When steam ran the roads ........

Now I venture into the world of steam powered vehicles with some trepidation, fearing that those who embrace the subject will have a vast reservoir of knowledge and enthusiasm to knock the socks off me.

They will talk with authority about “5 ton vertical-boiler wagons which feature a 2 cylinder undertype engine and chain drive” and that leaves me in total awe.

So, well aware that whatever I say will either be wrong or so superficial it will result in a tirade of scorn from them that no better I shall confine myself to showing the pictures from a steam cavalcade sometime in the
early 1980s which trundled through Manchester.

They were a common enough sight on our streets from the beginning of the 20th century and some steam road vehicles were still being built as late as 1950.

But they were heavy and legislation during the 1930s forced companies to make lighter steam vehicles which in the end couldn’t compete with the petrol powered alternatives.

And that brings me to the Sentinel lorries which were produced by the Sentinel Wagon Works and after 1947 Sentinel (Shrewsbury) Ltd.

There will be someone who can tell me when both of the lorries were built and will also throw in some informative comments about that other steam vehicle which leaves me to end with a description of the day.

I can't remember exactly when the cavalcade made its way through the city.

But it will have been sometime in the early 1980s and I think it went down Princess Street and maybe rolled on to All Saints.

But the details are now lost in time.

That said I do remember it was warm and sunny and there was a carnival feel to the day.

Back then I was more interested in the  line of vintages buses and cars which squeezed between the big and smelly steam vehicles, including a fine collection of Manchester Corporation and London Transport buses.

Of course there is actually nothing smelly about steam which for many of my generation remains magic.

That mix of warm oil and steam take me right back to railway locomotives and the start of another adventure which is a good enough point to stop.

Location; Manchester,

Pictures; steam vehicles in Manchester, 1980s from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The 1906 steam road vehicle produced by Alley & MacLeean, Sentinel Works, Jessie Street, Glasgow.

Steam and stuff ......... forty four years ago on Princess Street

It was 1980 and having followed a steam cavalcade of vintage cars, lorries and buses I came acroos the Super Sentinel.

Location; Princess Street, Manchester

Picture; Steam and stuff .....forty four years ago on Princess Street, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

When steam was bright, colourful and fun .........

Now I thought I would end the short run of steam powered road vehicles, with this painting by Peter Topping of a “Traction Engine in Tatton Park” in 2012.

The series to date has featured black and white images of a collection of steam vehicles I came across in the early 1980s.

I was into black and white  photography at the time, and the the medium did the subjects proud.

But all the vehicles had once left the works in bright coloured livery, and of course the black and white pictures did them no justice.

So to end the short series, here is Peter’s painting which brings to life all that was fun about the age of steam.

Of course the machines could be dirty and depending on your point of view could seem smelly.

But not for me and I suspect not for many others who grew up in the last stages of steam when it pulled our trains,delivered heavy goods and kept the machines working in the factories.

I have never lost that sense of romance and excitement at seeing a steam powered engine.

They were, and still are magic, although Mother always complained about the steam locomotives which passed the bottom of our garden and seem to have saved a cloud of dust, dirt and warm cinders for the moment she hung out the clean washing.

Added to which steam power was always hard work, whether it was shovelling the coal while travelling at high speed on an express train or maintaining all the moving parts of a steam roller.

All of which, as ever, makes history very messy.

Location; Tatton Park & Manchester, 2012 and 1980

Pictures; steam vehicles, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting; from the Tatton Hall series,  © 2012 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

It was the Age of Steam ...... and it was the passing of steam

Now if you want an example of one of those great divides, the steam locomotive must be up there at the top of the tree.

Down in the West country and travelling to Minehead

For my generation who grew up with steam power, there is still a magic to it, undimmed by the simple observation that I last travelled on one back in the summer of 1961 on my way home from a holiday with my grandparents in Derby.

For others the love affair will have lingered longer into the 1960s, but we lived in south east London and the Southern Region of British Railways along with the Underground ran their trains on electricity.

