Victoria returns to the rally field

We haven’t updated you for a while on here so we thought that we would bring you up to date a little with what we have been up to and what’s still to come.

Victoria spent the first half the year having all her repairs: she had a new floor in her tender, some welding required in her smoke box and a bit of work in her fire box. She also had her 10 year hydraulic test and her yearly steam test. This all took longer than we expected so we missed the first couple of events we had planned in May and June.

By the end of June all the tests had been successfully passed and we went for a trip to the pub to cheers her return. Then we had to take her to Amberley Museum for the first weekend of July where she was attending their Steam event, this we did and everything went well; it was great to be back out with her. We also had a new arrival in June, a 6″ Foden has come to us and he also joined us at Amberley.

The plan was to go to the Parham Steam Rally just a few miles from Amberley the following weekend but Victoria and the Foden both needed a little repair, so it was decided to do these rather than go to the event.

Then we had another couple of events at Amberley, their Railway Gala in the middle of July and at the beginning of August a some what different event of Retro wheels. Sadly both of these events suffered on the Saturday with rain and were a bit quiet, but both were very busy on the Sunday and we had a great time.

The next weekend we moved Victoria, her living van and trailer out from Amberley and head to The Weald and Downland Living Museum in Singleton ready for their event. The trip went well although it was a very hilly trip, mainly up hill, until the last couple of miles which was all down hill; still we made it in good time and everything was at the museum.

The event at The Weald and Downland Living Museum called “The Story of Steam” took place over the weekend of 19th & 20th August. We had rain in the evening and over night on the Friday and this made to ground soft for the weekend, although we did managed to get out of the field and into the museum. We had been asked to park near one of their buildings, the old brickworks drying shed, this once used to be in Petersfield, Hampshire, Victoria’s home town; undoubtly she would have worked here in her years working for Sewards.

Despite the rain on the Friday night the event was great, lacking visitors on Saturday we felt but Sunday made up for it, very busy and a great atmosphere.

Looking ahead, we still have few events to do, Victoria and the Foden will both be at The Balls Cross Rally near Petworth the first weekend of September. Then we head back to Amberley for their miniature steam event the following weekend. First weekend of October on the Sunday we are at their Autumn Gathering, always a good event with an array of vehicles, and then their Halloween event on 28th October. I’m sure there will be a few steam ups in between too and maybe even a trip out on the road for a pub run.

Victoria will then be heading back to Hampshire where again I sure we will be out on the road for a run or a pub lunch. As for the Foden he will probably stay at Amberley to do a couple of their Christmas events, so plenty still to come.