Engine Punk

This little engine nearly rusted away entirely. For nearly 30 years it lay in its shed at Dorothea Quarry in North Wales with parts being taken to keep other engines running. Gradually the shed collapsed around it but in 1970 it was rescued by enthusiast Dave Walker. Dorothea remained in storage until 1989 when Kate Bowman took pity on it. Her husband had already done that with other quarry Hunslets, such as Covertcoat from Dinorwic and Lillian from Port Penryhn but even he did not share her enthusiasm for the task ahead and everyone else thought it was too far gone to be restored There's a brilliant picture of it in the cafe at the steam railway. As it's in colour you can see how rusty it was after 30 years in the open with the rubble of its shed around it. Dorothea under restoration in July 2009 Anyway, Kate had the engine in steam by December 2001 using Covertcoat 's boiler and Dorothea returned to traffic on the Launceston Steam Railway at Easter 2012. ...

This is the official photograph of Jerry's Imp from the 1987 Land's End Trial. I am hidden by the screen but Jerry is driving and Mike Evason is bouncing furiously. I think this is Darracott - which we would've failed. This is an ongoing project, one that my old mate Jerry Goater began and one that I hope I will get to a stage where it can be used again, for projects, like cars or motorbikes, are not finished off until they are destroyed utterly, when they have no further future. The Jemp rests in a corner of my garage, dry stored and awaiting its turn. It's not finished - it has a future. It began as a standard Imp saloon in a sort of mustard grey colour and Jerry learnt to drive in it. It belonged to his parents. Sheila and Steve, but it sort of became his in 1985 when we were on our industrial placements. Y'see, we were studying Industrial Design/Transport at Coventry Polytechnic and Jerry's dad was a CDT teacher and they had this grinder and this we...