Fairford Steam Rally 2015
Working Steam

This is one of a series of pages which I have uploaded to illustrate facets of steam rallies we have attended in the UK. Such events occur all over the country in the summer months, they are easily found by using your favourite search engine and may have anything between a handful of steam engines and hundreds (as at the Great Dorset Steam Fair which could probably be fairly described as having an excess of riches). Click here for the Fairford 2015 index and click here for the overall index for 2015.

2014 had represented a 'near miss' with a fine dry day not producing sufficient consistent sunshine to get the video out - dark engines under clouds with a bright sky are a complete disaster. 2015 was a heap better and the crews were extremely hospitable. I had seen the 'boys' on this lovely saw bench a couple of times this season already so they had to take a back seat.

Saw Bench

Road locomotive McLaren 1295/1911 was again 'roped in', superpower for the small Marshall bench.

Steam Ploughing

Two Fowler steam ploughing engines (14257/1916 and 15673/1918 were working using a Fowler plough over a harvested field. These were respectively a K7 and a Z7 types which I was told are the smallest and largest of their kind, certainly the difference in size was very evident. I had a whale of a time... The YouTuve video of the occasion is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGG8U_-Hzhs. 

Fowler 14257 first and 15673 second