Tavistock Steam Fair (1st June, 2014)

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 overall index for 2014.

After out early visits to Burma when we had discovered several Robey stationary steam engines still in regular use, we were put in touch with Dave Davies the leading light of the Robey Trust - http://www.therobeytrust.co.uk/ - which is based in Tavistock, West Devon. Here they have a well equipped workshop and have restored a number of Robey engines. Undoubtedly it is is the most significant dedicated 'single manufacturer' collection of steam road engines and stationary engines in the world, to my knowledge there is nothing like it anywhere else. As a result we have had a standing invitation to visit and at long last that happened on the occasion of their annual steam fair on 1st June 2014. It is not a large event but as you will see from the pictures, it has loads of atmosphere as the engines take it turns to haul trailers of visitors round the historic town. There are video clips available on YouTube - http://youtu.be/L4MMq-xubZU (road engines) and http://youtu.be/_fQq8VSG1UE (steam car and fire engine). There are other engines at their workshop (not shown here) and this is Dave taking his personal engine carefully through a mini-roundabout in the town centre.

Steam Rollers

	Maker	Number	Registration	Notes
	Robey	32387/1913	DE 2592	Torbay Rally 2014 Picture  Torbay Rally 2015 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2018 Picture  Boconnoc Fair 2019 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2019 Picture
	Robey	42693/1925	FE 7490	Tandem Roller Torbay Rally 2018 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2018 Picture  Boconnoc Fair 2019 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2019 Picture
	Robey	45655/1930	VL 2773	Triple Roller Torbay Rally 2014 Picture  Torbay Rally 2018 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2018 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2019 Picture

General Engines

	Maker	Number	Registration	Notes
	Robey	33348/1913	Z 200	Great Dorset Steam Fair 2018 Picture
	Tasker	1513/1912	IB 1597	"Twilight"  (Not part of the Robey Trust collection) Abbey Hill Rally 2014 Picture  Torbay Rally 2014 Picture   Somerset Show 2015 Picture   Torbay Rally 2015 Picture   Welland Rally 2016 Picture   Somerset Show 2017 Picture  Welland Rally 2017 Picture  Welland Rally 2018 Picture  Torbay Rally 2018 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2018 Picture  Abbey Hill Rally 2019 Picture  Welland Rally 2019 Picture  Great Dorset Steam Fair 2019 Picture

Steam Wagon

Robey

42522/1926

FE 5464

Boconnoc Fair 2016 Picture

Fire Engine

			Maker	Number	Notes
			Merryweather	1150/1891	"Tehidy House" Cornish Fair 2015 Picture  Cornish Fair 2017 Picture

Steam Car

		Maker	Number	Registration	Notes
		Stanley		SV 6723

The Cast of Extras:

An honourable mention is due to members of the Tavistock Town Band who feature on one of the You Tube clips (http://youtu.be/L4MMq-xubZU) and the Morris Dancers (Dartmoor Border Morris - http://www.dartmoorbordermorris.com/), I got a couple of clips of them in action just as we were due to depart for a workshop tour but not enough to be worthy of an upload..