Steam Powered

Day out at the Lake Goldsmith Steam and Vintage Rally.

This was the 107th Lake Goldsmith Rally, although the first one I'd heard of! If the neighbours hadn't told us about it, I still wouldn't know anything about it.

There is no actual Lake Goldsmith at the moment, just a grassy plain. But beside the non-existent lake is a group of sheds owned or occupied by steam enthusiasts. Some sheds contain huge steam engines and other machinery, and some are decorated to display collections of vintage items.

A bootmaker's shop:

 Complete with treadle machine in the foreground.

A display of destination rolls from transport systems around the world,

 surrounding a large Lego train system.

A grocery shop:

 with some items, such as the lollies, actually for sale.

A haberdashery:

An invitation we couldn't resist:

After the refreshments it was time for the grand parade. A stream of vehicles from around the site travelled around a track, accompanied by expert commentary, for over an hour. To be honest, that was just a touch too long for me. But there were some amazing restorations. Here are a small selection of the steam-powered vehicles:

Who knew the Navy had a steam club?

Notice in the background of this shot, you can see vehicles from earlier in the parade travelling down the far side of the oval:

Who knew there were so many old steam-powered vehicles still running?

Fascinating as the whole day was, the highlight for me was this:

A steam-powered sewing machine! It is a Singer model 5-7, manufactured in the USA in 1918. It was used to sew cotton and leather belting at a factory in Footscray until the late 1940s. Instead of feed-dogs, rollers behind the machine move the fabric:

The stitch-length is controlled by the mechanism driving the rollers. An amazing machine, which we got to see operating for a few stitches.

There were a few other sewing-related items around the site, but this one was a bit sad:

 A sewing machine turned into a toy tractor!