Built to the order of a sugar estate in Mozambique, John Forshaw's Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies traction engine No 36020 of 1924 made the NTET 50 celebrations with the paint still wet. Alan Barnes later caught up with Johnat the Old Warden rally.

It was on one of my early-morning prowls round the rally field during last September's Bedfordshire Steam Fayre that I was fortunate enough to encounter young John Forshaw of Clifton, Beds, busily polishing his rather splendid light agricultural locomotive. I managed to persuade John to put away the duster for a few moments while he told me a little of the history of this particular engine.

Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies 7hp traction engine No 36020 of 1924 at Old Warden on 19 September 2004. ALAN BARNES

No 36020 was built in 1924 as a special, custom-built export order for Sena Sugar Estates Ltd, of Mozambique. While John hasn't yet discovered exactly what the engine was originally used for, he believes that, from the amount of wear he found on the bearings and gears, it was used mostly for haulage work around the estate. In later years it spent some time as a portable engine at a sawmill in Mopak. Peter Court and a group of other steam enthusiasts, which also included Michael Davies and David Adkins, eventually brought the engine back from Mozambique.

Ready for Mozambique: the Ransomes engine outside the works when new.

The return of the engine to England was far from straightforward, involving firstly the use of a tractor to extricate it from the mud where it had resided for some time. Then, with an 'A'-frame attached, it was hauled by a long wheel-based Land-Rover to the river some five miles away. It was then put on board a barge and floated to Japanger and then it was towed to Marromeu where it just happened to stay for the next 20 years! Flooding and war meant that the old Ransomes had to wait until 1998 before it was finally put in a container and shipped back to England.

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