Engine Punk

Scaldwell doesn't look like a four-coupled Peckett M3  Reviewing some old images of a visit to Amberley Museum , I noticed a picture of this tall and thin steam engine. My 2007 me had foreseen the need to take some notes at that time to inform the 2022 me. Some further research turned up an interesting history. Scaldwell – what a great name for a steam engine! – is a Peckett M3 saddle tank built for the three foot gauge railway system serving Scaldwell Ironstone Quarries in Northamptonshire. Built in 1913 with works number 1316,. Pecketts had developed a series of standard designs to cater for most of their customers’ needs but the quarries were narrow gauge an anything but standard. Rising to the challenge, they adapted the normally standard gauge M3 four-coupled design into a narrow gauge six-coupled version. I was immediately reminded of The Chronicles of Boulton’s Siding . Isaac Watt Boulton adapted obsolete mainline locomotives for industrial use as well as building n...

A family affair 1 - Team Robson at the start of the 2022 Land's End Trial. Esme was out of the frame, dancing. My aim for the 98 th Land’s End Trial was to do better than last time. Regular readers will remember that in my last Land’s End episode , I didn’t get as far as the Bridgwater Time Control. The ignition warning lamp bulb had blown so the charging system wasn’t getting “excited” and the battery gradually lost its charge until the engine conked out. By the time we got going again, we were out of time for the start. And then on the way home… But enough about the 97 th . That was then and this was now. I was feeling sufficiently ambitious this year to aim for a finish. Binky reprised his 2002 Exeter Trial role as my navigator and drove down to my place on Friday. He’d had Covid the week before so was still a bit phlegmatic and fatigued. He also felt the cold more than usual so we had the top up for the night. Some people have dancing Elvises on their dashboards for luck...

The DHS 3 special has tremendous patina Simon Knight was my scratch bouncer for the 2020 Exeter Trial. Binky still hadn't recovered from some tumbles on the 2019 Testing Trial so I asked for a last minute substitute and Simon was the result. We'd had nothing to do with each other beforehand but got on like a house on fire during the 2020 Exeter trial and when he bought the DHS special later in 2020 I was very intrigued by it. David H Small was the son of Reginald Small, partner of Farnham Jowett dealers  Barnett and Small. David built a series of specials - possibly as many as seven - for racing and trials and this particular example features a h andmade tubular chassis not unlike the contemporary rocket tube Dellow chassis . All up and running and ready for Heritage Trials Simon has contacted members of the Small family in his research into the car and was able to speak to Peter Figg, David Small's long-standing friend and frequent trials passenger. Although 92, Peter coul...