Also in my garage: steam-powered vehicles

By Simon Hucknall

| 22 May 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Also in my garage: steam-powered vehicles

You may have seen one of Neil Gough’s rides before, because he brought his 1911 KRIT racer to Mallory Park for our Edwardian titans story.

Neil’s passion for veteran-era machinery knows no bounds, though, which is why we’re now outside one of his outbuildings in West Sussex looking at a 1915 Burrell Steam Wagon.

“I’ve always been besotted with mechanical stuff – and fire,” says Neil. “That led to my interest in steam-powered vehicles.”

Sussex Steam Restorations brings traction engines back to life

This has since blossomed into a flourishing business, Sussex Steam Restorations, evidence of which is parked at the other side of the building in the form of a client’s traction engine.

“That’s my current three-year project,” he says. “But I have work booked for the next six or seven years.”

The Burrell is now the sole-surviving vehicle out of 113 produced by Charles Burrell & Sons.

Before the advent of large diesel engines, steam lorries and traction engines were a relatively common means of transporting heavy loads on Britain’s roads and were in regular use up until the 1950s.

After seeing service with a Coventry coal and coke merchant, Neil’s example was scrapped in 1932; mercifully its key components – crankshaft, oilers, valves and many of the main fittings – were retained.

Neil Gough restored his first traction engine when he was 19

In the 1980s, boiler-maker Jack Meaker discovered the Burrell and set about restoring it – including, unsurprisingly, making a new boiler – but ill health stymied progress.

Seven years ago he sold the Burrell to Neil, and now the restoration is nearing completion.

Neil tracked down “a mish-mash of original Burrell drawings” from Reading’s Museum of English Rural Life, but their quality was quite poor and only provided a rough guide.

Some educated guesswork and plenty of reverse-engineered componentry have brought the Burrell tantalisingly close to being back on the road.

This 1915 Burrell Steam Wagon should do about 6.4 miles to the gallon (of water) and hit 25mph

It’s a mighty thing, this steam lorry.

When finished it will sport a recreation of the drop-side flatbed body with which it originally left Burrell’s St Nicholas Works, 110 years ago.

With a gross vehicle weight of 7.5 tons and a five-ton payload, you’d imagine the Burrell would have plodded along at traction-engine velocity.

But not a bit of it: this lorry could achieve 20-25mph at – quite literally – full steam ahead.

With its chain-operated steering needing 16 turns of the wheel from lock to lock, and with drive to each of its huge, solid-tyred rear wheels via chains with 2½in pitch links, it’s small wonder that a two-man crew was required to operate the Burrell.

The 1911 KRIT 100hp Aero is a mighty racer that’s competed at Goodwood

The brakes inspired little more confidence: the 2ft-diameter drums (on the rear wheels only) have to be wound on and off by one of the fearless operators, but shutting off steam to the engine could create extra retardation.

And that steam was generated by a giant boiler running at a maximum of 200psi.

With a 176-gallon water capacity, that gave the Burrell a range of around 25-30 miles, with replenishment from the nearest river or stream every couple of hours on longer journeys.

Big steam-powered road trips don’t appear to faze Neil, either.

While he’s yet to get behind the wheel of the Burrell, his three previous traction engines – the first of which took five years to restore when he was just 19 – have been used extensively, including 200-mile round trips to the Dorset Steam Fair, and a 700-mile round trip to Cornwall, which took nine days to complete.

Perhaps Neil will be able to halve that time when the Burrell is up and running.

Images: John Bradshaw

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