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Bedfordshire
Steam & Country Fayre 2014

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McLaren Road Locomotive – Gigantic, 10 NHP, Built 1912, Works No. 1332, Reg. No. DS 7128. Built as a batch of 5 engines for Port Adelaide Corporation in South Australia to haul 50 tons of gravel from a quarry for the construction of roads in the district. After just 3 years it was found that the quarry was being run at a loss and its contents were put up for auction and sold off. The engine ended up in Cal Lal alongside the banks of the River Murray. In the late 1960’s scrap men came across the engine and tried to buy it but were told it was not for sale. Instead they returned to the engine and stripped it of all its brass fittings and dynamited the cylinder off the boiler. The engine remained partially scrapped until 1978 when it was discovered by Maurice Taylor, a friend of UK based engine owner Brian Hardy from Sheffield. Brian managed to buy the engine for £50 and placed it in a container and shipped it back to the UK. Meanwhile Maurice, Brian’s friend also managed to find a replacement cylinder situated in New Zealand. The cylinder was also purchased by Brian and once back in the UK restoration started. The replacement cylinder although it fitted the boiler barrel was actually from a McLaren Direct Ploughing engine and bore sizes were equivalent to a standard 8nhp. Brian took a year off of work and with help from his father in law managed to return it back to steam in 1982. In 1988 Brian sold the engine to Mike Hibble who after a short amount of time sold it onto Tony Warwick, later that year. Tony rallied the engine around this area and named it “Gigantic”, carrying out much work over the years. In November 2012 the engine was bought by the present owners who totally stripped the engine and instructing Alan Davenport, a very well respected pattern maker, to produce a new 10NHP cylinder pattern. A new cylinder was cast in June 2013 along with new trunk guides, crossheads and valves. Over the last 18 months the present owners have machined and fitted the new cylinder and manufactured a complete new set of motion work and new gears and bearings. The engine has been finished in World War One drab green to represent one of the lost 55 10NHP engines built by McLaren for the War Department. Given that 2014 is the centenary of the start of the Great War, the present owners thought it would make a fitting tribute to the men and engines involved and lost during the conflict.
Owned and driven by N. & T. Gough

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