Southport - the Classic Resort on England's North West Coast

2009

District

105BN

IT Award

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Banks Steam Rally

4th & 5th October 2008

 

There are few things more guaranteed to get the heart pounding than the sights, sounds and smells of steam engines ready and waiting to do the things which they do best. And the first Banks Steam Rally was as good a place to go to see some of these leviathans as anywhere. It is very easy to assume that steam engines belong only on railways, but until the 1930s steam vehicles were a common sight on our roads and in our fields, until replaced by the much less interesting diesel tractors!

A number of these beasts, ably supported by teams of drivers, stokers, polishers, caterers and spectators gathered in a field near Banks on 4th and 5th October, to go through their paces for members of the public. And Southport Lions were there en masse too, to add a little order and method to the more normal forms of transport, being parked in adjacent fields.

 

It has to be said, though, that the weather could have been a little bit kinder. Saturday 4th was dark and gloomy, and a wind was blowing in straight across the mosses from Siberia (somewhere near Ormskirk, they reckon) but at least it was mostly dry, and not too bad under foot. We all wrapped up well in our brand new blue jackets, and looked thoroughly professional...

The Sunday was a beautiful day; cloudless blue skies and sunshine. The only problem was that it had rained, heavily, overnight, and the car park field was best described as soft. Which very quickly became very soft, and a couple of our Lions with tractor-driving experience spent much of the morning towing stuck vehicles out of the slutch. But we all had a good time - even the driver who had to stop and take a photograph of his car because, otherwise, no one would believe just how muddy it had become, being towed out!

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