Engine Punk

This is how the Cornish engine looks today In a book on the industrial archaeology of the South Wales coalfields, I discovered the intriguing Glyn Pits engines. One of these is a Cornish style beam engine built by the Neath Abbey Ironworks that's been in its engine house since 1845. We have plenty of engine houses in Cornwall but very few contain their engines. When the mines were worked out (or knacked, as we say down here) the engines were often moved to new locations and could almost be said to be portable - but only with a lot of effort involving teams of horses, oxen and latterly traction engines. Anyone wishing to know more about this should Jack Trounson's Cornish Engines and the Men Who Handled Them . After the coal mine closed in 1932, the engines at Glyn Pits remained in situ for maintaining neighbouring mines by the National Coal Board, albeit electric pumps were in operation by the time the site was finally abandoned in 1966. They are now a little out off th...

This Land Rover looked normal but smelt different. It sounded like any V8 ought to. I was in Wales recently and experienced probably the wettest weather on holiday that I've ever known. However, the Abergavenny Show still went ahead and sheltering under the trees next to the traction engines I found this wood burning Land Rover 101. In the back is a slow wood burning stove designed to produce a steady supply of syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that can then used for combustion in a conventional petrol engine. This vehicle is a work in progress under continuous development. I spoke briefly to the owner who explained the general principles and pointed me to wood gas resources on the internet . It seems that many people in the US are exploring gasifiers as their - er - gas prices go up and in a land where pickups are common the bulk of the gas generating equipment isn't such a problem. This is a close up of the gasifier in the back of the Land Rover. ...

Look closely and every car has been vandalised Also on my travels in Wales I found this garage. There were row upon row of Jags many of which had suffered fire damage. The front row all had smashed windscreens. I'm no forensic expert but Jags don't just go up in flames like this without some encouragement. Or break their windscreens by themselves. I found this very sad. Here was once a successful business. Now it's a graveyard of missed opportunities to get a few Coventry cats back to life. Some of them could yet be saved, especially the undamaged ones but probably by the time you read this they will all have gone the same way. Among the Jags was this Ferrari 308GT4. That at least surely should be saved. Even if its a dark brown one. They say this colour is coming back in. On Google Earth the place looks a bit livelier and the cars more loved. The sign in the picture above of the Ferrari reads Swffryd Fish Bar Another smoked cat. Not so long ago this wa...

Captain Sensible is mature beyond his years (in a reverse direction of course) Photo : Official Damned website The Damned played in Falmouth at the Princess Pavilions last night and were like a tin of Ronseal - they did exactly what is said on the label. The Princess Pavilions is an old theatre that is growing older disgracefully but has recently been done up - a contradiction in terms but it seemed to welcome such outrageousness from these punk pioneers. The Damned have always had a strong image and Dave Vanian the gothfather looked very much at home. He can sing, too. I reckon Dave's got one of the best voices in rock today and he still delivers. During the set, the drummer, Pinch, was watching some overpaid prima donna's kicking a pig's bladder about and kept updating some of the audience who might have been interested in the score but this didn't detract at all from the show and added to the humour and intimacy. Apparently, the desired outcome was achieved ...

This man is going to buy something with two wheels and very soon This little bike caught our attention at Wiscombe Park. Most things in black and gold do but Pete had some cash burning a hole in his pocket (which has now become a Matchless single) and we began to have covetous thoughts about Velocette 250s. Of nearly square dimensions (78 x 78.5mm), the MOV is a rev-happy little chappy. According to Titch Allen in his splendid book The Velocette Saga , David Holmes developed his MOV to spin up to 10,000rpm and subsequnetly reduced the rev range to 8,500 to provide more useable power on the race track. It must be nice for the rider to know they're nowhere near the bloodline when they're ringing its neck. It would still do 100mph, and although it's a production bike, the Suzuki X7 was billed as the first ton up 250 when that was introduced in 1979. That would be 30 years after the MOV went out of production and - of course - the two bikes are not really comparable as on...

The Triangle Skinner Special awaits its turn in the paddock at sunny Wiscombe Park this year. The Triangle Skinner is yet another special to which John Bolster introduced me with his classic book Specials . It seems incredible to me now that it began life as a 1931 Morris Minor and the side valve version at that, which was built to sell at £100. Nowadays, it sports a straight eight Hudson engine of 4168cc. Little remains of that 847cc Morris Minor. It was rather a special Morris Minor, for it was a publicity stunt that used special steel cylinder blocks albeit of the same 57 x 83mm dimensions as the iron production variety. These allowed lubrication pressures of 70 psi and had a bevel drive for a vertically mounted supercharger. Equipped with a Powerplus blower and single seater bodywork it was campaigned by Bill van der Becke (who is also famous for the Becke Powerplus, which used a Wolseley ohc engine) and was officially sanctioned in a weak moment by Sir William Morris himsel...

I closely watch this man play but still can't fathom how he does it. (Photo :  Efestivals) I've seen Wilko Johnson and his band twice now and been blown away both times by perfectly crafted blues rock, belted out by three of the best musicians in the business. They look like they're melting as cotton shirts assume a shine like wet-look vinyl. It's a good look on these guys, though, as they draw on the energy from the crowd, energy they put out to begin with but get back with interest. Latin-scholar Wilko looks scary but isn't really. He's not machine gunning you with his guitar he's peppering your soul with licks you can't understand even when he's explaining them in slow mo on YouTube. How he plays his guitar is still a mystery when he strives to make it look simple. He's left handed but plays as if he's right handed, which goes some way to make sense, and loops his thumb over the top of the guitar to play rhythm. Beyond that, I'm ...