One Careful Owner, Part 1,Burma 2009

Yangon's industrial zone is a treasure trove of metallic bits and pieces, full of small workshops which recycle all sorts of items which would simply be melted down for scrap elsewhere. It is even said that they can build a 'new' car from the pieces. However, the result is hardly a 'fake Toyota', the only real benefit for the unfortunate buyer is the complete absence of the heavy import duty... We visit here from time to time and I regret that we have, on occasions, got carried away, you can see one result on our Chinese Takeaway web page.

By October 2009, 'progress' meant that the quantity of steam power on view was much reduced. As always, the choicest items which might attract serious money were safely hidden from view either behind closed doors in the zone or in a safe place elsewhere.

In fact, by now only one of the many small workshops had a decent display and what follows shows it. Inside was a small vertical engine of a design I am not familiar with:

Outside were five more stationary engines. Two of them were Tangyes of different generations.

The first, on the right (#11294) had no Tangye legend on it as it was badged for Hosain Hamadanee as are many such engines of that era here:

The second was an older and much more interesting specimen, the first Tangye M Size (#3869) we have seen which means that big cylinder is 16" across. We were told it came from Pathein. 

It dwarfed the standard Marshall next to it:

The other two were 'MacDonald' engines, a generic description here for engines with a base plate of two parallel bars, often joined by a rounded end in a single casting. One was made by Lees of Hollinworth, Manchester.

The other, almost the same size and design, carried the name 'John Birch, Engineers, London', these people were agents - as in our experience were most organisations with 'London' in the name.

There was a final engine inside, perhaps the oldest and the most interesting of all, but that one had been spoken for:

The full list of 2009 trip pages is on:

• Green to Gold, Rob and Yuehong in the Golden Land 2009, Part 2 - This includes more general reports of the trip (OK, a blog) as well as much stationary steam

• Rob and Yuehong in the Golden Land 2009, Part 1 - This includes more general reports of the trip (OK, a blog) as well as much stationary steam

Our earlier explorations are described in pages linked from:

• Temples of Steam 2007 - An update to our 2005 and 2006 reports

• Temples of Steam 2006 - An update to our 2005 report

• Temples of Steam 2005 - Introduction