Getting the Waterous
The inspiration for the aquisition and restoration of the Waterous was a discovery found while researching the family tree. It turned out one of Jo's great great grandfathers had been a director in a foundry manufacturing steam engines in Brantford Canada in the 1840's. How great it would be to have one of his engines. Great great grandfather provided capital for the enterprise while Charles Waterous contributed the technical expertise. Waterous eventually bought out his partners and great great grandfather moved on but Waterous has continued on and the company still exists as a thriving international company. There was zero chance of finding an engine from the days back in the 1840's when Jo's relative was involved but when we found that the Waterous company did later export engines to Australia we were on the lookout.
The Waterous engines that made their way to Australia were "Fireproof Champion" The engines were designed and patented by David June in Ohio then Waterous was given the rights to manufacture in Canada, Waterous had great success with these engines eventually making over 2500. Very few of these have survived with the only known operational ones in Australia.
We were lucky enough to pick one up at an auction in June 2017 in NSW. It was built in 1883. Before being collected for preservation had been on a farm in Nevertire, near Dubbo.
It was basically complete except for the front wheels but not in great condition.
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