Mixing muscle and mechanical power

Malcolm Ranieri attended the Severn Valley Railway’s ‘Heavy Horse Weekend’ in early
June where setpiece working displays brought back memories of horse, iron horse and mechanical horse working together to transport the nation’s goods.

Eric Sutch brought his ‘Rag & Bone’ cart, pulled by ‘George’. British Railway-liveried Scammells complete the re-created scene. The station is also a re-creation, being built by the SVR in the early 1990s and based on the former GWR structure at Ross-on-Wye.
Photos: Malcolm Ranieri.

Ian Cryer, well-known transport artist and curator of the Railway Horse & Cartage Collection, once again organised the Severn Valley Railway Heavy Horse Weekend, sponsored for the second year by modern-day freight operators EWS (English, Welsh and Scottish Railways).
This year Ian tried to recreate a late 1940s/early 1950s feel to the event, held on June 7/8. This was the period when the working horse population was in decline and modernisation in cartage was very much under way. To demonstrate this the Mechanical Horse Club had brought along nine of its members Scammells to be displayed alongside the working horses.

This mix of muscle and mechanical power was best viewed on the forecourt of Kidderminster Station where the exhibits were performing manoeuvres to recreate the comings and goings of a town’s typical railway station in the early 1950s. The Scammells ranged from the 1936-built MH3 restored to Great Western Railway livery by David Wood of Essex, the famous Scarabs of the 50/60s and the final development, introduced in 1964, the Townsman. A couple of the latter examples were shown in National Parcels carriers Lynx Express (which evolved from BRS Parcels) bright yellow livery. Three road-going examples visited Bewdley, Highley and Hampton Loade stations over the weekend for display on their platforms and concourses - demonstrating the once-everyday occurrence of mechanised cartage of goods.

Henry Weston Cider of Much Marcle was giving rides using the factory cider dray over the two day event, being drawn by two magnificent shire horses. Eric Such from Redditch had brought his ‘rag and bone’ cart, drawn by ‘George’. These were once a common sight in our towns forty-odd years ago. Those of a certain age will remember that wonderful TV comedy series Steptoe & Son, which featured this very same type of vehicle.

[Read the rest of the article in the August 2003 issue]