Lincoln Steam and Vintage Rally (20th - 21st August, 2022)
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 2022 introduction and overall index.
We went to Lincoln in 2013, 2016 and 2019, it's traditionally a large 'Showground' rally which means it's 'all weather' but movement and the working area are minimal (the latter non-existent this year). However, unlike a lot of rallies, most of the engines are displayed facing south, albeit with their transport in attendance, which makes for ease of photography, early and late when the light is best should the sun come out which it did occasionally on Saturday morning and for a sustained period in the early afternoon before disappearing again. Enough as it happens to get just about everything in nice light.
That, I have to say, is about as far as the good news went, basically it had become a medium sized rally. As I had feared when confirmation that the rally would actually go ahead came relatively late, the number of exhibits was well down and I recorded just 66 full size steam road engines whereas there had been some 106 (including centre engines) in 2019, which was similar to 2013/16. That's a fall of 40% which is far more than the average of other rallies we have been to this year. This reduction extended to other categories at the show, there were yawning gaps in the commercials and cars areas and I counted just seven (7!) military vehicles in the arena when their time came. The 2019 programme list went as far as 1397, the 2022 version had just 1056, but my feeling is that the actual figure 'on the day' was far worse than that. No doubt the rally organisers will have an accurate figure and know better than a casual observer what caused this. There was a fair crowd around the arena for the lunchtime grand parade but afterwards the crowds thinned out quite quickly.
Among all the bad news, the presence of the only two UK based Brown and May traction engines with a portable from the same stable provided some temporary joy.
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