[SEL] A Challenge for the Lists !!

[Jerry Evans]

Hello The Lists,
	Since becoming a member of these 2 lists about a year ago (unlike some who
have been here since the beginning - Arnie and Dave spring to mind) I have
seen (or read about) a few cases where old iron has been moved across the
States to a new owner. One guy gets it to the next town - the next guy
moves it a bit further and so on until it has pretty much moved across the
continent and I think even across the pond to Britain.

	Well here is the challenge: How about getting an engine across two
continents from Australia to South Africa!!

	You may remember my post a few months ago about wanting a small engine
from Aus. (Nothing rare - just a common type Aus. engine that we did not
have in South Africa.). Well Reg rose to the occasion and got his hands on
to a little Ronaldson Bros. & Tippet model N (Ronnie N) for me for which I
am most appreciative.

	Now, Reg lives in Newcastle which is on the Eastern side (and a little
south) of Aus. and I live in the centre of South Africa (which is that red
flashing bit on the header logo of my webpage
http://www.oldengine.org/members/evans ). Africa is that big (dark) lump of
land, inhabited by gorillas (Dave R. calls them girlfriends) that you come
to if you travel with the sun (ie from east to west) from Aus to South
America. It is also the continent that the first "Boomerang" came from, if
you remember another post of mine from a month or two back !!!

	Of course I could just have the engine shipped out to South Africa through
the normal channels but, due to the fact that our "Mickey Mouse" money does
not enjoy a very good exchange rate it will cost me many times the original
cost of the engine to get it here. (I'm prepared to pay this if needs be
but will first try the alternatives.) I have been trying to find a local
company that imports from Aus and would be prepared to include the engine
into one of their containers but have had limited succes.

	This is a very big "ask" but if you never ask you will never know. Do any
of you Aus (or other) members know of a company (or some South African
immigrant that you are sending back) that ships stuff to South Africa  and
would be prepared to put a beautiful little Ronnie N into one of their
containers. (It is already crated and measures approximately 500mm x 500mm
x 600mm high and probably does not weigh more than 100Kg. - it is missing
the hopper which probably weighs a few Kg's.) and is currently situated in
Newcastle (assuming of course that the big garage sale discussed 2 weeks
ago did not happen). Of course I am prepared to pay and it would be done
completely legally with all the paperwork - I am not trying to smuggle
anything in or out - just looking for a cheaper way of getting it here.

	Reg is on holiday and not due back for a few weeks so I have time on my
side but not too much.

	So thats the story - c'mon you Aussies - see what you can do. I promise to
cheer for Australia next time you play against Bangladesh or Sri Lanka
(rugby or cricket) :-)

Thanks for reading this far,
Jerry Evans in South Africa

P.S. I mentioned that it does not have a "hopper". A real bonus would be if
one of you guys has a spare hopper to sell and could get it into the same
crate - there is space. It is a one and a half H.P. Alfa Laval / Ronnie N.

P.P.S. I had a good day today. Collected 2 corn shellers that have made
their way across approx. 600 miles of South Africa also via the old iron
route. They got a lift halfway about 2 months ago and the other half
yesterday. I travelled about 60Km. today to fetch them. They are quite
special to me as they come from my Dads neighbour when I was a teenager
(I'm 56 now). My Dad used to borrow them when I was a "short one". The
owner recntly sold up and retired and gave the 2 machines to me. One is a
"Ransomes, Simms & Jeffries" (sp.) corn sheller and husker from Britain.
The other is a Letz (from Illinois I think) identical to this one: (the pic
describes it as a grinder - it is actually a sheller I think)

http://oldengine.org/members/evans/vow/trac_equip/Letz.JPG

	Then on my way home I visited a scrapyard and found a "Standard" power
hacksaw which I will fetch tomorrow. It is complete and identical to this one:

http://oldengine.org/members/evans/vow/Engine5/wols5.JPG

	An interesting coincidence is that the 2 machines featured in the links
above both belong to Siggi Duvel who is our club treasurer and the driving
force behind our club. Our clubhouse is on his premises and the use thereof
is provided to us by him. Strange that I should get 2 machines identical to
his on the same day.


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