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Steam narrow boat President

The Engine Delivery

( written Winter 2000 )

When we found the Sissons engine down in Kent last winter it seemed fitting that if possible that President should get as close to Ramsgate as possible so that we could carry it back to the midlands. Many ideas were banded around – delivery to Limehouse by steam tug or Thames barge from Ramsgate. Both these ideas proved to be very expensive. I then investigated the possibility of delivery to the boat during the National at Waltham Abbey. After many phone calls and a visit to BW at Enfield it all seemed possible and all that was needed was a suitable vehicle to carry it from Kent – a steam lorry. More questions, can a steam lorry go through the Dartford Tunnel? – NO. London also has some restrictions and it is a long way from Canterbury to Waltham Abbey.

Thanks to Mike Huggett a compromise evolved and contact was made with Ian Burns who owns a fantastic 1936 Sentinel Steam Lorry based in Ilford. Michael List-Brain delivered the engine to Ian’s on Wednesday 23^rd of August and it was loaded on to the back.

The boats were by this time well on the way up the Lea, so I collected Dave Stott early on the Thursday morning from Ponders End and we made our way to Ilford for the trip to the Abbey. With Dave and Mike on the lorry we set off, with myself trying to keep up in my Vector (Ian seemed so used to his photo been taken he ignored those grey camera’s on the side of the road). On arrival at the Festival the boats were bought along side and the engine was place in the hold for the journey home. It turned out to be our chief engineers sixtieth birthday so we couldn’t have given Dave a better present.

Thanks must go to Michael List-Brain, Ian Burns, Mike Huggett and the Festival Organiser who sponsored the lorry and the crane.

David Powell