Bedfordshire Steam Fair 17/9/11

Sorry to pop this item in out of order but I just haven't had time to write the Cornwall entries yet.

Today (17/9/11) we went to the Bedford Steam fair that is held at Shuttleworth, not far from the A1. The Shuttleworth site has an airfield and a large collection of old aircraft. For the price of entry (£10 this year) you get to see the huge steam rally and the aircraft in the museum. The rally consists of not only steam driven items but military vehicles, old tractors, motor bikes, caravans, cars and just about every type of old mechanical device you can think of :-).

This event always attracts numerous Showman's engines, here is one of the best examples..

And here are a few more of these impressive showman's engines, quite a few more were scattered around the site powering fairground rides etc..

Another of the delights of the Bedford Rally are the live steam demonstrations. The steam ploughing, with the two traction engines either side of a field pulling the plough to and fro across the fields is always worth a look.

The next three pictures show a road repairing demo. The concrete and brick rubble is crushed into a suitable size by a machine that is powered by a large stationary steam engine. A narrow gauge railway then takes this material to where it's needed and where the trucks are tipped up. Eventually a steam roller will come to compress the hardcore into a road surface.

Crushing the hardcore.

The little railway engine used to haul the trucks of hardcore.

The truck is tipped ready for the roller

There's a very wide variety of vehicles at the show including quite a few military ones....

Another feature are the huge traction engines with 'cranes' that move trees about ready for the saw benches that turn them into planks and beams.

We had a great day out and came home with a few items from the market area. If we had to choose one Steam Rally to visit in the year I think that the Bedford Steam Rally would get our vote. There must be something to interest everyone at this splendid event.

Our base in Cornwall

We are regular visitors to Cornwall and love the place. This time we we were to spend 40 nights in the county. With such a long stay it would be difficult to describe each day so instead I will do a short series of blog entries about some of our favourite places.

We stay at a small five van caravan site that lies between Redruth and St Agnes, the nearest village being Scorrier. The site owner has become a friend and many of the other visitors are 'regulars' and have some interesting stories to tell.

Our site at Scorrier

 The site is on a slight hill with a clear view of Carn Brea and great TV reception and a good take off for my radio hobby.

South from the site.

Also on the site owners land is a beautiful old mine building, this lies more or less directly to the south.

Carn Brea that lies to the south west.

So that is where we were staying and in later blogs I will mention some of the places we visited.