All the fun of the fair! Garrett 4CD Showman's Engine - LMM Drives Episode 41 

Hello Lawrie, my father told me, when I was a little boy about 1st tractor, which bought my great grandfather. It was pure petrol engine, 2 cylinders. It was started by handle (with your name) and it covered whole village in blue, when starting. Unfortunately, in 1949 when comunist party took our country (Czechoslovakia), they siezed our farm and took away everything. Never seen it. So I am very glad, to see this old engines still working, still alive. Thank you.

I love the sound of a showman traction engine

Great video Laurie, I always describe showman’s engines generating at night as a near sensory overload, sight, sound smells etc. truly magical!

All my young life and now all my adult life I wanted a showman engine.

Saw this engine yesterday powering a carrousel, it looked, smelled, and sounded amazing. It is truly a brilliant machine.

This was owned by my late father, Michael Collyer and his friend Geoff Birch. They bought in scrap condition in the mid 1950’s and rallied it for the first time at Thetford in 1957. It was stored on the premises of Ipswich model engineers hence the confusing comment about them owning it. It was sold in the early 1960’s when my father had begun running the miniature steam railway at Felixstowe. I spent many happy hours riding on the trailer behind it!

Lawrie I'd absolutely love to see you do a road trip on a traction engine.

All the fun of the fair! Garrett Lawrie's Mechanic LOVE LOUIS SHIRLEY

I love showman's so much! It's a dream of mine to own one, one day. (Miniature to keep the dream reasonable) But I'd love to see you do more traction engines!

They may have used a mirror on a stick to inspect the firebox?

Wonderful video. I'm a plastic scale modeller and last year I managed to get a complete and unbuilt kit of Garretts Pendle Princess in 1/16th scale. Watching your video has given me a strong desire to get started on that kit. Lots of useful shots for my reference in your vid, for which I am eternally grateful. The noise and motion of the Engine took me back to my youthful days spent travelling up and down the Clyde on PS Waverley Different environment, but the same sounds, smells and excitement!

Ahh nice to see the video now :-)

Such wonderful and majestic machines. Could spend hours just watching them tick over. Another awesome video, cheers 👍

You need a "you can't put wood in willy nilly" badge with you staring direct at the camera😂

Now that's a beauty of a machine, old machines in maroon look great.

Absolute magic!

“People of a certain persuasion” 😂

Brilliant, well worth the wait Lawrie.

Beautiful piece of machinery. Usually the best part of a steam fair. It would be interesting to do a review on a fowler ploughing engine next and do some steam ploughing.

This engine has a fascinating history, and thank you for sharing about it.

I love your enthusiasm! And I love all you show on RU-vid!

Absolutely wonderful video, especially ending when you ran the Dynamo

I wondered what happened to that post. Always excited to see these moving about

Awesome video a lovely engine, nice to hear all the local names where it spent its life close to where I live in Suffolk

That was fantastic.

Absolutely stunning with all that brasswork. Oughta get myself a model showman’s engine.

I just bought a Garrett 4CD model for my O-gauge trains. Beautiful engine! This video answers so many questions I had. Especially that smokestack on top.

TY 🙏🙏

Beautiful engine, I bet it would be worth a million. Very good of the owner to let you and us experience it

It was absolutely fantastic. What a video, and when you opened the regulator to turn on the lights it was just amazing. Please make more of these.

oh that was nice .. and once the dynamo was connected .. i think i've just found the noise that will let me drift of to a good sleep

Yet another excellent hour.

Very much enjoyed that. What's not to love

I never knew preparing an engine even before you light the fire could be so funny ☺

Very cool :)

we don't have many of these brassy showman's engines here in the states, neat things to actually see - Most of ours are big ag engines. They'll still sneak up on you, though, if you're not careful. Especially with big noisy gas prairie tractors around as well.

I use a garret 4CD named that”ll do owned by Christian Cartwright and I run it around at Strumpshaw steam rally for him not a showman just a stock one, great video 👍🏻

Ok. I want one!

