The Engine Drivers
A line up of drivers and fairground workers in front of Earl Beatty in 1934.
It was a hard life being an engine driver. Fairs often had to be taken down at the end of the week and driven to a new location 30 or 40 miles away. Drivers often refused to take the job unless they did not have to take part on building up and taking down the ride. The driver would work very long hours generating electricity for the ride, keeping steam pressure up but making sure the engine was economic on coal. Drivers often had nicknames and many stayed for years with the same engine.
The Burrell Scenic had a reputation for being fast on flat countryside but slower in hilly areas than Fowlers and Fosters. Sam Breedon who used to drive the Fowler ONWARD sometimes drove the Burrell WILLIAM V for Inghams. On the Liverpool to Manchester trip he reckoned the Fowler could do the journey in half the time for on the long steady climbs the Fowler had the power to 'slog away in top'while the Burrell would have to be in second gear.
3547 Amy (Tucker) at Newcastle Town Moor Fair in 1925. Built February 1914 with auxiliary dynamo platform and later fitted with bunker extension crane. Sold to Walter Murphy of North Shields to power and haul their Electric Scenic motor car ride. Several years later when the motor cars had lost their novelty they were replaced by the Dolphin cars (as per the canopy in this photo).