We thought we would do a blog on our old trailer as we did one on our living van a few weeks ago.
We were thinking about getting a water cart or trailer for a while, so while out for the day at Preston Steam Services Christmas Open Day back in I think 2013. We spotted a couple of old trailers for sale. We had a look round them thinking yes it would be a good idea and left it at that. Over the next few days it became clear that the trailer would be a good idea and we ought to just enquire about them, it was soon decided that we would purchase one of them and that was that we had bought the trailer.
It took a while to make its way home from Kent to Hampshire but when it arrived we could see we were going to have just a bit of a tidy up and paint it the Sewards/Victoria’s Torton Tales green!
Although it seemed in fairly good condition there were a few things that needed doing before we could use it, so soon the trailer was being taken to pieces. It had a long bench seat through the middle of it which was good but we wanted to be able to carry a cube of water so this was the first thing to come out, then with many hours of rubbing down and painting she was looking good. We found a cube which fitted nicely in the trailer, Lloyd made a large box for the front to keep all tools, ratchet straps and other useful items in.
Before to long we seem to have passengers in the trailer who wanted to travel with us, using just camping chairs or the box Lloyd had made, this was great but more people wanted to come along including young children so we thought we had better look into more permanent benches. We came up with the idea of plastic garden benches, light and easy to move, we can take the water cube out and put the benches in with just using a few screw bolts, all works great.
We can carry water when on the road for Victoria and Lady and have the benches in when out for a trundle with friends and family or even for giving rides at events. We have done weddings, birthdays and a couple events for our local museum and trips around the town looking at the history.
We have had many happy times with Victoria and the trailer full of friends and family all off to the local pub for lunch, a ride through the local town of Petersfield, always great to take a trailer load of people through the town, they love it.
Sadly we don’t know to much about the history of the trailer, we know it used to travel behind the engine “Berkshire Tariff Queen” as we have seen a few pictures but it has certainly done a few miles now with Victoria and our living van. We are now looking into strengthen the floor as when it has a full cube of water and coal it does seem to need a bit more strength in it, that’s a job for this year/next year. Hopefully we will get a few trips with family and friends this year.
