Autumn 2026 Update

Let’s catch up with what has been going on here.

Last time we wrote a blog was at the beginning of the year, I cannot believe where that time has gone. Let us do a brief roundup of 2026 so far.

I wrote a blog when we were just starting the tyres on Albert’s back wheels; well, we can say the job was done, and boy, was that tough going. It took a few weeks of solid weekend work from Lloyd and Jack, plus help from our friendly farmer David. It’s a job I hope we don’t have to do again any time soon. But we can say that Albert is working well on his new tyres and so far, they are still on! He has done a few miles on them now, but in a couple of weeks he has a trip of 29 miles to do, so let’s hope they stay on.

In April both Victoria and Albert had their steam test, all passed and then it was time to do the next repair on Albert. He needed work on his flywheel as it was very wobbly, so flywheel and crank out and off for some work at our friend’s. With no Albert the start of the season was going to be with just Victoria and of course our little 6” Foden.

We spent most of May getting things ready for the season and spending time at Amberley Museum helping with getting their roller “Joan” ready for the season too.

June arrived and our first rally with Victoria was at Hollycombe in Liphook, just a few miles away from where we live. The Saturday was wet to the point we didn’t even uncover Victoria, but Sunday was a nice day with plenty of visitors. Then we were loaded to our friends in West Sussex where we attended a local brewery for an afternoon/evening event; a lovely run over there with a few friends’ engines. Next, we were off on the road with Victoria, the trailer and our living van, making our way to Amberley Museum for what is their large steam show at the beginning of July. A journey of about 25 miles and Victoria went like a dream and we made good time, arriving at the museum midafternoon much to the delight of all the visitors. Just a few days later, Francios the Foden, was trailered over to join Victoria, but sadly Albert wouldn’t be joining us as he was still waiting for his repairs to be completed.

July, and we spent most of our weekends at Amberley Museum either steaming for an event or cleaning ready for the next event. We attended the Large Steam Show which was very good, lots of visiting engines and good number of visitors as always, then their Railway Gala which again is a well-attended event. The last weekend in July was spent closer to home cleaning Albert and getting him ready to receive his repaired flywheel and crank, we wanted to make sure he had a good clean and Albert does get very very dirty, very quickly, so it was a time well spent.

Then we headed into August and as you know this was a very hot and sunny time and the idea of steaming along the roads was becoming a little difficult due to the fire risk, with many places having wild fires and steam railways halting the use of their steam locos we thought we would be next. The first weekend of August we were steaming at Amberley again for their retro wheels weekend, then the following week Albert’s flywheel was ready for collection so the weekend was spent getting it all fitted back into Albert which was done and again thanks to our friendly farmer, David, for his help with his big tractor. Unfortunately, we couldn’t steam Albert up in the farmyard as our farmer had just filled his barns with hundreds of bales of hay and we really didn’t want to start a fire with the weather conditions. We decided to wait and the following weekend we were to be at an event and we would check it all there, maybe not the best plan but it was the only one we had! That was until we got a call from the event saying we could attend but we were not allowed to steam up, again totally understandable with the ground conditions so we decided that we would load straight to Amberley where we could steam him at the weekend to check everything was ok. Oh, hold on, just as we pulled up at Amberley it was announced that steam (road and rail) were not allowed to steam so again no steaming for us. We totally understand the risk, and it was not an issue, it could wait until we had had some rain and it was safer to steam. So, we spent the next weekend cleaning the engines and spending time with friends. Bank holiday weekend and we had rain…. Yay! On the Monday Amberley were happy for us to steam and we did, Albert was all good and it was great to have him back in steam with Victoria.

On into September, a couple of events at Amberley including their miniature weekend which they had around 60 of them in all different sizes steaming round, Francois the Foden joined in the fun and of course Victoria and Albert joined in too, nice to have all 3 engines out together. As I write this, we are at the last day of September but we still have plenty to look forward to.

This Sunday is Autumn Gathering at Amberley, always a good event, plenty to see from steam, cars, tractors, buses, motorbikes and much more. Then Victoria is off on a road run the following weekend before heading to The British Engineerium for an big event there. Albert will also be heading there, he will be roading the 29 miles so fingers crossed for Jack and Alice who will be tackling the trip with him. The event at the The British Engineerium is 24^th & 25^th October, check out their website and Facebook page for details, it looks like it’s going to be a good event and we are really looking forward to it.

We then head back to Amberley and plan our end of year plans.

Please visit our Sewards of Petersfield Facebook page for many more pictures and keeping up to date.

Also with Christmas just around the corner we have the excellent children’s storybooks from Victorias Torton Tales, all about Victoria and her friends, the children love them so make sure you order yours in time for Christmas day.