By anyone’s standards, 27 years is a long time to complete the restoration of a steam engine – but perhaps not if that person has an extraordinarily heavy work load. That tag can be applied to steeplejack-cum-TV star Fred Dibnah, writes Keith Langston.

The chicken or the egg?
Well no doubt the idea of using the Aveling & Porter convertible as a mode of ‘Round Britain’ transport in his new TV series to be entitled Made in Britain spurred on the completion of the engines re-build. But it has been a project which Fred has been itching to ‘get at’ for some time now.
It has been, as he says, ‘Interrupted somewhat by these television people’. So it is perhaps real justice that their need for an engine in the ‘now in production’ series has given Fred both the time and the impetus to put the beautiful little machine back on the road.
However, the final trials and test steaming were hardly completed when the need for the Aveling to go ‘on tour’ became a reality. Filming had been running for only two weeks prior to May 13, 2004 but that was the day chosen by the producer for the first of many ‘on the road’ sequences. The busy streets of Bolton and the nearby East Lancashire Road (A580) would be the ‘on the job’ proving ground for the convertible and, as filming schedules are often tight by necessity, that date was cast in stone.

The film crew and our hero discuss tactics, and on this occasion Fred gets his way.

Fred had been reasonably happy with the test steaming of the machine and after a few minor adjustments he was ready to be off. The Aveling & Porter has yet to have cladding fitted as Fred was still on the lookout for minor leaks as the departure day approached. To veer on the side of caution, until any leaks were discovered and caulked, the engine was to be steamed at a pressure slightly below the required 200 psi, something which Fred knew would result in a less than perfect performance from the compound. The first major task was the extrication, via a sharp incline, of the living van which Fred has also rebuilt and which will accompany him on his travels. That sequence, which euphemistically was described as ‘leave yard and steam off down the road in the direction of Wigan,’ in the shooting schedule was in reality a morning-long affair, and that being with only one very short break for tea!

As brew time for the crew approaches, the needle on the pressure gauge climbs slowly up to the boiler’s acceptable working pressure.

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