The Shrewsbury Steam Rally with see a newly restored Showmans Engine on display, and we catch up with owner Mr Goddard to find out more about it.
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00:00So we're here in Shrewsbury with Mr Goddard, how are you doing sir?
00:03Good, good to see you.
00:04And a fantastic bit of kit you've got behind you,
00:06and it's not been looking quite as shiny and gleamy as this for all that long,
00:10is it? Just a few months is it?
00:11Yeah, yeah, this is my 1903 Borough Showman's Engine.
00:18It was being just recently restored again,
00:22it's had a lot of boiler work and new gears and various other pieces to it
00:26to bring it back to A1 condition.
00:30So how long has it been in your position?
00:32I've owned it for about three years,
00:33it used to belong to the Crane family from Wolverhampton and...
00:38Len Crane?
00:38Len Crane.
00:39Ah yeah, of course.
00:40Yeah, yeah, so it was Len and Jane's engine
00:43and I was fortunate enough to purchase it off Jane and Bridget about three years ago
00:49and then since then we've been completely stripped down and rebuilt
00:53and your new boiler and your axle and gears and painting
00:58and put it back to how it used to look.
01:00So when it needs work on the boiler,
01:02I mean you don't pop down quick for it do you, you know,
01:04so where do you, who does the work?
01:06Well unfortunately there's a very good guy who lives in Wicksell,
01:11you know, near Wemm,
01:12so he's very good, he and his son do a brilliant job on steam engines from all over the country
01:18but obviously having them just there is very handy
01:20and they've worked very hard to bring it back to life.
01:24Cool and when we see these kind of engines,
01:26I was just commenting, we were having a little chat off camera,
01:29the kind of, the circular gadget on the front,
01:33that gives it away that it's a, it was from a fairground in background, is that right?
01:37Yeah, I mean this engine originally was built as what they call a road locomotive
01:42which was built and it was built, it worked down in Windsor
01:45and it worked on the Windsor Estate as a logging engine originally
01:50and worked for a brick company
01:51and it was converted in 1930 into showman's guys
01:56which is when they put the dynamo on the front
01:58so it would pull the loads of the show ground,
02:02you know, for the gallopers or the dodgems or whatever from show to show, from town to town
02:07and then it would then generate the electricity to power them
02:10when it got there by putting a belt drive to the dynamo.
02:13So cost-wise, what's, if you want to buy one of these,
02:17you're looking at a few quid aren't you?
02:19Are you going to reveal the amount?
02:21Let's just say, say I won't tell it too much because the wife would get too upset,
02:25but let's just say, yeah, they are expensive beasts to look after
02:29and they're an expensive hobby
02:30but I always say that the one thing there's,
02:33they're similar to owning horses, they're quite expensive
02:35but at least you don't have to feed it hay every day.
02:38Every, very true, very true.
02:40So what is it about this kind of vehicle, you know,
02:42you could trade this in and for what it would cost
02:45you could have a very very swish sports car,
02:47what is it about these that kind of, that, you know, tickles your fancy?
02:52I don't know, I mean, I've been brought up with my father
02:54had a steam engine long before he had me,
02:56so, but we've been, as a family, we've been brought up with it really
03:00and I suppose they say steam gets into your blood
03:02and I think that's probably true,
03:05and we've been fortunate enough to own a few steam engines
03:08and things like that over the period of time
03:09and I just enjoy it and it's a great,
03:11there's a great bunch of people come out with steam engines,
03:14it brings people together from all walks of life
03:16and it's just a great hobby,
03:19sometimes it gets very frustrating,
03:21but yeah, no, it's a great hobby
03:24and it's, yeah, it's a great way of meeting people
03:26and having a good time.
03:28The sounds and the smells you get from these things
03:31kind of, much in the same way as when you pop down the Severn Valley,
03:34it just takes you straight back to another time, doesn't it?
03:37And I guess as technology just becomes these bits of gadgets
03:41that we hold in our hands and no one knows quite how they work,
03:45these just take us back to a different era, don't they?
03:48Yeah, I think they, I suppose a lot of people say
03:50they're the nearest thing to a living being, I guess, really,
03:53and they do, you know, when you light the fire in them
03:55and they start to boil and things like that,
03:57they do come alive and they do hiss
03:59and they do sort of come to life
04:01and it's, I guess, that's partly what attraction is,
04:04it's just, you just feel that you're making something happen,
04:07making something, you know, something by doing that
04:10and putting the coal on the fire and things like that.
04:13It does sort of become alive and, you know,
04:16and it does become a sort of a being.
04:18So if people want to see this,
04:20a little bird tells me it might be appearing at a show coming up.
04:22Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, from us in,
04:24as I'm the chairman of the County of Sallop Steam Engine Society
04:27and we're holding our annual show at the Onslow Park
04:30over the August bank holiday weekend.
04:32The show's open on the Sunday and Monday,
04:34so yeah, so she will be there, all being well,
04:36and we're just, we're doing a bit of fine-tuning at the moment,
04:38but yeah, I'm sure it will be there.
04:40So what's it, back of a truck job then, to get it there, or how's it work?
04:44She's going to go on her own on four wheels.
04:46Yeah, so what, do you have to pick your hours accordingly,
04:50like is it a 3am in the morning job?
04:51No, not quite that bad.
04:53It does about sort of 12, 14 mile an hour on the road,
04:56so it's not too drastically slow.
04:58Yeah, well that's faster than you can do these days
05:00driving around the black country in the traffic.
05:02Yeah, yeah, so it's, so yeah,
05:05we do try and pick our moments within reason
05:07and try and keep to the quieter roads,
05:09but yeah, no, it's not too bad, it does move along at a reasonable pace.
05:13So just remind us again, August Bank Holiday Weekend.
05:15Yeah, the Sunday and Monday, Onslow Park, Welshpool Road, Shrewsbury,
05:19just off the bypass, come and see us all there.
05:21Great stuff, thank you sir.