I know my father had the same romantic attachment to steam but not so mother, and there I think comes that divide, for she had a particularly jaundiced view of the steam locomotive.

It was borne from that simple accident of living near a railway line, and watching as the mix of smoke and hot specs of cinder played havoc with the washing on the line. At best it left the sheets, shirts and underwear looking grubby before they had even dried, and at worst the cinders burnt small holes in the material.

The Steam Expo, 1980, Manchester

And so mother’s response to my lament at the passing of the Age of Steam was a brusque “good riddance”.

I, with no such considerations, mourned the passing of the lot from the great sleek and powerful express locomotives to the dirty, unwashed and business like “shunters”.

Part of that divide I suspect is also because mother’s generation took them for granted, while I was only in my early 20s when they effectively disappeared along with countless little branch lines.

All of this I was reminded on when my friend Lois posted a short account of the steam train journey on her blog.*

She began “Yesterday we had a belated Father's Day celebration and went by steam train (yes a puffing Billy) from the little town of Bishops Lydeard to the seaside town of Minehead” and went on to reflect on steam journeys with her family waxing lyrical about the sounds and smells.

Like Lois, I remember them vividly and in particular late at night the noise from the sidings close to Nana’s house. In the still of the early morning, the sound of the shunting engine working the wagons, carried across the streets with the dull clunk of carriages banging together and the occasional whistle, coupled with the unmistakable surging noise of a loco getting up steam.

Rolling out the steam, 1981, Steam Cavalcade

Today apart from the static exhibits in museums, the joy of steam has to be experienced at one of the local preservation societies, some of which sprang up even as British Railways were planning which new batch of old locos to scrap.

These societies, often at first on a wing and prayer saved our heritage and now run both nostalgic excursions but also commercial ones on branch lines that closed long ago.

But there are also those steam events, which feature not just locomotives but also host of steam powered vehicles from traction engines to merrygorounds.

I find them pure heaven but I suspect mother would not be convinced.

Location; where ever there is a steam locomotive

Pictures; the steam loco that takes you from Bishops Lydeard to the seaside town of Minehead, 2018, courtesy of Lois Elsden, and a fine steam loco from the Steam Expo, 1980, and Steam Cavalcade, 1981, Manchester, from the collection of Andrew Simpson


*An Old Sort of Journey, Lois Elsden, https://loiselden.com/2018/06/19/an-old-sort-of-journey/

Just when you think you are done with steam .......

So, as they say there I was, waiting at the corner for a steam engine and after a decent amount of time this one passed by.

In truth it didn’t.

It is a painting by Peter Topping from a photograph by David van Mill, and it was Mr van Mill who got to see the steam engine, took the picture and gave his permission to Peter to use it for his painting.

Now I have a lot of photographs of steam powered vehicles which I took a long time ago, but they are all in black and white and don’t convey how colourful these machines can be.

All of which is why I jumped at the opportunity to include this one in a story.

Peter tells me the title is “1930 Fowler (Leeds) Steam Roller "Old Smokey", and that will do for me.

Painting; “Old Smokey © 2018 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures, from a photograph by David van Mill
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

It's those steam engines again

Now you pretty much know you are on to a winner with the “magic of steam power”.

And the pictures that have begun to flood in from people, sharing their steam powered vehicles, are testament to how many people share my fascination for all things steam.

I don’t pretend to be an expert and my knowledge extends just far enough to recognise the pall of smoke, and more importantly knowing when to get out of the way of these giants of locomotion.

So here are two from Roger and Paula.

The brightly coloured steam bus as photographed by Roger last year at the Busfest held in Whittlesey near Peterborough.

The other, from Paula was one of those chance moments caught when the steam engine passed her house a
few years ago.

Location, Peterborough and Well Hall

Pictures; steam bus, 2017, from the collection of Roger Callow and a stream machine 2015, courtesy of Paula Nottle.