Engen Engine Restouration Competition 2018:
Tafelberg's Young Men WON the Western Cape leg of the competition!
Senior:
First price: Johann Rust
Second price: Francois van Rooyen
Junior:
First price: Drosdy's first team
Second price: Augsburg's team
Congratulations to these young men, may they have a final round that they always will remember and bring some prizes back to the Western Cape.
Andy Self wrote this article about the Engine day at Piket:
Local
fuel-and-oil company Engen is the generous sponsor of a competition with the
goal of encouraging particularly younger people to the Stationary Engine hobby.
There is a junior class for school-goers and senior for the rest. The
competition is run under the auspices of SAVTEC, our National Federation of
Tractor and Engine Clubs. The prize money is spread widely among contestants,
so as not to be ‘winner-takes-all’. Entries are either individuals or teams,
with a mentor who can be a friend, relation or teacher. During the restoration
process, a ‘work-book’ must be compiled describing the mechanical aspects,
budgeting, outside help, suppliers, skills learned, safety procedures etc,
including ‘before’, ‘during’ and ‘after’ photos. After the engine has been
judged, contestants are interviewed by a panel, as if being asked about their
engine by a visitor to a show, which tests their public speaking abilities too!
The ‘work book’ and the interview are judged separately from the engine itself
and carry points towards the final outcome. The Display Board is also judged
with the engine.
The
West Cape semi-finals were held during an Engine Day on 16th June in Piketberg,
130 km north of Cape Town and there were 11 entries, the majority in the junior
class. Three entries were from school teams. There was a good turn-out for the
day and as usual a wide variety of engines from UK, USA, Continental Europe and
Australia. Presentation varied from highly restored to ‘off-farm’. Food and
drinks were available from the local Women’s Association. There was a
prize-giving at which the two seniors and two juniors were announced, but every
contestant went away with prizes; a bucket-full of promotional products from
Engen and some tools from the West Cape Club, and the judges didn’t go away
empty-handed either! The four successful contestants will be at the Finals at
the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum in Pretoria in October. It was hard
work to organise the competition and judge the engines, work-books and ‘live
presentations’, but I’m sure we have several new enthusiasts in our hobby, so
it was worth it!
Smit
Engineering’s massive Blackstone TP2 on a low-bed.
Johann
Rust’s Briggs & Stratton engine, display board and the hard-copy of his
‘work-book’.
Gordon
Riley’s clever display of engine with clutch driving a reduction gear, which in
turn is driving a partly-restored engine, so one could see the piston and
valves moving up and down!
Busy
scene on the engine-line!
'Made in Occupied Japan' after WW2 and imported by Battery and Lighting
in Cape Town, whose name it bears, ‘B&L’. Several of these engines have
turned up in preservation, many with consecutive serial numbers.
We
seldom see a Stover of any model!
Philip
Gray-Taylor’s Massey Harris, with a lot of its original paint.
Mick
Skelly is new to our hobby and shows us here how a motor-cycle enthusiast can
restore an engine! He was given three Wolseleys to make one of, and restored
them all!
Another
clever display by Gordon Riley. A Gravely cross-flow side-valve engine, partly
restored, with its cylinder head ‘ready to replace’ on steel brackets.
This
Lister D is being kept from walking away by heavy track-rollers. The hopper is
boiling merrily!
A
smaller (?) Blackstone P engine barking away.
A
very welcome forklift for loading/unloading!
Leaking
a bit of oil, this tired, but willing stationary version of a Caterpillar D4
7U, a D311 is being made to work hard against a wooden block.
There
was a request for information on this Anton Schluter two-stroke hot bulb. Help
was at hand from David Stemmet who was at the show. David has restored to
running condition, the very tired-looking one pictured on page 16 of Stationary
Engine Magazine issue 311 of February 2000!
Regards
Philip
Gray-Taylor’s Massey Harris, with a lot of its original paint.
