the big engine in the photos .

when i was about 5 ,me and my uncle john used to go in the sandpit in colchester to start it up ,it was very similar to the one in photo.

it used to take about an hour, first we had to light the big blowlamp,that heated the bolt on head ( nowadays a glow plug).

then we had a tin of rags soaked in diesel that we set fire to, we then made newspaper tapers .

my job when john cranked engine ,i used the tapers that i dipped in diesel set fire to them ,then fed them to the intake of engine ,as they burnt out i would replace the with another .

after a lot of cranking we would hit the decompressor lever and it would burst into life,

the whole ground used to shake .

we allways talked about this, this is the story of the lumpy der engine,used to drive conveyer belts .

now done at the flick of a switch