Fairford Steam Show, (17th - 18th August, 2024)
This is one of a series of pages I have uploaded to illustrate facets of the steam rallies we have attended in the UK. Click here for the 2024 introduction and overall index.
Fairford 2023 was a new venture which could have sunk in a sea of mud but was rescued from disaster by an inspired effort by the management. Conditions could not have been more different in 2024, it was a warm fine day, ground conditions were near perfect and the organisers were rewarded by an excellent turn out, at least on the Saturday when we attended,
I recorded 32 full sized road engines to which could be added a steam car, a steam boat, a steam powered fire engine and a steam powered rail mounted crane, a commendable array of steam power even if 75% of the road engines had been at the South Cerney event just two weeks earlier. In this respect it was running level with the long established Banbury event in June. In terms of novelty there was an unidentified Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies portable in an enclosure at the back of the site and in a tent where the two lines of engines met were a Shand Mason fire engine 'Duke of Beaufort' and an Aveling and Porter tractor (8328/1914) which is the second to be recovered from Loch Ness. The other is 9435/1923 now fully restored and they have been given successive registration numbers (ES 5820 and ES 5819).
The size of the site is barely adequate for the current offering, in particular the limited size of the main arena meant that the full sized engines did a run through instead of forming the traditional line up. From the above, you will gather that I was very impressed and we'll be back next year, especially as Yuehong was able to source her winter/spring bulbs from the same gentleman who had satisfied her in 2023. As far as the show is concerned, at the moment, all their problems are nice ones to have.
In terms of photography, some thought had been given to the positioning the engines, the main group had roughly 50% facing east and 50% south which was a considerable help but movement was again somewhat limited and there was rather less sunshine than the forecast suggested. I wasn't over concerned as two of the three engines of special interest to me were in a tent and the third one wasn't going anywhere either!
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