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Certainly 1860s and probably the oldest surviving Aveling in the world. To gaze upon it is the engineering equivalent of suddenly finding a herd of Triceratops grazing in a field.

The engine, or more accurately the boiler barrel (in two pieces), cylinder, flywheel and motion, subsequently appeared courtesy of David Viewing in this magazine’s marquee at the Great Dorset Steam Fair where enthusiasts reportedly found the hairs on the back of their necks rising at the sight of such an antiquity.

And those self-same hairs rose for a second time when I first saw McLaren No 2, one of the visiting stars of this year’s Great Dorset Steam Fair. A beautiful unrestored engine of exquisite age and just a decade younger than the Aveling chain engine.

Courtesy of its owner, Graham Balck, No 2 is one of the five visiting Macs that have been shipped from New Zealand to join what will be the greatest line-up of McLarens that I guarantee you will ever see. If it can be brought to Dorset then it will be. Section leader John Wakeham has ensured that this display is of the most complete possible. Just compare the line-up against the Traction Engine Register and you’ll find that there is not much missing. Engines from Ireland and New Zealand complete the picture alongside diesel and petrol engines and many smaller pieces of associated McLaren paraphernalia.

Be in no doubt that an incredible amount of work has gone on in negotiations behind the scenes. Having been party to some of them I can vouch that we really do have something special here; Empress of India from out of the Science Museum’s reserve collection at Wroughton, the diesel cable-ploughing windlass engine from Leeds Industrial Museum – only the second time it has left the museum’s gates in recent years.

On top of all this it will be the first time that Nos 60 and 163 have appeared in public together since working in Ireland in 1929 and the first public outing for John Atkinson’s Colossus (see feature, page 40), a mammoth project to rebuild a mammoth engine from the carcass of 10hp tandem McLaren No 897.

I have heard enginemen speak of the forthcoming gathering as a ‘MacFest’ or a ‘McFeast’. It certainly will be and we look forward to meeting you all there. You will not see the like again.

Good news continues with the sale in September of a whole bunch of Aveling steam road rollers from the ‘reserve’ collection at Thursford. Let us hope that these will form the entry level for a whole new generation of engine owners. I understand that they have realistic reserves, bearing the amount of boiler work that they will need. And in October there’s another ‘range of engines’ coming to market to look forward to. This could be your lucky year!

Colin Tyson
Editor