The International Steam Pages


Irrawaddy Steamers 2010, Part 12
Bogalay

This is part of our 2010 Burma Crusade.


Bogalay is traditionally a rough drive of 18 miles west from Pyapon and with at least 25 mills it demands an early start, but 06.00 was too early for at least two of the party at this stage of the trip where enthusiasm has long waned in the face of steam power which is 90% standard Marshall. Nevertheless, a 'wake up' call got us on the road with breakfast inside by 06.30 with the sun already up. The first (very) few miles are now reasonably sealed as there is an internationally funded school outside the town. It seems that most of the (NGO) charities having helped people re-establish their lives have concluded that a full time presence is no longer needed after more than 2 years although I suspect that lower key assistance is still being provided. What appears to be going on now is an intensive official international effort to improve local farming techniques. Most of the road was no better than a year ago although at the Bogalay end the last few miles are now sealed too, at the present rate the road will be finished some time in the second half of the decade.

We sat down for another cup of tea and plotted out the day, most likely after last year's visit there was not too much to do, but time had to be allowed for pleasant (working) surprises - in the event there weren't really any. First port of call was a mill where Han had found an unusual 'box like' engine when he visited with another enthusiast. I soon worked out it was the mill where we had seen our 100th working engine in 2005, that 11½" Marshall had moved on and a 14" model was going in. It was of the opposite handedness to normal which was causing some confusion to its owner... Anyway, this is what Han had found:

I'm getting better at this kind of thing, to me it looked like a crankshaft case and crosshead guide off a short stroke high speed engine. What appeared to be the crankshaft was under wraps nearby and inside the mill I found some of what I was looking for, the cylinder block suggesting some kind of piston valves, with a bonus in the form of an AC generator which it powered. However, it was bereft of any identification except a detailed specification plate on the generator which appeared to be local. I got too excited at this point because I dropped my toy camera, when I switched it on it appeared to be reluctant to work, in the end I discovered that only flash related modes were dead, so it was just as well I wasn't expecting to collect many more Tangye numbers on the trip. At a guess, it dates from before World War II - we learned more about this engine later in the day:

The next target was a 14½" Tangye which we had failed to nail in action on the previous two visits and it was no third time lucky as its mill was under repair. So we headed for the jetty and chartered a boat for the mills on the far side of the river. We had seen five mills all working here in 2005, but there had been no time to revisit in 2009. At the north end, the same handsome Stewart Raeburn MacDonald engine was working, but next door was a disaster, the beautiful KC class Marshall cross compound was locked away in a mill which had closed after Nargis. More bad news was to follow with two further dead mills although a new mill with a Hosain Hamadanee Tangye (#10923) was present between them.

The next mill had another treasure, not this grotty Marshall, it was in a nailed up shed which was specially opened for us... 

It was the twin of the engine we had seen earlier, but in just two pieces. The two mills had the same owner who had bought them from government owned rice mills in Sittwe and Kalay in western Burma, apparently there had been four in all in the country. I hope someone who reads this page can identify them, they are completely different from anything else we have seen here or in India:

The crankshaft appeared to have a spring governor attached, I do not know what the role of the chain was.

There was just one mill left, its Tangye (#9046) had just been retired and the inevitable Marshall was being assembled to replace it. At the side of the mill a traditional boat was taking shape.

Back on the east side, it was lunchtime for those who needed it, I just needed to take in some fluid. There was a bit of mopping up to do and first a 13" Marshall, allegedly relocated from Pathein, was 'bagged' but the poor lighting and dust meant it was the briefest of visits. I would have preferred to walk to see this 11" Tangye just off the road out, but a boat was needed for the mortals in the party. Divine providence meant that it stranded us in the middle of the river when it refused to start and we were rescued by a young lady in a very small boat, the transfer was so precarious that the camera was not risked to record it. The engine looks quite smart, but the camera lies, it's hemmed in, surrounded by rubbish and a pig to photograph or video.

It was just 14.00, I had run out of ideas, save to video a few more Marshalls we had seen working in 2005 and that would probably have got me strung up by the rest of the party so we headed for home. We had an enforced break by work going on as part of the rural electrification programme. They were obviously well practised, there were poles like this all the way between Pyapon and Bogalay, the erection took just 15 minutes... 

It had been a pretty average sort of day, only the two high speed engines were of any real interest and only one of them in action would drag me back to Bogalay - at the current rate it will be 100% Marshall in a year or two. We had another gentle day coming up.


Rob and Yuehong Dickinson

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