Listing of Known Surviving
Paxman Portable Steam Engines

This page carries the most comprehensive listing available of known surviving Paxman steam portable and traction engines (the latter shown in red). The listing is based on feedback to this website from owners and enthusiasts, old Paxman order records, and engine listings from other sources.

It has not been possible to verify the details of several engines shown on other listings. It is also a fact of life that lists like this can quickly become out of date as owners and locations change. You will understand, therefore, we can offer no guarantee or warranty as to the accuracy of all the details shown below. Any help you or your contacts can give in keeping the list up to date and accurate would be much appreciated. Do please email details of any changes, errors, or additional information using the form on the Contact page.

Where an engine number or location is underlined in the listing below, this denotes a link to more detailed information about the engine, often including a photograph, on another of our Surviving Portables web pages. One of these covers engines in the UK and Overseas except Australia and another is devoted exclusively to portables in Australia.

In the Cyls column below, S = Single Cylinder, D = Double Cylinder (i.e. Duplex) and C = Compound.

Cowra  A 12 hp, 1913, twin cylinder (i.e. duplex, not compound) portable was advertised for sale at Cowra, NSW, Australia, in late 2003. The address of the person to contact was given as Cowra, NSW, but attempts to make contact have so far been unsuccessful. Initially it was thought the engine might be No 15643 but comparing photographs show it to be a different engine. On this engine the manhole is on the boiler barrel whereas it is on the firebox of No 15643. If the advertised details of the engine are correct then its number is probably 18302. In the Paxman order book this appears to be the only 12 NHP double cylinder engine for Australia built in 1913. No 18302 has cylinders of 8¾" bore x 12" stroke and was despatched on 28th July 1913. The only other duplex for Australia in 1913 was a 10 NHP engine, No 18199, despatched in May. Both were ordered by John Blyth & Co of Sydney. Confirmation of the correct number would be appreciated.

Darwin River Dam, Northern Territory, Australia:  A Paxman portable is displayed in the small museum of the Northern Territory Power & Water Authority at Darwin River Dam. We are in touch with the Authority and attempting to reconcile the number which appears to be stamped on the engine's flywheel with numbers in the Paxman order book.

Bookham, NSW, Australia:  As at 2009 a large and a small Paxman portable are in a collection of about 20 portables at Bookham, on the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney. If you know the number of either of these Paxman engines please let me know.

Garrett Portables built for Davey Paxman

Between 1920 and 1932 Davey Paxman and Richard Garrett & Sons of Leiston were both members of the Agricultural & General Engineers (AGE) combine. AGE laid down a policy that portables work should be split between the two companies with Garrett building all the single cylinder types and Paxman the two cylinder types. Garrett built 65 portables, to Garrett designs, for Paxman under this arrangement. It should be added that Paxman continued to build some single cylinder portables to their own design during this period.

One listing of surviving Paxman portables in Australia includes Nos 34274 (which is actually 34278), 34337, and 34419. These are Garrett, not Paxman, numbers. It is clear from Garrett records that the engines were built by Garrett for Davey Paxman, presumably in accordance with AGE policy. We are told the engines carry Moffat Virtue agents plates (Moffat Virtue were Davey Paxman's Australian agents), but that they have no Paxman badging on them.

The three Garrett designed and built engines mentioned above each have a piston valve, not the slide valve arrangement found on Paxman portables. Each was designed for a working pressure of 140 psi.
No 34278, built in 1923, is a Type WS1 (8 NHP) of 6¼" bore x 12" stroke.
No 34337, built in 1923, is a Type WSB (5 NHP) of 5¼" bore x 10" stroke.
No 34419, despatched 4th January 1924, is a Type WSII (10 NHP) of 7" bore x 12" stroke. It has a colonial firebox and is believed to be located in Victoria. (Seen c.2006)

Three other surviving Garrett portables built for Paxman are
No 34389, Paxman Order No 15233 of 01/10/1923, despatched 22/10/1923, a Type WS II (L10; 10 NHP, 27 bhp), originally supplied to John Blyth & Co, Sydney, Australia. A recent photograph of part of this engine shows the remnants of a Paxman transfer.
No 34400, despatched 22/10/1923, a Type WS II (10 NHP), originally supplied to John Blyth & Co, Sydney, Australia.
No 34472, despatched 31/3/1924, also a Type WS II (10 NHP)

A surviving Garrett-built portable made to a Paxman design is No 35188. This 10 NHP single cylinder engine was despatched (to Chile?) on 17/10/1928. There is no entry for this engine in the surviving Paxman copy order books but details have been confirmed from surviving Garrett records. It would seem that various parts and patterns were sent from Paxman at Colchester to Leiston for the building of this engine which was possibly the last portable to be built to a Paxman design (only a handful of portables, if that, were built by Paxman after 1925). No 35188 was acquired by Duncan Pittock in 2009 from David and Michelle Goddard who brought it back from South America.

Additional Notes

1. Other listings of DP portables have included a 1918 single cylinder 3NHP portable at Maidstone. That dating is now known to be incorrect. The engine is No 21693 in the above listing.
2. John Blyth & Co of Sydney, and the Intercolonial Boring Company of Brisbane were the two largest agents in Australia for Paxman portable steam engines.

© Richard Carr 2004, 2005

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Page updated: 20 JAN 2010