Old Glory Archive – Issue 1, 2020 OCR.pdf

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As they worked, rusted away,
and found their way into
preservation
It gives me great pleasure to be able to publish the late John Crawley's
colour slides of early rallies in the 1950s and 'Gos all together in one volume
at the request of Old Glory magazine readers. It is our intention to give the
same treatment to his black and white photographic archive in due course -
as a series in this popular bookazine format.
Editor:
Colin Tyson
Designer:
Anita Waters, Publishing Works
Managing Director:
Phil Weeden
Publisher:
Paul Appleton
Advertisement Sales:
Sue Fixter,
Publishing Works
Tel: 0 1507 499081
s ue@publishing-works. corn
Published by:
Kelsey Publishing Ltd,
The Granary, Downs Court,
Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, MEIS 6AL.
Telephone 0 1959 541444,
Fax 0 1 959 541400, www.kelsey.co.uk
Distributed by:
Marketforce (UK) Ltd.,
3rd Floor, 1 6 1 Marsh
Wall,
London
El4 9AP. Tel: 020 3787 900 1
Printed by:
Pensord, Blackwood,
South Wales
Kelsey Media
2020
©
all rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden
except with permission in writing from
the publishers. The views expressed in this
publication are not necessarily those of the
Editor or the Publisher. Kelsey Media accepts no
liability for products and services offered by
third parties.
John Crawley: a road steam
preservation pioneer
•
•
W
hen a very young John Crawley
asked his nanny to cross the
road with him - in order that he
could get a closer look at a working steam
roller - it provided just a hint of what was to
become such a large feature of his future life.
Living close to the East Coast Main Line, a
lifetime interest in steam engines was sure
to follow.
Organiser of over 80 steam rallies, John
saved up to 30 steam traction engines
for preservation from the mid- 1 950s to
the early 1 960s (many are featured in
this volume) at a time when they were
considered not much more than worthless
scrap. Indeed he became the first owner of
no less than 22 of them.
His showman's road locomotives included
Pat Collins'
No l; His Majesty, William
V
and
Kitchener
- the latter becoming
The
Iron Maiden
of the famous traction engine
film of the same name of 1 962. John was the
film's technical consultant and also famously
appeared on screen wearing ladies clothing
- doubling for actress Anne Helm when she
was seen to drive the engine through a barn.
His story behind the making of the film
starts on page 90.
It is believed that John was the last
remaining person alive to have received a
brand new engine 'straight out of the box'
- a Ransomes, Sims
&
Jefferies portable
engine that was still lurking in the corner of
the works.
John served on the British Transport
Commission's consultative panel under its
second chairman Sir Brian Robertson. Here
John advised on items still in service that
were to be earmarked for preservation for a
future National Railway Museum to be built
at York.
Through keeping his engines in the
early years at Woburn Abbey, John found
that they attracted attention, both from
visitors and like-minded people, and thus
John founded the Bedford Steam Engine
Preservation Society in 1956, now one
3
John Crawley, in the study of his Bedford home.
COLIN TYSON
ISBN:
2634745
First Published August 2020
Front Cover:
Foster Shp single cylinder
engine No 1 4625 of 1931 takes part in
the grand parade at the Skegness rally on
1 9 June 1 960, exhibited by H Sharpe of
Skegness. JOHN CRAWLEY
Inset:
Richard Hornsby Shp single
cylinder traction engine No 6557 rests
where it was last used - in Gibbons' yard
at Castor, Peterborough, in October
1 955. JOHN CRAWLEY
of the UK's largest and most pro-active
regional steam societies, where he remained
its president until his death in 20 1 1, aged
84. John also organised the first Bedford
rally at Woburn Abbey a year later and
was to organise another nine years of
Bedford rallies. He launched a dozen other
rallies around the UK, including the first
Expo Steam at Battersea Park, London,
and at Manby near Louth, Lines, which
were held for many years at Peterborough
Showground as one of the largest rallies in
Britain. John organised the early Beaulieu
rallies for Lord Montagu and also those at
Bicton Gardens.
John joined the nascent National Traction
Engine Club (now Trust) in 1955 and served
as its Vice Chairman from 1 959 until the
early 1 980s, latterly Chief Executive and
one-time editor of its journal
Steaming.
John has also held posts of Vice Chairman
of the Transport Trust and The Fair Organ
Preservation Society; Chairman of The
Fairground Society and was also one-time
President of the Road Locomotive Society.
John's miniature railway interests included
his two live steam LNER Pacific locomotives
and he was often to be found running them
at the Bedford Model Engineering Society's
Summerfields Railway.
Colin Tyson
COLOUR FILES
ABANDONED ENGINES
�½�½�½�½�½�½�½�½-
Abandoned engines that
made it into preservation
'Perchance they are not
dead, but sleepeth'
John Crawley's selection of traction
engines in the 1950s - when they
lay abandoned and unloved - often
standing derelict at their last place
of work. Happily all of them survived
into preservation to tell the tale!
he headline for this article is taken
from the famous tribute left attached
to a wreath by an enthusiast named
Captain Wolf at the closure of the narrow
gauge Lynton
&
Barnstaple Railway in
September 1 935 by an uncaring Southern
Railway - it simply read 'To the Lynton­
Barnstaple Railway, In Loving Memory,
Perchance it is not dead, but sleepeth'.
This could equally be attributed to so
many traction engines in the 1 950s when
they were either abandoned at the place of
their last job of work or were tucked away to
one side - awaiting the owner's call to bring
in the scrapman.
But happily for the ten engines selected
here, the scrapman never came - they
all made it into preservation with nine
being restored and a tenth awaiting its
resurrection. It is a sobering thought that at
the time all of the engines depicted could
have been bought for well under £200 each
(today's equivalent £3,780). Of course the
great thing about these photos is that you
can enjoy them in the knowledge that they
all survived; they were only resting before
entering a new phase in their lives - a phase
that brought unprecedented interest and
great affection. They look so different today!
I have come to the conclusion that 1 953-4
were possibly the best years to go engine
buying; in 1 955 when looking to acquire my
first engine I was told several times that I
'should have come last year because she was
sold for scrap' or 'if you'd come last year you
could have had her for nothing'.
ABOVE: Fowler No 1 1 357 sits abandoned where
it stood after its last job near Sandy, Bedfordshire,
in August 1 955. The Class A4 6hp traction engine
was built on Friday 28 August 1 908 and sold to TB
Kitchener of Bedfordshire where it was registered
NM 219. It spent its working life with this owner
until sold into preservation in 1 958.
•
T
6-ton Foden tipping wagon No 1 3456 of 1 929 was sold to WJ King of Bishops Lyd eard, Somerset, where it was registered LG 2347. Laid aside in the early 1 930s, it
was cleared from undergrowth a n d sold in King's auction on 1 4 May 1 988, from where she entered preservation as Lot No 394, realising £1 2,000.
5
THE COLOUR FILES

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