UK Steam Rallies 2019
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 6 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 and in 2018 we took the plunge and invested in our own set of wheels, definitely a luxury given our traditional lifestyle. It meant more freedom, of course, and for me four hours less time commuting to Gloucester needed to pick up and return a hire car.
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. What will 2019 bring? I think I can safely predict different weather from any of the preceding 6 years! We have been to nearly all the significant events in England (and Wales) but we have a couple of new ones lined up. Otherwise, we'll do our local ones and look to those which we haven't been to for two or three years. Sadly we won't be going to Old Warden again...
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started visiting steam rallies in 2013. |
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.
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Traction Engine Album by Malcolm Ranieri (2005) - ISBN 9781861267948
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Classic Traction Engines by Paul Stratford (2010) - ISBN 9780857040541
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Steam on the Farm by Jonathan Brown (2008) - ISBN 9781847970527
