Wednesday 1 September 2010

Steam Show Part Two,

and it is the start of the tractor show, I have never heard of this make before, it is a Field Master, made by a British manufacturer,
Diana enjoying her spaghetti,
one of the many stalls here,
this one selling badges of the different makes of cars etc,
bit of a mixture here, from Australian didgeridoos,
to American Indian dreamcatchers,
and of course there were some stalls selling jewelry,
artificial orchids,
then into the next field,
where amongst other things a auto jumble was taking place with a few traders selling household goods as well,
we then moseyed on down to the OK coral to see the showdown between Desperate Dan Magoo and the sheriff, great fun,
a collection of toy cars, any car you like, so long as it was a Volkswagen,
we must not forget our 4 legged friends,
a collection of home early moving imaging making machines and computers,
another one make display, this time minis,
I must admit I was surprised at the number of collections of early petrol cans,
so many makes, but I guess in the early days of travel there were not the number of petrol stations we now take for granted,
even one make BP had numerous designs,
another collection,
a strange looking motorcycle, a British make, a New Hudson,
a low flying bird attracted my attention,
a goose hovering in mid air, but it was not as it seemed, it was paper, attached to a pole, it was the marker for archery classes,
as we walked down the field fairground music became louder and this was what was making the music,
a traveling organ complete with drums, cymbals and goddess knows what else, so common years ago but now so rarely heard,
there were a few more cars in this field,
some like this Jaguar absolutely immaculate,
and of course motorbikes, the one I am pointing to
is a Douglas Dragonfly, a horizontally opposed 350 cc twin, at one time I owned two of them,
a classic line up of bikes,
this poor old Bantam in desperate need of some TLC,
now this is more like it, the bike of my teenage dreams, a B.S.A. Clubmans Gold Star DBD 34 with a RRT2 gearbox, a horrible bike to start but what joy on an open road,
a look along the cars from the far end,
a nice single and twin A.J.S motorcycles,
Evil Knievel rides past Diana, this show has everything!
another beautifully restored Austin,
then more stalls selling auto parts,
if you are into model boats this is also the place for you as the boating brigade had this stall,
I did not mention the fishing section?
Triumph motorcycles also had a stand here,
this brings back some painful memories, you see the chrome rack on top of the tank? well I managed to fall off a spring hub 500 cc one of these, I slid to a halt with my right arm wrapped round a telegraph pole, the bike then crashed it to the pole tank rack first, result 7 broken bones in my right hand and over 70 stitches, if you know me you will have seen that still to this day some 40 years on I still can not straighten two of my fingers on my right hand, ouch!
but still a nice line up of Triumphs new and old,
the next field traction engine heaven!
full head of steam, ready to roll,
and they are off!
in this field some of the appliances have been fitted to engines,
in this one a belt drive has been taken off the stationary engine to power a wood saw,
or in this case a threshing machine,
although some of the traction engines make it under their own steam, most are brought on trailers pulled by enormous lorries like these,
and for Mark a few Land Rovers,
another huge caravan,
this one just needed a bit more coal, but straight away some youngsters stopped to take a look,
a close up of the controls,
the coal burning nicely now, just a few more minuets to build up pressure,
whilst that is happening the owner is explaining what happens and how it works, great for me to see some kids more interested in real things rather than the imaginary world of games,
and for those that have had enough of walking there is always the horse and hay wagon to get around, if you want to see the last bit of the show scroll down.

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