First engine memories

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On 8 Mar 2006 13:24:12 -0800, "Bob" finished tucking into their plate of fish, chips and mushy peas. Wiping their mouths, they swiggged the last of their cup of tea, paid the bill and wrote::

I recall hearing what I now know to be some sort of hit 'n 'miss engine (I suspect a gas engine) in a fireplace workshop on Peverill Street in Nottingham in the late 50's. I walked past it on the way to school and it was only when I started going to rallies that I realised what the chuf, chuf, chuf, chuf, CHUF! chuf, chuf, chuf, chuf, CHUF! chuf........ sound was.

Brian L Dominic

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"Kim Siddorn" wrote (snip):-

Wow - beat that!

Well I certainly can't. Most of my earliest memories of engines are from rallies in the 1970's, but I do remember one sighting 'in the wild' as it were. It was on a family holiday in Cornwall, probably in the late 1960's, where an open crank engine housed in a dark dusty building was hauling boats up the beach in one of those nice little coves. Many years later the engine was mentioned in SEM and I was most pleased to know it had survived. Can't remember the name of the place - shame our man in the S-W has abandoned ship.

"Lost in the Smoke" was easy - I'd written it some time ago for SEM but for some reason they never printed it.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn.

"Kim Siddorn" wrote

No pictures, SEM love pictures. Perhaps you could do it comic strip syle - remember what Ogri looked like in his yoof ;-)

I never got within touching distance when I was young but I can well remember when I was about 10 and living in Gainsborough. When the travelling fair visited the town I was fascinated with the huge generators on trailers, usually 6 cyl. diesels, I would stand and gaze at them for hours, My friends thought I was mad ! Also the local cinema ( The Grand, later the Gaumont ) had an outhouse at the back with horizontal gas engine powering a generator, I remember it had a 4 ft flywheel and sometimes you could hear it chugging inside the cinema during a quiet part of the film. My annual holiday in Mablethorpe brought more fascination when I discovered the power plant tucked away in the corner of the amusement park, there was a large two cyl. Ruston diesel in there with a large flywheel, I guess about 8 ft, cooled by 4 large water tanks outside. I soon found a slatted grill round at the back adjacent to the sand dunes, where I would spend ages looking at this marvellous beast chugging away to power the amusement park........I was 14 then and I am still fascinated with this type of engine after 50 years. Mike, Lincoln.

I have early memories of engines as I grew up on a farm with a Lister Start-o-matic chugging away over in the shed. It even had its own 'proper' engine room.

The engine I remember most clearly was the old Lister 'J' (1917) that drove the shearing gear (3 stand). It had a long exhaust which went out through the wall, so when shearing started at 5 am we kids could hear the old Lister from the house. I still have that engine, mounted on its massive sledge (a NZ fitting?). I still have the original water pump to return it to screen cooling one day. That was ditched in favour of a 44 gallon drum when the former rusted out.

I decided one day when quite young, to see if I could start the 2 stroke Brockhouse motor on the BMB 'Hoemate" - I wound the cord just as I had seen my Dad do it, gave it a feeble pull, and away she went. These little engines scream - it sounded to me like it was going to take off, so I turned and ran as fast as I could. I slipped over in my haste and as I scrambled to get up, the engine stopped - no doubt the fuel tap was shut off... One of brothers still has that machine.

Also still in the family, and like the other engines mentioned, older than me are, the Hayter mower with Mk15 Villiers, still an excellent mower, the Atco, which was meant for the tennis court, but struggled with NZ grass. There were a few other small engines, I know where they all are 40 odd years later.