I'm used to a larger American tractor, a 1917 40-horsepower Case to be exact, and while I will admit that this one is much prettier and cleaner, the Case is a bit more ergonomic to use. For one, the whole thing is a little bit larger, most notably the boiler is longer and the platform is much wider, so have a lot more room to swing your shovel. The water tank is also directly below the platform floor, and it holds somewhere in the range of 150-200 gallons, along with a pair of decently sizable coal bunkers. She doesn't have a bell though, but she does have 3 whistles. A high-pitched single chime, some variety of Lunkenheimer 3 chime, and a big boi C&O 6 chime off of some C&O steam locomotive. To be clear, a whistle that big has no business being on something as small as our little tractor, but it is, and it's actually mounted where the boiler fill plug goes, because that was the only opening big enough for it.

The shots at the end were just what I needed. I also love that gentle repetition of these perfectly engineered machines. Do you know why the clunking was only every two revolutions though?

I saw this traction engine today

Now, spot the difference 🤣

I understand that the engineering Company built a lot of similar engines for the War Office during the great war.

The traction/Showman’s steam engine remains me of Trevor the traction engine on Thomas and friends the one Edward the blue tender engine saved from scrap

It seems a footman walking ahead with some flags would be useful, to indicate directions...😁

Has the Reliant Rialto hatchback been touched at all? I haven't seen it for a while on your channel.

just wondering, was this filmed at the hollycombe steam in the country?

I would love to go and see one of these going down the road, like this bit here: 36:49 so charming and elegant

That's a lot of fuss to get it started! I can see why they all have old fodens and ERFs!

The clank noise may be normal but would drive me around the bend , not knowing what hitting what , if it's doing harm or about to fail ? And the groan it make when you accelerate. Great piece of history still running and capable of doing usefully work still . Thank to the owners and You for sharing

How bizzare is that, here I am crusiing the youtube and find you firing Lady Oliver at Hollycombe, a place I've been to with our half size 3 times this year and I've fired Lady Oliver myself back in the day, small world.

This machine immediately reminds me of another Steam Fanatic: Fred Dibnah.

Please do more traction engine video 🙏🙏🙏

Lawrie you do make life more difficult than it needs to be...

I would like to own one someday. Last time I looked the only one for sale was 3 million pounds and I was a heap of scrap.

I love the spark arrestor

would you ever consider buying a standard gauge steam locomotive?

i think i will be a good size for the starting jobs 😅

Is there any automated water-level maintenance for while it is generating electricity? What's the output voltage, frequency, and maximum electric power?

and don't you know, that is exactly the same process used by a nuclear power station - make heat - use steam - spin things to make electricity - pure magic!

that bucket of wood wobbling around on the rear wheels was giving me so much anxiety

speaking as someone who has studied engineering and the engineering of these old machines you are very brave to sit next to a flywheel that is visiable off center.

What are you going to do when somebody finds one in a scrapyard? And you get to see it for the first time. I will donate

11:50 you laugh about the steering wheel, but I believe there were some early traction engines where they worked the opposite way round...

Ummmm, swear I watched this a day ago 🤔

On the point of modern vehicles and machinery me and my grandfather both rather farm with old small tractors rather than these big tech laden monsters of tractors that wouldn't fit through the gate

Lawrie, love your videos, but you always mention the same thing.. the cost of owning an engine now.. I grew up in steam preservation, my father has restored a few engines with friends, and I was heavily involved in threshing from the age of 4 as a ratting boy, up to operating the engine as a young adult, but am no longer involved. So I Just wanted to congratulate the boomer generation for inflating the prices of steam traction engines (as an investment opportunity) to the point that gen-x and millennials will never ever be able to afford their own. Once the boomers are dead, the majority of these machines will fall into the hands of equity companies, they will be mothballed as an asset and the steam preservation scene will regress into a WO Bentley type elitist hobby, unattainable for the everyday working man or woman. I went to all the major steam auctions of the 1980’s and 1990’s with my father,where prices were £5k-£10k for a project, I just presumed I would one day be custodian of my own engine, alas I am relegated to visiting steam rallies as a spectator or when possible a bit of volunteering at a museum. If any one ever wonders why steam preservation becomes a thing of the past, go look in a mirror!