A day out with the General

Sunday, 09 November 2008 17:19

Chance remarks occasionally lead to rash decisions so they say. So it was that following idle conversation in between the rain showers at Powderham Rally that Sean Anthony and Michael Cannon, owners of 6" scale Burrell Scenic Showmans "The General", decided to drive their engine 29 miles from its base near Exeter to the Torbay Rally. The engine is a true half size version of Burrell Scenic Showmans no. 3888 General Gough owned by Nigel Myers.

The route chosen was Starcross, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Shaldon, Torquay, Paignton and finally Churston. This avoided the very busy A380 but did include some fairly steep hills to test both engine and crew. Many hours work went into preparing the engine for the run and at 8am on August 1st the fire was lit and by 10am with pressure up to the red mark we set off with two trailers in tow - our own Burrell design traction wagon with two passengers, Sean's two sons Matthew and Oliver, and another trailer advertising Torbay Steam Fair. Sean drove the first stint with Michael steering. Support was in the form of a 4wd towing the engine's transport trailer with 250 gallons of water, coal and toolboxes etc. driven by Mark Bool.

We planned to stop every hour or so for servicing and the first stop was at Cockwood harbour where water and coal were replenished and the necessary oil round. We changed drivers here and Michael drove the next stage with Sean steering. This next stage included the steep hill down into Dawlish and Michael was somewhat concerned with the brake hard on and the water level rapidly disappearing out of the glass as the incline increased. However with the injector on we reached the haven of level ground in the town centre where we stopped for the next service. Many people stopped to admire the engine as we prepared for the climb out of Dawlish. And so we continued throughout the day with regular stops to let any build up of traffic pass. The only time this was not really possible was on the long hill after Shaldon bridge which was climbed rather sedately in 2nd gear but there were no suitable places where we could pull in. However, most people were understanding and at the top we pulled into a lay-by with wonderful views overlooking the sea and the bonus of an ice-cream van!!

After the engine (and ourselves!) were refreshed we continued towards Torquay. This was probably the most difficult part of the journey as it was around 3pm and traffic was heavy. A number of vehicles in rush hour traffic insisted on overtaking and then pulling in sharply in front of us necessitating prudent use of the reverser to stop quickly. Torquay ended and Paignton started with no conceivable change in scenery and the final hill of the journey was the long steep climb out of the town. It was here that The General was getting a little tired with the fire clinkered and pressure falling. One of the things about a compound engine is that pressure needs to be close to the red line for efficient compounding to take place. If pressure falls to round about the 100psi mark, water consumption increases dramatically and one ends up fighting the engine. We knew we only had a mile or so to go but we had to concede that The General was winded and consequently we stopped for a "blow up" and to clean the fire and get pressure and water levels back up to the mark. This done we continued on the final part of our epic journey.

We arrived at Torbay rally at about 6.00pm to a tumultuous welcome where almost everybody on the rally field were at the entrance gate applauding us as we drove in. This welcome very quickly dissipated the aches and soreness and deafness that goes with driving a steam engine for a long distance on the road. We had been on the road for over 8 hours and our bodies were certainly telling us so although the engine performed well! The day was quite an adventure for us and although both of us have been driving engines of various sizes for years, it proved that we needed every bit of this experience to drive our engine almost 30 miles on the road.

Thanks must go to Tony Brooks of Torbay Steam Fair, Mark Bool our support crew and Zoe and Ken Vingoe who took the photographs and of course all our friends who gave us that tremendous welcome at the rally. Sadly, as reported elsewhere, Torbay Steam Fair was cancelled due to the inclement weather but this did little to dampen the enthusiasm of those engine owners who attended what is a great show.

Based on our experience, we are seriously contemplating a re-run next year.