READERS WRITE-IN LETTER....
PROMPTED by the photograph of my friend David Allen and his son Bert's Burrell 'Old Tim' on the front of the Bugle a couple of weeks ago, I wondered if readers might also be interested in my Foden steam traction engine 'Earl of Dudley' - see 'photo attached.
The relevance of this is that the engine went new to Australia in 1907 and remained in Tasmania until repatriated in 2003. During the engine's early years down-under, the Governor General of Australia was the 2nd Earl of Dudley and as I recently neared the end of a sevenyear restoration, I sought the present Earl's consent to adopt his family title, which he agreed.
While the engine never actually worked in the Black Country and the South Staffs Steam Haulage Company is entirely fictitious, it does reflect my own roots as a Smethwick lad and what's more a Bugle reader! I had hoped to have it at this year's Black Country Museum steam event, but ran out of time in the paintshop, maybe next year?
Alan Eatwell
West Sussex
