Fawley Hill Vintage Transport Festival (17th - 19th May, 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 since 2013. Click here for the 2024 introduction and overall index.
The Fawley Hill Vintage Transport Festival 2023 is, by common consent, best forgotten. It was postponed from May to the August Bank holiday weekend as ground conditions seemed likely to make the original date a muddy experience. Alas, although the cancellation of GDSF 2023 created a gap in the calendar, most of the acceptances turned out to be booked elsewhere for then and, viewed from afar, it would seem that the event was only rescued from total disaster by the participation of many of the regular engines from the nearby Stoke Row Rally. 2024 has been entering the record books for all the wrong reasons and when we attended on the Friday, we found just 40 engines (including a centre engine and 3 steam locomotives) and heard tales of owners' reluctance to participate owing to the venue's track record. I shared that reluctance and only came as the weather forecast performed a late 'volte-face' and the word was out that this was to be 'The Last Time' for what had been for us, in 2014, one of the best steam rallies ever. It seems that I was not alone, attendance was disappointing, I would estimate just about 500 which would have been far below 'break even' despite it being a charity event. As such, what we saw lacked 'atmosphere', the trains were full but there was almost no one watching the arena events and traders and food outlets were looking glum.
I believe that things perked up over the weekend with at least a couple more engines and larger crowds to judge from a YouTube video. By special request of our hostess, Judy McAlpine, this being her 80th birthday celebration, Mark Walker had parked his tank on the lawn again but this time it was anything but the centre of attention. Obviously, Saturday and Sunday would have been different but I was left with the feeling that, like GDSF and Lincoln, it's time was up.
All the road engines were familiar and, to be honest, the most novel exhibit was this motorbike and sidecar parked in front of our BB. As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed a couple of people checking it out for an ID, but without success. Then a gricer friend of mine, who coincidentally was parked right next to us, turned up and during our conversation, the owners came back. Smelling that this might be something interesting, I asked them about it. "Oh. it's a 1961 Chinese copy of a Russian copy of a BMW..." At which point I quickly summoned Yuehong and they showed her a couple of small labels which indicated that it had been assembled by a Chinese military research institute in Zuzhou which is in Hunan, midway between Changsa (provincial capital) and Chenzhou which I visited twice for its C4 operated narrow gauge railway. Now you couldn't cover a postage stamp with what I know about motorbikes but when it was pointed out that it had a shaft drive and no chain, I could see that it was more than a little 'special' and not a run-of-the-mill machine. It's seems it is a feature mainly found on larger machines, There were others too but these went over my head...
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