At an early 1970s rally, with full lettering and lining.
S DEAN COLLECTION

Page 2 - Continued

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Just after they’d been taken by ambulance to hospital, Alan Fry, owner of Burrell traction engine No 3106 of 1909 Princess Royal, was driving his low loader down the A303 when he came across the aftermath of the accident.

The first thing he did was to jump on to the footplate of the ditched engine and shovel out the fire! By now more people had stopped, the breakdown crew were now in attendance but didn’t fully understand the working of a steam engine, so Alan elected to help in the recovery of Perseverance. He could see that she had a bent back axle, the crankshaft was bent, and there was no way she could be pulled out from the ditch. The only way the engine could be moved was to lift her out.

Alan took it upon himself to organise a crane for the lift – contacting Sparrows of Bristol who arrived a couple of hours later then another engine owner, Alec Chambers of Milverton came to remove the canopy so that the crane could lift Perseverance by her wheels, otherwise it would be in the way. Meanwhile, John Antell of Shillingstone brought over his low loader for the crane to lift her on so the engine could be moved. Alan then negotiated with the police to take the crane (with jib still in place) down the road and into the Yeovilton base. The engine was then lifted off and placed on blocks on another low loader until Mr Gilbey was in a position to make arrangements for her to be moved.

When Mr Gilbey came out of hospital four days later, he was told by Alan what he’d done and where his engine was – followed by the news that the cost of the crane amounted to some £1000. Mr Gilbey thought this was quite a lot of money – and told Alan so!

The engine was then taken to Peter Antell’s yard at where he had discussed a major rebuild. A friend of Mr Gilbey, Bill Briggs, had asked Frank Lithgow of Lymm, Cheshire, who had similar engines of his own, if he could undertake the restoration. Frank agreed and Perseverance was moved north by the Antells.

The remains of the smashed living van were scrapped – indeed the only thing to survive was a bottle of gin (and no, it wasn’t Gilbeys!).

Perseverance was completely rebuilt at Frank Lithgow’s premises – it taking only five months to complete the work. A new canopy was fitted and she was repainted before returning south. Frank was to later return her to Cheshire in order to carry out some minor work, and at the same time he took her to a few northern rallies. Mr Gilbey carried on attending his own local rallies with St Bernard while Perseverance was otherwise engaged.

From the time Perseverance came back, both engines were frequently rallied, then in 2000 he was invited to take both engines to the Great Dorset Steam Fair for the special Burrell display – and that was the last time both engines were seen in public. They were placed in the shed and sheeted up. One of the reasons given was that Mr Gilbey felt that he himself was now ‘a bit of an antique’ and not as fit as hitherto.

Forward to November 2007 and Mr Gilbey receives the call from Steve Hubbuck, the section leader responsible for organising the 40th anniversary reunion at Great Dorset – ­­Perseverance having attended the first Great Working of Steam Engines. The invitation was at first declined – as the engine needed quite a lot done to her as she’d been in the shed for so long.

Meanwhile, Alan Fry’s son, Mark, heard that Perseverance wouldn’t be attending and suggested to Alan that they could undertake the preparation for the hydraulic test for him – and get the engine ready so she could be at Dorset. Alan put the idea to Mr Gilbey who then said ‘Yes!’ It took Alan, Mark and Anthony Whitmore from December 2007 for the next six weeks, working every Sunday morning to get her ready for the hydraulic test. Another friend, Bob, helped with all the cleaning.

Both the hydraulic and the steam test were carried out in July and she passed. On the Monday before Dorset, she was loaded up for the trip to the site, offloaded in the 40th anniversary enclosure and all ready to be steamed up on the Wednesday morning. Of the five days of Dorset, Mr Gilbey attended three of them. He was reluctant to attend but he says that the experience has ‘rejuvenated’ him, although he didn’t make it up on to the footplate he still felt like a million dollars.

When I was invited to his home after the show he was still on ‘cloud nine’ that his engine was working again.

My thanks to David Milton, Alan Fry, Steve Dean and, above all, Mr James Gilbey – thank you for being the perfect gentleman of steam!

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