Weeting Steam Engine Rally and Country Show (18th - 20th July, 2025)

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 2025 introduction and overall index.

One way and another, I had failed to make it back to Weeting since 2018. It's one of my favourite shows but it's a long way from home and until 2024 I wouldn't have missed many new engines. This year we finally made it back and it was well worth the wait. It was the EATES 70th anniversary show and, to celebrate, the organisers seemed to have decided it needed 'more of the same' and lined up about 110 road steam engines and the natural churn since my last visit meant that no less than 10 were new to me. Unfortunately, the long hot dry spell came to an end over the weekend and, as a result, we had to leave home on the other side of England at the crack of dawn to enjoy Friday's sunshine. Fortunately the traffic was kind to us and I made the most of the six hours from 11.30 to observe and photograph over 100 full size exhibits at work and rest. Old age is rapidly catching up with me and it seems that I missed (at least) one engine and failed to photograph another, fortunately neither was unfamiliar. We were staying conveniently in nearby Brandon, so on Friday evening I washed off most of the dust, checked my notes and photos and on Saturday, which was as miserable as Friday had been glorious, I tried to fill in the gaps... Sunday's forecast was grim, a third visit was ruled out, Yuehong volunteered to do most of the driving and we could console ourselves that, while we were away, our garden had had more rain in 2 days than in the whole of the last nearly 4 months put together since we came back from our winter break in Penang....

It's a hard life, there's nearby Welland looming up, it's my favourite show and another 'challenge' to record while also enjoying the spectacle. As for Weeting, it's very special and we really must get back here before I am forced to retire from the sport that is 'gricing'. Thanks everyone who worked so hard for for my and others' pleasure and I'm sorry if your engine was one of the unlucky ones which wasn't blessed with sunshine as I walked past. My smartphone is sadly unloved for most of the time but it did tell me that I covered 5km on Saturday. That was probably less than half as much as on Friday (when I typically left it in the car in my hurry to get going). As a sign of the times I live in, on Saturday I left my camera in the room and had to go back to collect it! These days unless I have the basket of washing in my hands, I can't get to the top of the garden without forgetting why I have come up...

As for the pictures, I learned long ago that these engines do not photograph at all well on a sunny day with light brown grass, it's what I call the 'Welland effect'. Please do bear this in mind when viewing, it's how they looked to my eyes too.. 

Choose the page you are interested in and within that, click on a thumbnail for a larger image. Then click again to return to the page.

Steam Rollers	General Engines Part 1	General Engines Part 2
General Engines Part 3	Other Engines Part 1	Other Engines Part 2

The heart of Weeting has to be the working area; it's at least on a par with Welland which is saying something...
I need to make (much) more time to soak up the atmosphere on occasions such as these.

"What is this life, if full of care,
we have no time to stand and stare..."
(William Henry Davies