Firedrake files no.13 - Mr Solway's Clayton & Shuttleworth

Dennis Solway's Clayton & Shuttleworth engine soon after restoration (Photo : the Solway family)

This steam engine was the first one to fascinate me.

Mr Solway was the proprietor of the garage at Marazanvose on the A30. His was the nearest garage to Callestick where we lived and an easy walk through the lanes if you had a car to leave or collect. Fortunately, he was a trustworthy soul. In a small community like ours, reputation counted for a lot. Word of mouth would soon advertise good tradesmen or those to be avoided. Solway's Garage was also signwritten as Agricultural Engineers so any firm that farmers patronised - with wheat in the field and a broken down combine - was sure to be a good one. Dennis Solway was where our neighbours went for their car repairs. One of them, John Holland, even worked there. 

The back of the garage, with an open view across the fields to the engine house of West Chiverton, was an over grown paddock of fascinating old cars. I got locked into a Mk3 Zephyr once, on one of my investigations, but worked out an escape without any adult intervention. There was also the sad remains of a German registered Ford Taurus, with its roof ripped off, which must have been the tragic end to a family's holiday abroad.

What drew me initially to this small wilderness of tall grasses, abandoned Humbers and invitingly down-at-heel Standard Companions was Mr Solway's Clayton & Shuttleworth traction engine.

This stood behind a wall to the west of the main garage block but you could just about see its chimney poking above it if you were passing by on the main road and happened to be a keen-eyed small boy of around 6 or 7.

Mr Solway's engine as it is in 2022

Whenever we pulled in, I would ask Mr Solway if I could look at his steam engine and the answer was always yes. I think there may have been an early proviso not to play in the old cars (people could read me like a book even then) so my escape from the Ford Zephyr was a proudly cherished secret although behind the steering wheel was a wonderful place to be. 

It became expected of me to look at Mr Solway's engine. I subsequently gained permission to collect the registration plates of the old cars wrecks behind the garage. However, unlike the old cars and vans that lay behind the workshops, Mr Solway's traction engine was in full working order. 

I would never have made off with the registration plate on that.

It was on the front of the roof, so out of reach.

No! I was a principled child even then. I wanted to take the old cars home but Mr Solway's engine was already safe.

It looked enormous to me and massively heavy. I still remember a curious smell of coal and oil and the mess I would get on my hands if I reached out to touch the green paintwork. And now I can remember the scolding I'd get because I obviously hadn't just "looked" but I had "touched" although a hands on approach seemed to make Mr Solway smile if no-one else but me was looking at him.

It had a full length canopy and a big solid flywheel that seemed to fill most of the space underneath. The driver sat right at the back with all the engine stretched out in front of him, not like these new fangled Morris Mini Minors or Hillman Imps, and the smokebox had some shiny brasswork. This was not really necessary. This was an embellishment and all the better for it on quite a plain and workmanlike engine.

Mr Solway's engine as I remember it. This looks like the showground at Wadebridge. (Photo : Blandford Press)

Imagine my surprise when I bought an illustrated book of Traction Engines and found Mr Solway's Clayton & Shuttleworth inside it! There it was in glorious colour, at the Royal Cornwall Showground at Wadebridge, obviously at a traction engine rally. 

According to Steam Traction Engines, Wagons and Rollers by Brian Johnson, published by Blandford Press in 1971, this engine was worthy of inclusion because it was so rare. 

Built in 1914, Clayton & Shuttleworth works number 46817 was a "convertible" engine. This did not mean that its roof could be removed like a sports car. Convertible traction engines could be turned into steam rollers by swapping the rear wheels and bolting on a headstock to the smokebox to take a front roller. This increased the versatility of the engine, which would be supplied new with a kit of parts to re-purpose it. Clayton's even offered them with cranes!

The full-length canopy was also unusual as this was a feature more in keeping with road locomotives. The rubber tyres on Mr Solway's engine also contributed to this look although by comparison this is quite a small engine, rated at only 5 nominal horse power. I looked huge to me back then. A road locomotive would have been of 8 or even 10 nhp.

The motion for this double crank compound engine is of Clayton & Shuttleworth's unusual cross-over valve gear but I wasn't big enough to notice that in 1971. That summer, I turned 8.

It also featured a solid flywheel, which was more common on road rollers. This makes sense what with this engine being a convertible type. 

"Dorothy" is in lovely condition and has an oil drip tray just like the aircraft in the hangars. This is because they are all in working condition and have oil in them. They "sweat power."

Clayton & Shuttleworth were established in 1842 as agricultural engineers in Lincoln. The open landscape in Lincolnshire suited steam powered agriculture, unlike the hilly terrain of Cornwall, and Lincoln was also the home of Rustons with Marshall just down the road in Gainsborough. Clayton & Shuttleworth even built a handful of railway engines although none of those survive. The firm seemed able to make anything. As well as steam engines, they experimented with kerosene and diesel-powered tractors and made airships in World War 1. 

Clayton & Shuttleworth subsequently built the Sopwith Triplane, which enjoyed such an advantage in the air it prompted Fokker to introduce their triplane, beloved of the Red Baron himself. Later production included the Sopwith Camel, one of which allegedly shot down the Red Baron. Despite all this innovation, including an early design of combine harvester, the firm went under in 1929.

On open days, Dorothy is steamed just like the aircraft on display in the Shuttleworth Collection (or would they be petrolled? Or avgassed?)

Dennis' engine was originally built as a roller for Stockton on Tees Corporation in June 1914. It was soon requisitioned for war work and, after serving in France, was repatriated and sold to W W Buncombe of Highbridge in Somerset. 

In 1921, traction engines needed to carry registration numbers and, under that scheme, YA denoted Somerset as the issuing county.

Dennis Solway acquired this engine in 1963  with another for spares, building up one good engine between them. This intrigues me greatly. I have no memory of another engine but his family assure me this is true. I would like to know the identity of the donor engine. Was it of the same type? Another rare engine? Or a similar machine?

Dennis Solway died suddenly when I was still a child and his traction engine left Cornwall for new ownership.

Last week I was in Buckinghamshire for a family funeral and took the opportunity to reacquaint myself with Mr Solway's engine, which is now in the Shuttleworth Collection, at Old Warden in Bedfordshire. 

It's in full working order and christened Dorothy after Dorothy Shuttleworth, the founder of the collection, but is still green. This "convertible" engine no longer has a canopy so offers permanent drophead steam motoring. 

What intrigues me now is the information board in the museum. According to that, Dennis Solway bought the engine as a roller but without a front roller. His plan was to use it for spares to restore another derelict engine but this new engine was in better condition. Quoting directly from the information board, "it was eventually converted into its traction engine form in 1964 using parts from another Clayton & Shuttleworth traction engine." 

What happened to the other engines mentioned here? I need to know.

So how many engines did Dennis Solway own? How many donated parts towards Dorothy's resurrection? And were any of these selfless engines subsequently restored and still survive today?