Getting steamed up at Strumpshaw

For those who know about things like the Strumpshaw Steam Museum and the Strumpshaw Steam Rally will be surprised that I haven’t been there with the camera before now.

The rally itself has been going since 1968 and the origins of the museum go back as far as the Second World War.

While I may have missed out on all that, it seems clear that the rest of the world (and especially the world of steam) had not. I have never seen so many traction engines gathered together in one place.

There were large engines which will have been used on farms, road rollers, road repairing engines, roundabouts, a whurlitzer, pipe organs and miniature traction engines whose origins and usefulness I wouldn’t even begin to guess. It was simply amazing.

Clearly the old hands knew each other and while my initial intention was to take pictures of anything powered by steam, it was the wonderful collection of characters that captured my imagination.

If at first you don’t succeed
Get help

These ladies and gents were friendly interesting people who described their machines with enthusiasm and passion. I tried to follow them and certainly expressed interest, but the technology they were discussing was way beyond me.

Pistons and punds per square inch
Real concentration

It was all about valves, pistons, boilers and lbs per sq inch.  That tended to fool most of the clever young things with mobile phones!

It works like this
but for others like this

My thanks to those who agreed to be photographed and to those who spent no small amount of time ensuring that I went away wiser than when I arrived.

Strumpshaw Steam Rally was a great day out with a real carnival atmosphere

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