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Hailed as the the largest gathering of Traction Engines in the World this has to be one of the best events to attend in this Country, Its well worth its £10 adult entrance fee and even better if you buy tickets in advance at £7.50. Not so good though when its a family of four parting with £25 on the day. I was returning from a holiday in Somerset where practically everything for a family of 4 is £25 to get in. Do that for 7 days and you spend £175 just getting in to places!! That’s on top of what you've spent out for your holiday! However I digress!!!!
If you want to go to a Steam Rally, make it this one. Here steam is far more important than your petrol car collection. I'm always impressed with its sheer size and attendances. The site covers Acres of land and hundreds of Traction Engines and Rollers turn up for the 5 day event. The people who attend are counted in hundreds of thousands! You can see all sorts of Traction moving around, where ever you look something is always going on: ploughing engines in the fields , ploughing with traditional methods alongside tractors and horses, threshers and balers turning out the grain and straw, Rollers building a short road. Traction engines making up Land Trains which were pulling over 100 tonnes around the arena, competing with large Scammell heavy haulage diesels.
There's also an abundance of portable and stationary steam engines surrounded by a large collection of commercial and agricultural vehicles and in amongst all this heavy duty equipment: an almost token gesture of a small collection of classic and vintage cars. Not forgetting to top it all off, the biggest collection of Showman’s engines lined up in an impressive display. All around you the smell of steam, smoke and soot! Absolutely brilliant!
Not unsurprising then you'd be hard pressed to find any 3 wheelers at an event like this. But I found one! a Morgan in amongst the small selection of classic cars. In fact I found several others, albeit in the Commercial section. several Scammell Scarabs collectively known as Mechanical horses. These 3 wheeled cabs were the main transport for British Railways when it came to moving freight off the trains and down the platforms and the surrounding areas. I was wondering then is a Steam Roller ,one with a single Roll on the front, a 3 wheeler? after all, Elvis himself starts this site with Cugnot’s Steam Tractor. In fact I found several other Traction engines which broadly speaking were 3 wheelers!!
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