MORE RESEARCHES INTO THE ROXHOLME FIRM OF A M COLE
The full lockdown situation in early 2020 in respect of the Covid-19 pandemic provided Lance with an opportunity of doing some clearing-up in his garage, during which exercise he came across some more photographs of a similar nature and of around the same age to those which have previously appeared in the magazine. He therefore contacted our Technical Editor, Derek Rayner, to ascertain whether these additional photos would be of interest to readers.
Having received a very positive response, Lance proceeded to have them digitally copied and sent them to Derek for assessment and research. The results of these investigations are chronicled below.
FIG 1
Clearly this is a show stand promoting the Cole firm. Fortunately, information on its reverse indicated that this was Lincoln Show in 1927 - a couple of years earlier than the similar image in OG 355.
From the left, the engine with the very clear registration of NO 1497 has an information board hanging from its tender indicating that it’s a Marshall 7hp sprung-mounted traction. It might even be the same engine as shown in Fig. 3. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, an engine with this Essex (NO) registration doesn’t appear in the Cole’s Road Locomotive Society’s listing. As a result, an enquiry to the Essex Record Office was necessary but the reply somewhat annoyingly revealed that the vehicle with this registration was actually a Swift car and, as a result, this investigation therefore required a re-think.
Another somewhat closer look at the photo and a much better enlargement of it revealed that the recalcitrant letter ’N’ could be either an ‘M’ [Berkshire] or an ‘H’ [Southampton] -
