Author Topic: Where was Orford again?  (Read 2037 times)

Offline MJM460

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Where was Orford again?
« on: February 04, 2020, 11:07:54 AM »
Went to the Orford vintage machinery show again this year.  It seemed bigger and better than last year.

About 20 minutes drive from Port Fairy which is on the south coast of Victoria, about 4 hours drive west of Melbourne.  A country fair in a beautiful bush setting.  Many of the exhibitors camp on site, though I believe they need to be completely self contained with solar power and gas refrigeration. 

As last year a great display of vintage machinery, cars, tractors which compete in a tractor pull, and all sorts of engines.

Many of the exhibits run for most of the day and their owners have tried to have them driving something.  I have selected a few highlights which particularly interested me.

First, the horizontal IHC Famous that was there last year.  I thought the box on the end of the cart was a tool box.  But actually it was intended as a seat.  If you look closely you can see the eye bolts which were part of the gear to hitch a horse when the engine was to be moved.  There was a board to be fitted as a foot plate.  Of course the driver had an unfortunate view of the horse, and could not really see where the rig was going.  So another owner made some inovative design changes.  He replaced the box with a little cooling tower with a mesh top, and constructed a seat above the tower.  It would not have helped cornering, but this was hardly intended for the race track.

It has been a dry year and water is in short supply so some of the pumps driven by the engines were pumping a special green water substitute.  Of course, special water requires a special tap.  The illusion was even better in real life than in the photo.

Some engines were driving small air blowers, so animating the coloured balls in the cage on the blower outlet.

Then there was a real drag saw.  A nightmare for the health and safety police.  And a well justified bad reputation when they were the modern technology.

I liked the beautiful paint job on the next engine, can you see the matching tool box in the background?

There were more models on display this year.  The model shown was my favourite.  Many of the models on this display seemed to be set up to run on an air compressor, but I was unable to catch up with the owner.

And perhaps my favourite, a little Stirling engine.  All the more because it’s owner was a young man, much younger than most of us and all of the other exhibitors.  A good sign for the future.  He had found the engine on the throw out pile at a farm clearing auction sale.  Apparently most people thought it was a steam engine with too many parts missing, but he thought it might be something more interesting than that, and bought it.  He got it running with not much more than a good clean up and some lubrication.  He made the cooling tank and found a genuine 1876 sewing machine in a junk shop to drive with it.  I suggested that he should be sewing up the tee shirts. 

The little hit and miss on the blue cooler box I believe came from Bangood at a price we couldn’t buy the materials and apparently they run quite well.  There was another variant on another display, but I missed the photo.

While the country shows can be hard to find, they are most interesting and very pleasant in the relaxed atmosphere.  Fortunately it was at the other end of the state to the bushfires.

Now to see if I can attach the photos in the right order.  Unfortunately Apple have played with their photo app, and I don’t like it.  Much more difficult to use for this sort of purpose and no advantage that I can see.

Perhaps easier than I was expecting.  More to follow.

MJM460
« Last Edit: February 04, 2020, 11:32:24 AM by MJM460 »
The more I learn, the more I find that I still have to learn!

Offline MJM460

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Re: Where was Orford again?
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2020, 11:25:53 AM »
Nearly at the limit in the first post so here are some more of the pictures from Orford.

I had to include a special for Zee, I have not seen one set up for using both feet before.  The dogs bowl is significant, unfortunately I was too slow with the camera when the dog started working the treadle.  Those Australian sheep dogs are really dogs of many talents.

A corn mill made a good load for one engine.  And some more of that model display.  The owner obviously believed in retaining the patina, but it was overall an impressive display.

An assortment of tools if you want to include models of the original tools with your model.

And finally, if you want a really novel load for your engine, how about a two stand shearing machine.  I wonder if wooly mice would work as model sheep?  But the working shearer would be a challenge.  My apologies for the upside down photo, must have held the iPad the wrong way.

All in all a great day with a great display of interesting machinery.  And when your legs get tired of standing, the tractor pull provides great entertainment and a wonderful display of farm tractors of a bygone age, all still in working condition.

I hope my holiday schedule will allow me to go again next year.

MJM460

The more I learn, the more I find that I still have to learn!

Offline Trevorc

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Re: Where was Orford again?
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2020, 08:10:00 PM »
If it wasn’t for the boots being worn with shorts i could have thought it was in UK!

The display of tools reminds me of a cruise visit my wife and i made to Alaska. One stop was the community of Haines where the main tourist attraction is a Hammer Museum!! On show was a very very large number of hammers from all different types of trades. They claim to have the worlds heaviest hammer which turned out to be the drop hammer from a pile driving rig. Needless to say i went in there on my own whilst my wife looked for the Knitting Pattern Museum!
Trevor

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Where was Orford again?
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2020, 10:22:17 PM »
I had to include a special for Zee, I have not seen one set up for using both feet before.  The dogs bowl is significant, unfortunately I was too slow with the camera when the dog started working the treadle.  Those Australian sheep dogs are really dogs of many talents.

I'm missing it. It may be that I was just playing a game on my iPad that seems to have messed up my focus. Kind of a Where's Waldo game and I think I'm stuck looking at a tree rather than the forest.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline MJM460

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Re: Where was Orford again?
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2020, 02:37:17 AM »
You are right, Zee.  I resized that photo three times and still lost it in the final post. 

Here it is.  Even managed a slightly larger file size for you.

MJM460

The more I learn, the more I find that I still have to learn!

Offline crueby

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Re: Where was Orford again?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2020, 02:46:46 AM »
Aha! I'd been looking back for it too. Looks like a fun day.

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Where was Orford again?
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2020, 11:55:52 AM »
Thanks!

The components (flyer, Pittman Rods, maiden, bobbin) look nearly identical to the spinning wheel that I modeled from. Probably same company.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

 

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