All though it happened almost 9 months ago, as the biggest engine rally in the UK at present, I thought it would be of interest to share the story of our 2024 show at Newby hall.
The terrible weather we experienced early in 2024 and indeed all the way up until the beginning of May led me & the entire Tractor Fest team to have many sleepless nights when planning the show. Luckily for us during the Covid pandemic, the Newby Hall Estate took advantage of there been no events for a couple of years and spent a large amount of money having the show fields and car parks worked on, with some serious drainage work done under the fields. This work, combined with a relatively dry May & early June meant that despite the poor weather in the previous 6 months, other than a couple of areas which were soft, but not muddy, the show field was in excellent condition by the time the event rolled around.
Now in its 18th edition, Tractor Fest just seems to grow bigger & better each year. The total number of exhibits was for 2024 was way in excess of 2000, of which 350 were stationary engines. I keep seeing people on the various engine related Facebook groups referring to the show as ENGINE FEST and this is a fitting tribute to all of the engine men & women who turn out and make the show the success that it has become.
The special feature for 2024 was Engines made in Lincolnshire and we had 80 examples entered to choose from. There were names including Ruston & Hornsby, Blackstone, Ruston Proctor, Richard Hornsby & Sons, Robey & even Lovell’s of Boston were represented. So popular was the special feature that the most common entry we had amongst the engines was the Ruston AP, with a total of 18 entered! It wasn’t just Ruston AP’s though. Dave Mashiter of Cumbria was showing his 15hp Ruston IP for the first time. Weighing in excess of 2 tonnes it needed to be unloaded with one of the sites tele-handlers, as did several other engines over the weekend.
The Tractor Fest team pride ourselves on hosting a relaxed and friendly show and we go out of our way to make the exhibitors feel welcome. I also try to invite a wide variety of engines of all shapes & sizes. Working engines are always popular and one such example we had this time was a Ransomes drag saw featuring a Ruston APR engine owned by John & Laura Crowder of Lincolnshire. A quick trip to the Newby Hall wood yard found a nice large tree trunk, which John and his helpers set too cutting up into thin slices over the weekend. Every time the engine was started a crowd suddenly appeared and after a few requests John began selling the cut rounds and raised £100 for the Salvation Army who had a stand at the show.
Away from the special feature there were many other engines to catch the eye. Well known Lister collector, Lee Say of Tadcaster (See Lee’s article on his collection HERE) got carried away in the week before the show and despite only entering 2 engines asked if he could bring 7 more. In total he brought along the following Listers. H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R. Or to put it another way the full range of Lister Standard engines. What made this display special was that they were all the earlier flick magneto style and were all on original Lister trolleys. It took some effort and close to £150 in petrol to run them over the weekend. It was an amazing display and not one likely to repeated any time soon. Another exhibitor that deserves special mention was Luke Thompson of Eastoft near Scunthorpe. Luke has collected up a range of Bamford SD diesels in recent years and made 2 trips to the show to exhibit an SD1, SD2, SD3 & SD4. This was again a sight that will not likely be seen again for a while.
Tractor Fest is no stranger to international exhibitors with enthusiasts having come from Germany, Ireland, France & the Netherlands in the past. A new addition to the show this year came from the Mediterranean island of Malta. Joseph Sammut had organised a trip to the UK to coincide with the show and had arranged to borrow a Petter M type from his good friend Richard Crook. To get around the public liability insurance side of things Joseph became a member of the North West Stationary Engine Association, who had made an extra effort for the show, with some 20 of their members putting on a group display in one of the engine pens.
The evening light up is now something of a Tractor Fest tradition and one that seems to grow year on year. There were over 40 engines running well into the evening on both nights. Examples included a pair of Ruston PT generating sets, with consecutive serial numbers, but only reunited in recent years, by owner Tom Moffat. On the larger side of things Bruch Richmond of Broughty Ferry (Dundee) had a couple of engines running well after dark. The first a 15hp Petter Atomic, 2 stroke diesel. The 2nd is even larger and weighs approximately 2.5tonnes. It is a Tangye VC2 twin cylinder generator set. Its not just engines that light up these days.
There were so many other engines at the show that I cannot do them all justice in mere words. Hopefully, the pictures will help tell the story. Entries are now open for Tractor Fest 2025 which will be take place on 7th & 8th June at Newby Hall, North Yorkshire. The special theme for 2025 is low tension ignition engines and I am hoping that we can have an even bigger turn out of exhibitors than we did this time. Entry forms are available from our website https://.tractorfest.uk
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