In September 2001 Simon Harris and Kevin Scrivens brought home a set of Gallopers built by Walkers of Tewkesbury in 1911 to the Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum from where it had been in a museum in Switzerland since 1988. Kevin Scrivens reports on the removal operation.

The Gallopers as first seen in the courtyard at Thun in Switzerland.

On Friday July 13, 2001 the Worlds Fair newspaper carried a small ad: “Galloper Ride. Walkers 36ft. dia with Savages steam engines, electric alternative, and Bruder organ. 24 horses (12 doubles) 12 cockerels: excellent working order”, with a Swiss contact number.

A phone call later that month from Steve Smith informed me that he was going to Switzerland to see the Gallopers to carry out a report for a prospective customer in America. I was interested, knowing a little of the machine in question. The last owner in Britain was Fred Coupland, who had sold it to a buyer in Switzerland in 1988, and prior to Fred’s ownership it was travelled by Nelson Smith. I’d only seen the ride once - at a transport extavaganza at Crich in the 1970s.

On his return from Switzerland, Steve was very impressed with the galloper’s prospects, and we were all a little sad that it seemed destined for the USA. Did we want a set of Gallopers? It wasn’t something Simon and I had ever considered. Such a ride had always seemed out of our reach, but undoubtedly we had a good location in Blists Hill for a set, and were fanatical about old rides. It was reasonably priced, but it was in Switzerland!

By late August we heard that a prospective British buyer was interested in the ride. It hadn’t occurred to us that the American deal wouldn’t go ahead, and we were a little disappointed that we hadn’t gone after the ride ourselves. Not wishing to lose out again we enquired if it was still for sale. The ride was indeed still open to offers, but a quick decision was required. We were told the price in the morning and the deposit had to be delivered by the following day via a UK agent. The decision had been made!
The ride was built up at a steam museum in the town of Thun in Switzerland and a condition of sale was that we had to dismantle the ride and transport it back to the UK. The first part was easy. We’d both worked on Jack Schofield’s Gallopers for several years and were familiar with their construction and dismantling. The transport part wasn’t so easy, especially as there was a two week time limit for getting the ride out of the museum.

The ride had gone to Switzerland in a container, though goodness knows how the centre ever fitted in. Several options were open; we could buy a suitable vehicle to pack the ride on and tow the centre back - not a good idea as Steve had noticed that the wheels of the centre truck were still on bronze bushes, the old centres of the solid rubber tyred wheels had had the spokes cut off and pneumatic tyred wheels welded to them, and as we hadn’t seen the centre ourselves we weren’t sure if it was roadworthy in any other respect. That meant that the centre had to be low loaded back. We sought the advice of the Howard Brothers who were very keen to help but unable to do so due to previous commitments. We then asked Rundles at Boston who are experienced in moving gallopers. Unhesitatingly Ken Rundle said “Yes, we’ll do it”. That was a huge weight off our minds, but we realised that we would need more than just the low loader, and we also arranged to hire a 71¼2 ton van.

As we would be importing the ride from a non-EEC country, I’d rung British customs to find out what papers we needed to bring the ride back. To be on the safe side we also rang Swiss customs for clearance to get the ride out of the country.
We decided that we’d be the first set of Gallopers to pass through the Channel Tunnel, and booked our return journey. As there was no transport with the ride it meant that there was no working platform (usually the top of one of the trucks) so we also arranged to take a portable scaffolding tower.

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