Engine Punk

Restored with only a brochure as reference material this Levis 600 has a pushrod tube that masquerades as a camshaft drive At the 2010 Great Dorset Steam Fair, I heard a great story about this very rare bike. The owner and restorer was looking round the autojumble at the 2009 show for Norton parts and saw a curious oil tank that might have been a Norton one. He asked the vendor about it and he said that it that it belonged to Levis 600 and that he had the whole bike under the bench - not the bench at home but the bench at the show. Levis are often confused with jeans manufacturers and the parent company latterly traded as Leviss to avoid this although this was long after motorcycle manufacture had ceased. Founded by the Butterfield Brothers in Old Station Road, Stechford, Birmingham, in 1911,  Levis were TT winners in 1922 with a 250 two stroke and went on to build a range of ohv four strokes in 30s until World War 2 ended production. They were always pretty rare machines and...

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 ...

Just before anyone says anything, there's a Ferris wheel behind the screen of this Velocette Vogue There was a good variety of machinery in the motorcycle ring at the Great Dorset Steam Fair this year and among some very interesting bikes was this Velocette Vogue. I'd never seen one before and afterwards had the chance to look it over outside the marquee as the owner made some adjustments to it. I really have to hand it to the Goodman family, the people behind Velocette. If I had to choose just one bike as an example of the archetypal British single it would be the Velocette Thruxton but there is a subtle irony here because this archetypal British motorbike has a name that sounds French and owed its existence to the the Goodman family who were comparatively recent German immigrants and had changed their name from Gutemann. Which only goes to show that national stereotypes are dangerous things. The Goodmans they'd done a good job on their 350 and 500cc singles but ...

Seriously though, take it from me - a childhood spent making Airfix kits makes repairing old cars much easier. I saw this display at the Great Dorset Steam Fair yesterday. For those of you who don't already know, this is a vast gathering of Vintage things for steam punks and engine punks alike. There was a special gathering of Morris Minor LCVs - that's Light Commercial Vehicles. Morris Minors are probably the ultimate light car - a term that was clearly understood between the wars - and the vans and pick up derivatives are probably the ultimate light commercial vehicles. As Vintage Things they're dead certs and it's only a matter of time before I feature them in more depth upon Engine Punk. But I really like the display. If it wasn't for the people in the background, this Minor LCV would look like some highly detailed kit There's the sprue in the foreground and behind it is the partly built full size kit of a Morris Minor. It's just had its wi...

I discovered this book in the best way, by chance and through a personal recommendation. If I had not sat next to Peter Jenkin on the train and fallen into conversation with him he would never have told me about the book he was reading. It was the traction engine on the cover that caught my eye. Although I prefer the internal combustion engine, external combustion varieties - where the fuel is burnt outside the cylinders - still appeal tremendously. Railway locomotives may have a literary presence but road locomotives rarely feature in fiction of any sort, let alone sci-fi or fantasy. A pavane is a dance of Spanish origin popular around the time of Queen Elizabeth I and this story is divided into measures and a coda. Now, I know nothing about music but I know what I like and I quite like this musical example of a pavane. Not sure how you dance to it, though - probably too courtly and graceful for my usual enthusiastic outbursts of physical musical pleasure. Keith Roberts' ...