Members of the Villiersdorp branch of the West Cape Tractor & Engine society are busy with an interesting project, and they're working to a deadline! Just on 13 months ago we decided to make the recovery and restoration of a 1932 40 HP single cylinder horizontal Crossley diesel engine a team effort, and we have advertised that it will be ready and running on 21st June 2008!

Pieter Fourie, organiser of this event, summed the history of Engine Collecting in Piketberg in a short speech he gave to open the proceedings.

About 10 years ago, he attended an Annual Show of the Tractor and (then fledgling) Engine Club at the Brandvlei Prison Farm near Worcester. There, he met Philip Gray-Taylor and me, and expressed an interest in buying a collectable engine. In the end he was given an engine from John McGregor, a Wolseley. About then he moved from Greyton to Koringberg near Piketberg and started to instil an interest in Engine Collecting among the Tractor Enthusiasts. It has been an uphill battle, but about two years ago, he invited Philip and me up to give them some encouragement, with a technical talk, followed by Questions and Answers. Several engines were brought out of sheds for the occasion, but all along Pieter had the idea of a dedicated Engine Day.

 Most engine enthusiasts in the Cape know that there were generator engines outside the mouth of the world-famous Cango Caves at the Ostrich Capital, Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo. In fact, many actually remember hearing them running! But until recently, nobody knew what had happened to them. Even well known Cango Caves historian Dr Steven Craven, who I have known for many years, couldn't help. He has written much from his detailed research on the Caves' history, on which he has done a second Doctorate. A paper he delivered goes back in history to 1899 when electrification of the huge caverns was first mooted, and covers all the deliberations until the purchase, from Mangold Brothers of Oudtshoorn, of two engine-driven generators in 1928. We knew that two unspecified engines were delivered to the Cave on the 5th or 6th March 1928 and that in April of that year, the Municipality advertised for an 'Electrician Driver' who would be required to operate 'two 20kW Crossley crude oil engine (sic) 220V DC sets'. Then, after the Caves were connected to the Escom grid on 24th October 1963, we have a reference dated 19th December 1964 which says that 'the two generating sets, both DC, will be sold'. There is no reference to the amount of money received.