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Steam Rally at Echuca, Australia 2013 |
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Ray Gardiner reports on the 50th Echuca Steam Rally which was held over the Queen's Birthday long weekend, 8th - 9th June 2013. Echuca is located on the Murray River, which is the border between NSW and Victoria. Once it was a major port on the river with a rail connection to Melbourne. The port is now the historic centre of the town and draws many tourists to the area. The port now has the most steam powered paddle steamers in operating condition in the world and there are normally about 3 in steam each day. The wharf has a good museum with a number of portable engines and stationary steam engines. At present a new interpretive centre is being built so access to the stationary engines was not possible. On Sunday morning a steam train arrived behind 4-6-4 R761 leaving Monday morning after posing for photos with 2 steam rollers and a steam wagon. The rally is held at Rotary Park several km from the port. The rally had very good weather with large crowds in attendance. As well as the steam powered machinery there were many vintage cars, tractors and military vehicles. and oil engines. There were also displays of horses sheep dogs and wood chopping. The Campaspe Model Engineers have a 5'' & 7.25'' track onsite which was very busy. The Echuca rally normally has some rare steam exhibits on display, with 2 Leyland steam wagons, one in operating condition 8 ton built 1925 with the 5 ton one undergoing a slow restoration. New this year was a ''Comet'' 3hp portable built by S Williams, Brisbane, the company being better known for windmills. Several years ago there were also several JJ Seeking portables, also very rare. Unfortunately the Case tandem compound traction engine with steam powered steering was not working this year. There were 13 traction engines, 6 road rollers, 6 steam wagons, 8 portables, 1 fire engine, 1 steam launch and a replica Locomobile steam car. There were several stationary engine including a G Walker, Stroud single cylinder horizontal recently restored. The Shand Mason fire engine was used on Sunday for the annual burning of the dunny. There are more pictures of this event on the Traction Talk Forum http://www.tractiontalkforum.com/showthread.php?t=27394, but those showing individual engines are linked below too. We would welcome picture to fill the gaps and also further information on the engines. Click on a thumbnail to see the full size picture, then click the picture to return to this page. Traction Engines
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Rob and Yuehong Dickinson
Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk