ROLLER RESTORATIONS

Niall Byrne and his partner Hannah Bickley are based at Ruabon near Wrexham in North Wales and have displayed a couple of rollers at various events around the country, including Onslow Park, the Great Dorset Steam Fair 2013 Roller Special, Hollowell, Welland, Malpas and Oswestry. These workmanlike engines have been popular exhibits at the shows, although their journeys into restoration were somewhat different.

The first roller in the collection, which is jointly owned by Niall and Chris Bickley, Hannah’s father, is 1922 Aveling & Porter D type No. 10348 , although it has only carried this name in restoration. This roller certainly has an interesting history, escaping the cutter’s torch on a couple of occasions before passing into Niall and Chris’s ownership in 2011. The D Type was built for Essex County Council and arrived with a three-man living van. Although no photographs of the roller at work are thought to exist, it remained with the council