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This is one of a series of pages which I have uploaded to
illustrate facets of steam rallies we have attended in the UK. Such events
occur all over the country in the summer months, they are easily found by
using your favourite search engine and may have anything between a handful
of steam engines and hundreds (as at the Great Dorset Steam Fair which could
probably be fairly described as having an excess of riches). Click
here for the Weeting 2025 index and click here for
the overall index for 2025.
Ploughing Engines
Viewed from a distance, it seems that fewer and fewer rallies
are offering steam ploughing. Weeting is an exception, no doubt the fact that it
has its own resident 'kit' avoids the significant cost of moving it around. It's
a shame because I think it is the 'blue ribbon of the working displays, an area
which has always been one of Weeting's strong points. This year there were two
pairs at work, further north than on my previous visits. The programme suggested
that 15420's 'other half' 15421 would be present as a static exhibit but for
whatever reason it didn't happen.
Steam Wagons
Showman's Engines
The emphasis at Weeting is on agricultural engines and only
the newly restored Foden was a pleasant surprise. It was repatriated from
Australia and I had seen it under restoration at GDSF 2018. Fellow gricers are
thin on the ground at rallies these days, far too many have moved on to the GDSF
in the sky. Only here and at Appleford have there been more than a handful and
there I found a group shooting a couple of Showman's engines in an otherwise
empty green field. Here, another group were recreating an old photograph to the
nearest inch...

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