When Dave Carder saw an interesting photograph of a restored Canadian-built Waterous portable engine in Australia in a 2002 edition of Old Glory, he thought a 6in scale model of it would be rather fine so, without any plans or drawings, he built it! Roger Hamlin tells us more.

While I was on walkabout in Australia and viewing the giant portable engines at the Inverell Pioneer Village in New South Wales (OG 188), I was shown a couple more portables in an enclosure behind a shed. There was an engine there that I hadn’t seen the like of before, but I was told it had featured in a previous issue of Old Glory.

The model was named ‘The Fire Proof Champion’ and was built in Canada by the Waterous Engine Co, which was founded in 1844 at Brantford, Ontario by CH Waterous. The firm built steam fire appliances and sawmill equipment as well as portables and this particular engine (build date unknown) is believed to be one of only two left in Australia, if not the world.

Forward to the West of England Steam Engine Society’s rally at St Agnes last August and I was wandering through the miniature engine line when I saw something that seemed to ring a bell when I inspected it more closely. I knew I’d seen this type of engine before but couldn’t place where! I found the owner, Dave Carder, who was only too willing to tell me about his engine. He’d built it himself at 6in scale and had expended much midnight oil just so as to be able to attend the rally, the engine being completed only the day before he arrived.

Asking where it had come from, Dave replied: “Well, I saw a photograph of it in Old Glory in 2002 and decided that this would be a chance to build something completely different, so I got on with it.”

Watch out, there’s a Waterous about!

Of course there were no plans available and there were only the magazine photographs to go on, but work began in earnest nonetheless. Now, Dave is no newcomer to building miniature engines. He runs Roanoke Engineering in Bratton Fleming, North Devon, where, with the help of his wife and two sons, he builds scale models to order, with most of his work comprising building 71/4in gauge railway locomotives and rolling stock, but he’s previously built steam lorries and traction engines on special commission.

Dave left North Devon 45 years ago to take an apprenticeship in engineering at the Lister works at Dursley, Gloucestershire. He stayed there for 15 years before returning to North Devon, and started working in local engineering workshops. In his spare time Dave took on those little jobs for people who were involved with steam or diesel locomotives and, around eight years ago, he and his wife, Sue, launched Roanoke. He had a great interest in building locomotives and felt that he had both the expertise and the enthusiasm to make it work.

Dave attended the 45th West of England Rally in 2000 with a small steam wagon he’d built but, just prior to Christmas that year, he was involved in a car accident and spent three months in hospital. This was followed by a year off to recuperate, and it was while he was sitting at home one day that he read Old Glory 145 and saw the photographs of the Waterous traction engine. He wanted to build something that was quite different, and this fitted the bill.

He already had a start, as sitting in his workshop was an 18in diameter boiler from an old steam wagon that had been cannibalised for parts. It was this that was to dictate the first of the dimensions of the engine.

End of the On-line article.
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