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President's Day Out

Sat, Aug 23rd 2025 at 11:00 am - 8:00 pm

Steam Festival at Hellingly


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Hugh Steams Ahead

It was a well kept secret for over four months what the venue of the President's Day Out was going to be. As we all know Hugh Allen, our Immediate Past President, is a complete enthusiast when it comes to things related to Transport.  So the decision was to take him to the annual Hellingly Festival of Transport on 23rd August.

His wife Briony managed to get him into the car and to the show car park before he realised that this was to be his special day. At the entrance to the show he was greeted by many fellow Rotarians and Jame Slinn who told Hugh that he would be helping to drive a Steam Roller onto the area and then a Routemaster bus as part of the show.

Briony had managed to sneak suitable overals into her bag to protect Hugh when he would be driving the Steam Roller, all part of the cunning plan. As the Steam event wasn't till 13:30 we all went our separate ways to enjoy the show and grab a bite to eat.

After the briefest of introductions to the Steam Roller, engineer Austin Hawkins told Hugh he was in charge of steering while Austin controlled the motion of the Roller.

Hugh did an amazing job managing to steer the Steam roller into and around the arena, then reverse across the field to park up in readyness for a "slow" race. It was great to see Hugh and Austin working as a team and making a great show of the engine. 

Then it was time to take one last lap of the arena and steer back to the showground and then reverse back into their position. All done with great precision.

The final part of the show, driving the Green Line Routemester, unfortunately Hugh was a bit late for the start of the Bus section of the show, however, with a bit of negotiation he was able to hop onto the Routemaster mid-show and take controls for a circuit round the arena and drive it back to the Bus park.

After all the excitement we headed off to the Merrie Harriers at Cowbeach for a supper and a pint. Well done everyone in keeping the secret and making this a very special occasion for our President's Day Out. 

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