Well for a cancelled rally it wasn’t that bad! Strumpshaw May Bank Holiday rally as it’s been for the last 30 years came to an end this year with the cancellation of the normal 3 day rally held over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, however, the museum didn’t let it end there and arranged for … Read more
Congratulations go to Sean “Spooner” Murrell with his “French Fancies at the Tarmonkey Spring Crank-Up 2026! ” article. Voted by you, the readers as the best article of the month for March 2026. Congratulations Sean, Your prize will be on its way to you shortly. Be sure to support your favourite authors with the “Like” … Read more
Late one evening, the week before last, a friend alerted me to a stationary engine, going free, to protect it from scraping on Facebook. Upon looking into it, the engine seemed interesting enough and 10 miles from where I would be the following Saturday. So, at this point, without knowing what type of engine, or … Read more
Just finished the freshen up of my recent addition to the arsenal of Petter loads, it’s a 3″ John Cherry centrifugal pump, not much needed for this one, just a clean up, coat of paint and a new trolley with a nice riveted tank to replace the plastic one it came with, just wheels to … Read more
Saturday saw Cheffins Spring 2026 sale, held at their Sutton sale ground with plenty on offer for buyers of all types. Prices were very reasonable if not a little low, with only a couple of lots bringing what you could call “strong money” and others realising far less than you would expect. Highest price of … Read more
The Wadebridge Antiques and Salvage Fair was held over the Easter weekend and we had a brilliant display of stationary engines. The selection included many Lister D types for the 100th anniversary, 2 lovely French engines (Bugaud and Ceres), a hit and miss Lister D horizontal engine and a woodpecker to name a few. The … Read more
Converting a rotary to a flicker…. As time passes by, I’m pretty sure that the supply of early rotating armature magnetos will become more and more difficult to find. It was difficult enough 40 years ago when I first got my 1919 Lister P type! To overcome the problem, I modified a much more modern … Read more
During the Easter bank holiday, I took the opportunity to visit Prickwillow pumping station in Ely Cambridgeshire. It is a great museum and I was greeted by an impressive collection of six large diesel engines from surrounding pump stations which were added to the site as they were decommissioned. In the entrance hall was a … Read more
Congratulations go to Nik Major with his “The story of my Lister Q type “article. Voted by you, the readers as the best article of the month for Febuary 2026. Congratulations Nik Major, Your prize will be on its way to you shortly. Be sure to support your favourite authors with the “Like” button located … Read more
Back in June 2023 I acquired a Petter M type from a friend who had helped clear a collection in the North of England. Upon having a look, the engine appeared to be in good original condition, complete and a quick check revealed it to have a good spark. I was assured that it had … Read more