Driving the Atlantic (RH&DR Association Heritage Group Collection).
having found it by the side of a locomotive shed on the RH&DR. It was later abandoned behind the T B André workshop in the Brooklands Flying Village and eventually broken up. Zborowski and Gallop produced two further ‘Chittys’ – ‘Chitty II’, which was displayed at the Museum in its (the Museum's) early days but is now in the USA, and another, around 1921, this time powered by a 14,778cc Mercedes aero engine. This became known as ‘Chitty III’ or ‘The White Mercedes’ and was raced on the Track prior to Louis’s death in 1924, when it became part of the Howey equipe. By 1929 it was being raced by Noel and Pole. When the BARC banned such ‘elderly vehicles’ from Brooklands, ‘Chitty III’ languished at the Thomson and Taylor works before being sold to Clive Windsor-Richards who used it as a touring car. It was last heard of in the hands of Lord Carlow. John Howey’s Leyland-Thomas would also fail to survive. By 1926 it was no longer used for racing and Dudley Froy rescued it and fitted the body from Leyland-Thomas number one. By 1932 it belonged to Elsie and Tommy Wisdom and in the September of that year Elsie took the Ladies' lap record at Brooklands at 121.47mph in the Leyland. They sold it in 1934 to Bill Black and in 1938 it appeared at the Brighton Speed Trials in the hands of E Sidebottom. It was probably scrapped during the Second World War.
Fascination
John Howey and Louis Zborowski had other things in common besides an interest in fast cars and motor racing. John’s fascination in miniature railways was also shared by Louis who was engaged in the building of a 15-inch gauge line in the grounds of his Higham estate at Bridge, near Canterbury. He had ordered two 15-inch gauge locomotives based on the Gresley Pacific design. Expense was no problem as Louis’s mother was an Astor and the Astors owned a large area of New York. The same could be said of John, who owned a fair number of properties in Melbourne. Both John and Louis had an idea of creating something on a larger scale than a garden railway. They had a vision of a main line in minia- ture, a concept reinforced when they visited the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in June 1924. Sadly Zborowski’s death four months later might have seen the end of the project had it not been for the encouragement Howey got from like-minded enthusiasts. He also saw the project
In 1913 he re-gauged the Staughton Manor line from 9¼ to 15-inch gauge and had this loco, Colossus, especially built by the Bassett- Lowke company. It was only the second 4-6-2 or Pacific wheel arrangement engine to run in England – the other was on the Great Western (RH&DR Association Heritage Group Collection).
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