UK Steam Rallies 2018

Click here for the Surviving Steam Road Engine Index.

Click here for the "UK Steam Rallies" index page.

If you want to see Britain at its best visit one of the many Steam Rallies held each year. That's not my opinion, it's Yuehong's, even after 5 years she still enjoys them. Although the novelty has worn off somewhat she loves to sit down and soak up the atmosphere. Of course, these days most tag on "country fair" and / or "vintage transport" to broaden the attraction and its appeal. However, given the nature of this site you will find only steam power in these pages. I had planned to introduce Yuehong to this phenomenon in 2012 but the generally wet weather and other business meant it was put off until 2013, since when we have made up for lost time. Initially not having a car of our own, we employed a little bit of cunning to get to these public transport free zones cheaply. Later we took advantage of competitive weekend hire car rates to travel further from our base in West Gloucestershire. Choose the rally you are interested in which will generally take you to a further index page. Within each linked page click on a thumbnail for a larger image. Then click again to return to the previous page. We did fewer visits in 2015 compared to 2014, we have plucked most of the low hanging fruit and apart from our local events, we journeyed out fewer times but a little further than before. We expected 2016 to show a similar pattern to 2015, but the weather was good, car hire prices very reasonable, (especially as frequent customers we have had two free weekends) and the final tally was slightly more. As for 2017, It turned out to be similar to 2016 with some visits to smaller rallies and museums. As we started the 2018 season, the weather was unseasonably cold (and damp) and car hire prices were ridiculous (in the wrong sense). However, by end of May, the weather had improved considerably and we had a glorious summer as the pictures should make clear. 

One huge change is that in mid-June we opted to buy our own set of wheels, definitely a luxury given our traditional lifestyle. It means more freedom, of course, and for me four hours less time commuting to Gloucester needed to pick up and return a hire car. Rest assured that Yuehong is delighted, maybe it will get her round to passing her driving test in due course...

If your first love is 'steel on steel' or even has no wheels, then 'Working Engines' will normally be of more interest, these are the subject of our YouTube video clips. I have not attempted to distinguish between the various kinds of that group I would call 'traction engines' so 'general engines' includes 'road locomotives' and 'tractors', indeed many owners have engines have been rebuilt over the years so they have swapped categories.

I owe a vote of thanks to David Collidge whose Steam Scenes website (http://www.steamscenes.org.uk/) is a fount of information and was invaluable in identifying engines when they were late entries or the rally programmes got it wrong... David is still out there attending rallies etc, but unfortunately the site has not been fully updated for several years; however www.tractiontalkforum.com includes discussion of recent (and future) events. I make no claim to artistic beauty in what is essentially a set of record shots. Two dedicated enthusiasts have done that in classic books, both of which are readily available at a modest price through AbeBooks or Amazon. Yuehong has sat drooling over my copies. I have added a third book which is very approachable study which covers mainly threshing and ploughing.

• Traction Engine Album by Malcolm Ranieri (2005) - ISBN 9781861267948

• Classic Traction Engines by Paul Stratford (2010) - ISBN 9780857040541

• Steam on the Farm by Jonathan Brown (2008) - ISBN 9781847970527

Trevithick Day (28th April, 2018)	Stoom in Dordt (26th - 27th May, 2018)	Tinkers Park (2nd - 3rd June, 2018)
Stoke Row (9th - 10th June, 2018)	Rutland Water (23rd - 24th June, 2018)	Banbury / Bloxham (23rd - 24th June, 2018)
Helmsley (7th - 8th July, 2018)	Elvaston (7th - 8th July, 2018)	Cheshire (14th - 15th July, 2018)
Weeting (20th - 22nd July, 2018)	Welland (27th - 29th July, 2018)	South Cerney (3rd - 5th August, 2018)
Torbay (3rd - 5th August, 2018)	Great Dorset (23rd - 28th August, 2018)	Shrewsbury (26th - 27th August, 2018)
Yorkshire (1st - 2nd September, 2018)	Steam Plough Club (1st - 2nd September, 2018)	Speech House Vintage Show (9th September, 2018)
Old Warden (14th - 16th September, 2018)	FFFB (29th September 2018)	Steam Plough Club, Great Challenge (13th - 14th October, 2018)
Klondyke Mill Steam Party (13th - 14th October, 2018)