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Andy Melrose is a dedicated steam engineer. At his workshop in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, he works at keeping the steam engines of the Victorian era in running order.
Andy has worked on every series of Salvage Squad. In the first series he restored Hercules, the 1923 Aveling & Porter steamroller. In the second series he restored Margaret, the 1870 Fowler steam plough. Now he has taken on the challenge of restoring a 1931 Sentinel steam lorry.
Andy is a very experienced engineer, and with his assistants, Lee and Richard, he does a wide variety of work. They roll and rivet boilers, flange, press and machine. Their workshop is a one-stop-shop for any enthusiast with a steam problem.
Andy first became interested in steam when his father took him to steam fairs in the 1960s. He fell in love with these beautiful machines and was eventually able to purchase Margaret, the 1870 steam plough – the oldest self-moving, steam road locomotive in the world.
Andy uses traditional techniques developed by Victorian engineers. He has had to relearn 19th-century skills to be able to restore the steamrollers, portable engines and steam ploughs owned by like-minded enthusiasts.
Despite all his experience, Andy has never built a new boiler for a Sentinel steam lorry. None of these boilers have been built since the Sentinel boiler works shut over 60 years ago. Devising a method for recreating the flange on the outer jacket of the boiler called for all of Andy's ingenuity, intuition and innovation. He devised a construction method using a large hydraulic press and specially shaped tools, which could move the corners of the rolled barrel.
Andy was delighted when his experimental technique proved effective, and he and Claire managed to recreate a new outer jacket. Accuracy was paramount when it came to drilling bolt holes in the flanges of the outer jacket, but Andy's meticulous approach paid off.
When he watched the Sentinel puffing up Horseshoe Pass in north Wales with the Goddard brothers back in the cab, he was justifiably proud of all his dedication and hard work.
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