Found this wonderful little private steam museum, Markham Grange near Doncaster, over the weekend & by sheer accident.
I say little but it has some fantastic static steam engines in it!
Of course, they will only be 'fantastic' if steam engines flick your switch that is :)
All restored to an exceptionally high standard and range from the very small to huge!
The museum is open Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm with the engines 'usually'** in steam every Wednesday and Bank Holidays; also the first Sunday in every month
(**It's as well to telephone before setting off 01302 330430).
Ample parking but best day to go is a Wednesday afternoon as it is on the site of a very large combined garden/aquatic/pet centre.
More info from the website: tinyurl.com/6b75gl or to find by Satnav, postcode is DN5 7XB.
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In the early 1900s steam cars were the fastest things on 4 wheels. The land speed record set by a Stanley steamer in 1908 (well over 100 mph) was not an exception - cars were very fast then.
The great rivalry in America between Mercer and Studz was summed up in two lines of opposing advertising doggerel:
"There's nothing worser than a Mercer"
amd
"You've got to be nuts to drive a Studz".
When Mercer was stopped by police and charged with speeding at 80 mph, he was cross because he claimed to be going much faster than that.
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Is this a free for the museum?
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The web site indicates that... Admission is FREE.
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A UK team is attempting to break the land speed record for a steam powered car later this year:
www.steamcar.co.uk/
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I like steam - locos, traction engines, wagons - fascinating.
But I don't subscribe to the view that they were better than modern diesel or petrol vehicles - all that 'living, breathing machine' nonsense.
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And, Cliff, iirc before steam cars broke records, electric cars held them.
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The hybrid of the future - steam / electric..... Instead of all the fuss about particulates, let's go back to good old soot. :)
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are we talking steam traction engines or steam locomotives?
just a little bit of history for ya if its your thing my old army squadron was the first sqaudron to ever utilize the steam traction engine in combat during the Boer wars we had one called the 'Steam Sapper' which we used to bring out for any special occasions, unfortunatly i never got to see it fired up
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I'm rather fond of the big ones with flanged wheels, hence my username, hopefully I'll go and watch 'Tangmere' charge through my local station this evening, weather permitting!
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I'm rather fond of the big ones with flanged wheels hence my username hopefully I'll go and watch 'Tangmere' charge through my local station this evening weather permitting!
Mmmm, unrebuilt Battle of Britain-class Pacifics :-)
OVS Bulleid - now there was a man ahead of his time. Have often wondered whether the "Leader" concept could be made to work these days...
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My maternal grandfather owned and operated a steam traction engine in the 1920s. A versatile character who found himself out of work during the depression. ( sounds a bit topical doesn't it ) He hired himself and his machine out to all sorts of companies. During the day he got work with construction companies as a steamroller or as a provider of power. He also got work on farms especially at harvest time. At night and at weekends he got work providing power for travelling circuses and fairground rides. While doing this he made and repaired watches to earn a bit of extra cash. My mother still has his watchmaking tools and some examples of his work. I never really knew him as he was already very old when I was born but I can sort of recall a Fred Dibnah-ish kind of chap with a collarless shirt and a waistcoat. Always smiling I seem to think. Maybe he was one of life's optimists.
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I can remember when as a child in the 1950s the local council used both a steam roller and a steam traction engine. At that time the dustbins were emptied by a man with a horse and cart. This was in Donegal, in the Nort Wesrt of Ireland.
When I first came to England in 1970 there was a traction engine, I assume the same one, abandoned by the pier. I returned there to live in 1977 and by that time it had gone. Sadly probably broken up for scrap.
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I absolutely love steam engines in all applications. Steam railway locomotives were at their engineering peak when I was born in the late thirties, and although I wasn't a train spotter when young I certainly liked steam locomotives and recognised, from information supplied by train-spotter schoolmates in the fifties, some of the main classes of loco used in the West country where I then lived. I am a Brunel admirer through and through.
Stanley steam cars with their considerable performance have already been mentioned in this thread. Steam piston engines have advantages for cars in that, like electric motors, they deliver peak torque from zero rpm providing brilliant (and silent) acceleration. From time to time some right-minded eccentric tries to revive the steam piston engine as a power source for cars, but no one seems to be able to make it stick. I guess a combination of the many obvious problems, chief among them the reliability and flexibility of 'flash' boilers and perhaps various safety-related factors, discourages potential manufacturers, as it probably would with the petrol engine if it had just been invented by the sainted Gottlieb...
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I was coming up the M5 on Thursday, 26th of June, about midday, and was just south of Bristol, junc 17, when a flatbed artic went past heading south with City of Truro on it.(I'm 99% certain it was she). How can I find out where the locomotive went? Googling City of Truro doesn't help much.
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I must admit I'm not aware of a site detailing road movements, steam railtours and movements by rail are listed here:-
www.uksteam.info/index.shtml
Looks like Tangmere might leave Weymouth just about on time, rain seems to have eased off here :-)
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Steam Railway magazine will usually say which locomotives are being loaned to which railways and when, though you'd have to deduce the road movements where appliciable.
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Try here! -, scroll down to 28/29th June!!
www.cholsey-wallingford-railway.com/Events.html
Billy
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billy 25,
That makes sense. We were heading home after a fortnight in Portugal, friend had picked us up from Bristol airport. We had had an early start and were tired. I could well have seen her just north of the M4/M5 interchange.
Well spotted.
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Anyone in reach of Malvern during the last weekend of July really should attend the Welland Steam Fair.
I will be there driving a traction engine called Lady Diana.
I believe midlife crisis patrols the area.
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Nottingham Wollaton Park has a small museum with some static engines which I think is worth a visit if you're in the area, the last Sunday of every month is 'Engines in Steam' day. There is also a small collection of vintage cars, motorbikes and pushbikes. Entrance is free but they like a small donation IIRC.
www.wollatonhall.org.uk/
www.nottinghamarkwrightsociety.co.uk/engines.htm
One place I've not visited in years is Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield; but I think it has still not reopened since the floods of June 2007. It is not free but when it reopens is worth a visit just to see the massive 12000hp River Don Engine, which used to power a steel plate rolling mill.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qtA1Pe3pxU
www.simt.co.uk/collections/collections-2-1.html
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