A group of Trowbridge-based machine-minded engine enthusiasts got together last weekend for their annual Crank Up event.
The Festive Crank Up has run every year for the last 12 years at Hilperton.
Festive Crank up, an event, now in its 12 years was held at Whaddon Farm Hilperton Trowbridge attracting 30 stationary engine enthusiasts
Given the vintage nature of the machinery the event revolves around, it comes as little surprise to learn that the event got its name from the method of starting the early engines used by farmers in earlier days of industrialisation.
Eric Gay, chairman of the Wessex Stationery Engine Club, was thrilled with the number of people that turned out for this year’s instalment.
He said: “We have over thirty fine examples of these machines from yesteryear on show.
“I have brought an Alamo Blue, first produced in 1916 which has taken me over a year to restore. It is a rare machine with only a handful left in the country.
“These Stationary engines are examples of machines that farmers had to rely on prior to the days of readily available power.
“When I saw this engine, it was basically a pile of rusty metal, and I just wanted to restore it. I, like most of the guys here today, just want to save these machines, otherwise they would all disappear.”
Stationary engines are engines whose framework doesn’t move and which drive immobile equipment like generators, mills, pumps, and farming machinery.
Originating at an early stage of the development of engines, stationary models were widespread in the late Industrial Revolution when each factory and mill had to generate its own power, and when power transmission was mechanical rather than electric.
Stationary engines have become less common since the spread of electrification, as their requirement declined in the wake of more efficient technology.
With most industrial uses today drawing on electricity from grids (such as the national grid) and distributing it to individual motors, stationary engines have become an arcane phenomenon.
However, affection for these old machines, which require tending and care and have the power to transport enthusiasts back to simpler times, endures at events like the Trowbridge Crank Up.
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