Engine Punk

Colossus is back together again at last. I just love all that ironmogery on top of the boiler. For the last 18 months, whenever I’ve passed through South Petherwin on my way to Launceston, I’ve noticed a traction engine in a yard and workshop. One day I went slowly enough to see a nameplate on its smokebox door – Colossus . Like any steam engine, it had a certain presence, especially confined within four walls and looking over a gate. At the Great Dorset Steam Fair, I was delighted to come face to smokebox with Colossus and to find out what a remarkable engine it is. Its most striking feature is the tandem cylinders on top of the boiler behind the chimney. Most traction engines have them side by side, which makes for a more compact arrangement. I’d only ever seen tandem cylinders before on a conversion of an old single cylinder Fowler ploughing engine. The idea of souping up some great lumbering leviathan by strapping on another pot and making it more efficient, powerful and ...