Back around 1980, I was displaying an enclosed crank horizontal Crossley engine, when a friend came over to me and said he was interested in obtaining a small engine like the Crossley, for his son to restore and display. He told me that he had an old engine at home, but he had no idea what make it was, and that it wasn’t running, as the restoration would involve more work than he and his son wanted to do. He went on to describe it as having a ‘G’ clamp type appearance, and that it looked as if it had been made up from ‘an old steam engine or something’. He said it was only about two feet tall, had no ignition and a strange type of carburettor.

It sounded really intriguing, so we made a deal. When I collected the engine, I was surprised at how unusual it was, and the thought crossed my mind that it could even be a backyard-made engine or a converted compressor. It had a set of points mounted on the crankcase and was operated by the lump on the back of the cam gear, which was connected to a car coil for use with a battery. After I collected it, I sat it on the shelf and thought I would restore it ‘one day’ and, hopefully, in the meantime I could find another one so I could have a look and see which parts were missing.

About 30 years went by, and it had been a good talking point for visitors u