Vintage enthusiasm

Andrew Mathieson
WHEN a father and son take more than two decades to build a replica steam engine, it’s little wonder enthusiasts call the displays vintage machinery.
Richard and Phillip Hayes have also aged along with their half-scale model Wallis-Steevens traction engine.
Geelong Vintage Machinery Society’s Chris Quirke said the prized locomotive was a part of the family and affectionately named Priscilla.
“That’s taken the better part of 22 years to build,” he said.
She’s one of 70 working demonstrations from yesteryear including static exhibitions at the annual vintage machinery rally.
The event features internal combustible diesel engines, steam engines, boilers, a fairground organ, and grand parades such as horse-drawn implements and a log buggy.
Mr Quirke said the displays showed off the ingenuity of the society.
“A lot of models are built from scratch but you take a lot of the full-size machinery and it’s stuff that they’ve picked up on farms that have been rotting away in bottom of the gutter somewhere or at a clearing sale,” he said.
Another that will draw a gasp is an engine out of the JP Webb dredge that weighs 35 tonnes and has a 1000-horse power.
The Geelong Vintage Machinery Rally will be held both Saturday and Sunday at the Geelong Showgrounds.