29 - Rona Rally and the Road Run of Doom

We had a great, but very damp, weekend at Rona. Here are some of the tales we can share about that weekend.
I've also been asked about which rallies I'm taking to Tilly to, so at the moment the plan is -
West Oxon Steam 14th-16th July
Gloucestershire Vintage Extravaganza 4th -6th August
Fairford 19th-20th August
May add to this list, but that's it for now.
If you have ideas about other things you'd like to see featured in a video then please do let me know in the comments.

[@Riversideforeststables]

Hi Dan! It’s faith and that road run was surly eventful and despite being chucked into a ditch it was a lovley weekend!

[@SteamOTR]

Hi Faith - great weekend - really enjoyed it! Glad the ditch didn't cause any more serious problems. Had a great weekend this weekend as well, despite the weather.

[@OliversRailwayModelling]

Hi Dan, I was recommended your videos by Simon who owns Iron Duke as I was doing some work with him today, great video!

[@SteamOTR]

He's a grand chap. Hope you like the videos 👍

[@paulhorn2665]

Nice event at all. Beside the rain and the problems... I hope I can go to GDSF next year.

[@SteamOTR]

Superb event. Really great, laid back and proper.

[@PhoneVidoes]

Oh dear, good to see Olly and his Agri doing his RAC bit 🤣 expect I'll see him at Weald of Kent so will catch up with him there. Might see if I can persaude the wife to this one as its only a couple of hours away but it is up the dreaded A34 for us which is never ideal road 😪

[@SteamOTR]

He's such a nice guy. As are so many of the people we've met through steam.

[@PhoneVidoes]

@@SteamOTR Well I did my RAC bit for Olly last weekend at Weald of Kent as he had a bit of fire failure just before the arena so I ended up pulling him back to the campsite with our Savage after we'd done our arena bit, funny old world 🤣

[@SteamOTR]

@@PhoneVidoes :-) Always good to see everyone helping each other out.

[@roseroserose588]

Was that showmans using the go faster button up the hill 😆 absolutely rapid, even without the sped up footage

[@SteamOTR]

The Badger is a really fast engine. Very impressive!

[@roseroserose588]

I've always wondered - how long can you leave these engines ticking over on their own? I don't like leaving my little 5" gauge loco for more than a couple minutes in case the fire dies or the water level dips but i often see these larger scale traction engines left on their own outside ticking over

[@SteamOTR]

Yeah, I'm still a bit paranoid as I'm a novice, but mostly they're OK like that for an hour or more.

[@roseroserose588]

@@SteamOTR That's almost long enough to forget it's there! I'd be paranoid too, heard too many horror stories

[@PhoneVidoes]

@@roseroserose588 Our little 5" loco couldnt be left long at all, the fire box was so small it was a continual battle with water, coal and ash. When we moved to a 4" traction engine it was like we'd gone to heaven and back, an hour of being left is very achievable, 6" even longer, obviously the normal caveat applies of making sure you've got plenty of water but otherwise thats about it. In 10yrs I've yet to have a complete outage even after extended beer tent'age . Its always worth carrying a few small bits of wood that you can chuck in if things start to look dodgy fire wise 🙂

[@rosswatts1992]

We have that problem on our 3inch clayton steam lorry when the water gage is full the pressure drops very quickly but when we fill it up to half the pressure gage will stick to 100 psi for a good 20 minutes but still keep an eye on it

[@PhoneVidoes]

@@rosswatts1992 You do need space for the steam, in my early days I would tend to run stuff with way too much water in it and wonder why either it would go far with needing more fire or if left the pressure would drop off, these days I tend to run 1/3 of a glass in most situations which makes for a very pleasent steaming expereince, unless of course we're going down hill 😉

[@lukecrowther3720]

Great video again Dan. Needless to say but I wont be using that glue again! Hopefully all will be sorted for Ducklington.

[@SteamOTR]

We can only ever try these things!