Two Fowlers make a pair
By: Web Editor
I WAS intrigued by the item in Vintageworld (OG 242) regarding the ploughing engine discovery in Western Australia.
About 12 years ago, I travelled north from Perth to a town called Moora, with the express purpose of viewing a farmer’s extensive collection of old machinery, including steam portables, trams, buses and tractors etc.
Sitting out in the paddock was an almost complete Fowler ploughing engine! He suggested that it was the other ‘half’ of the ploughing pair to the engine presently sitting on a plinth in Gnowangerup, as indeed Bob Sutcliffe mentioned in his notes – and hence may this be the ‘missing’ engine referred to? (I don’t have the engine number).
Unfortunately, close inspection revealed that the left hand hornplate had sheared away from the boiler – who knows what terrific forces had caused this!
The owner also mentioned that several years earlier, a couple of British enthusiasts had visited his farm to view the engine, but how they knew of its whereabouts is anybody’s guess.
I don’t know if the engine is still at the farm after all these years but it would be interesting to find out.
Bob Tanner
Perth, Western Australia.
1 Response to “Two Fowlers make a pair”
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Ruston Says:
October, 20th 2010 at 09:18 am
The Fowler with the broken horn plate and bent axles has now been recovered.It is in good hands and under secure inside protection. It is in a bad state but research on the engine is under way. As equipped at the present there is very little to indicate that it was ever a ploughing engine. However local history indicates that many modification were carried out to both of the engines over the last 100 years or so.
Ruston, W.A