Surefire Shire workhorse...

摘要

TWO DECADES after Barras launched its Shire range of engines, the company has tracked down the first one supplied that's still in service - and it isn't just powering an occasional gentle cruise along the cut. It's seeing more than 1,000 hours' hard work every year in a trip-boat on the Kennet & Avon Canal. Passenger boat Rose of Hungerford, run by the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust, has been operating since 1982, eight years before the canal's full reopening in 1990. In 1997, its original engine which came "from a crashed ex-London taxi" in the words of Trust chairman Mike Rodd, was replaced with a 40hp Shire which is still in use today.