via a transformer) the gas central heating pump and control gear, plus a couple of lights - and it'll definitely be (and look like) a working engine, and be run regularly too. If we ever get the ex-WD 80-watt charging set to run again too, that'll be used for battery charging in power outages, plus perhaps for float-charging batteries for my portable amateur radio station.

Regards, Andrew.

We had a really brilliant weekend, met up with Nick Highfield who looked for the Fuller to find me, did you not see it Peter? can't believe I missed you again!!!

The Moteur Ceres is owned by a member of the Farm Machinery Preservation Society and is quite a regular at the Rallies in our circuit. The guy has a number of rare engines but doesn't talk much....

I hope to post some pics later in the week.

We may have missed a section of the engines as the display was a bit scattered, but we'll make it one day! :-))

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

Look forward to it Peter. BTW the Stuart that we were all amused at the price of £600 was down to £375 on Sunday........

We were there for over seven hours so only about £1 an hour! Even so I'm sure the £8 was a couple of quid up on last year which seems hard to justify, still one of the best rallies of the year though.

Sad but true, I do tend to recognise engines more than people! Nice to see you Pete.

Definitely had an end of season feel about it with 'For Sale' signs on quite a few engines. Homelight tank battery charger lost its sign part way through the day so presumably sold, Stuart gen-set was nice but £600 was far too much (beginning to look more attractive at £375 though!). My fave was a beautiful original condition hot bulb Blackstone on road trailer at £3,250 IIRC. Whether that represents good value for money or not is academic as it's way beyond both my pocket and storage facilities!

But why do the traders start out at such high money for everything? There were a lot of odds and sods that would have sold well if the prices hadn't been so high and put people off.

The tool trader I mentioned had a lot of people swarming round the stand, but wallets stayed firmly in pockets and most said the same thing: "too expensive".

If people are prepared to buy at a reasonable price, why not start that way and get some money in? it can't do much for the costs of a business to take an artic trailer to a show fully loaded and only sell the occasional drill bit off the stall.

The Stuart was very nice indeed, I might well have had it at the lower pricing, but it probably went unsold, another opportunity missed.

Kind regards,

Peter

Peter Forbes Prepair Ltd Luton, UK email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk home: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

I am not going to get involved with a discussion on prices again, I think that I said my piece last time! I will just say great value for a great rally as always (our 4th year).

In terms of Stationary Engines, there was a large number, well laid out and a good number with good info boards. Some really nice engines turned up including a number of Hornsby?s and Crossleys as well as representations of most of the smaller types. My only complaint is that once again, there are very few things actually being driven.

That complaint could not be said for the rest of the rally, as there were a large number of working demonstrations very much in full swing on the Sunday. From the small craft stalls that were making everything from brooms to hurdles, to the excellent road-making display.

The roadmaking display had the usual stone crushers, road rollers of steam and diesel etc, but also included old drag lines and excavators. Next door the steam ploughing was in action with 4 sets (all Fowlers) working away. For those who saw the Standard Fordson tractor pipe laying contraption at Dorset, you could see a Major version actually in action here.

Moving into the next section, the heavy horse outfit was as popular as ever, with its distinct style of commentary provided by my partner?s father!

Further down, 2 sets of steam threshing tackle, being supplied by a complete harvest scene. Binders and early combines cut the corn, which was then loaded onto horse and cart for transport to the threshing machines. Then tractor-ploughing outfits ploughed the field ready for the next crop. More steam working in the shape of 3 rack sawbenches was around the corner standing near the Burrell showmans No1 of 350k fame.

There was also a large display of cars, tractors, motorbikes, steam engines, miniatures, stalls etc. I only managed to buy one item, and that was a small catalogue on lighting plants.

All in all, a very good rally indeed with something for everyone. Well organised with lots to see. Best of all, lots of things actually working.

Regards

Chris Bedo Kent UK