Shrewsbury Steam Rally (26th - 27th August, 2018)
This is one of a series of pages I have uploaded to illustrate facets of the steam rallies we have attended in the UK. Click here for the 2018 introduction and overall index.
Shrewsbury 2017 had been blessed with fine weather and extended sunny spells which not only attracted visitors in large numbers but allowed me to get a comprehensive record of stills and a YouTube clip (https://youtu.be/7vT7dXxgEY8) which must be the best 'free' publicity the rally has ever had as a year later it has been viewed almost 900,000 times (later it passed the tne million mark). As such we were once again their guests which made life much easier to get in and out although the bank holiday traffic seemed well down on normal.
Shrewsbury 2018 could not have been more different. The Sunday had been probably their wettest rally day ever, I doubt anything turned a wheel and I can't believe many people came through the gates. The forecast for Monday was for a lot of cloud and a slight chance of further rain. Not surprisingly, attendance was not wonderful, so we got a seat for the grand parade half an hour before it started and normally we would have been peering through from the back. The showman's engines stayed put and wood chippings were scattered on the approach to improve adhesion. Not surprisingly there was no steam ploughing although the saw benches, threshers and stone crushers were all busy.
In practice, there were fleeting spells of soft sunshine during the morning and midday and from the pictures you would be hard pressed to guess that we were so damp and cold by 14.30 that we slipped off and came home early, although the recently removed sheets on the ground seen in these pages are more than a hint of the truth. We'd had three very full excellent days at the Great Dorset Steam Fair 50th and I was feeling my age, hence I skipped the steam cars and took only the bare minimum of pictures. Looking at some of them, I was definitely on 'auto pilot'. Given that these reports involve a fair deal of 'copy and paste' and this has been done in a hurry, my apologies in advance for any such parts which have not been edited properly! I am preparing my GDSF 2018 report which will take several days and will need some external assistance.
For the punters, the greatest steam attraction was the 'dynamometer' where engine owners could thrash their machines to record their peak horse power. By the time we left, the outstanding performer was single cylinder ploughing engine Fowler 2528, somewhat surprisingly ahead of the ex-Senna Sugar Estate Fowler Z7 ploughing engine 15673 although I guess the latter may well have come back later for a second bite at the cherry. To view a short 15 second YouTube clip, click the picture below or this link.
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