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DayZedandconFUSED 06/10

The Peter Gabriel Run

The weather didn't look very promising on the 8th of September when we met at the Yorkshire Air Museum for our run to Markham Grange Steam Museum.

Now our educated members (yes I'm sure we have one at least) will have noticed that the initial letters are MG so we just had to go. There were three cars, myself with mate John in my roadster, Dave in his GT and MX Mike in his newly acquired  MX5.

Our route took us to Weldrake then Thorganby and Skipwith before we joined the A19 at Barlby. We followed this to the outskirts of Doncaster passing Eggborough power station looking very spooky as the chimney and cooling towers disappeared up into the clouds. Despite a missed turning we arrived with no problems at the museum at Brodsworth.

The museum is privately owned and is adjacent to a garden centre, the steam being used to heat glasshouses as well as run the steam engines. The steam is provided by a boiler that is fuelled by pulverised wood that is sprayed into the boiler and ignited in a similar way that crushed coal is used in power stations. The steam engines are housed in a purpose built building and are free to look around with regular steaming days, when engines are running.

 


Agnes

One of the larger engines is Agnes a horizontal, tandem, compound engine built by a Sowerby Bridge company in 1909 for a mill in Holmfirth. There was a marine engine out of a paddle steamer and another from a battleships pinnace. A new addition is a beam engine from a pumping station in Bedford that will be reassembled and put back into working order. After a good look round the many exhibits, far more than are listed on the museums website, we headed for the cafe.

Bacon sarnies and mugs of tea all round and then it was time for Mike and Dave to head off home for their afternoon naps. John and I stayed a little longer and looked round the garden centre and some other outlets under the same roof. Then we headed for home and apart from one very brief shower our luck held with the weather and we arrived home safe and sound.
Looking forward to next month already. Who knows where that will take us?

And finally ...........