Vintage steamroller returns to York's streets (From York Press)

Vintage steamroller returns to York's streets

9:42am Wednesday 5th September 2012 in News

VISITORS to York were faced with a surprising sight, as a steamroller which helped create the city’s roads took to the streets again.

The restored steamroller, City Of York No 3, helped repair the streets in the 1960s, before it was sold to a private contractor, and now belongs to a trio of collectors – John and Dorothy Knapton, and Eric Robinson.

John, from Leeds, bought the vehicle for £150 in 1968, and restoration has been taking place since the early 1990s, until the final part was added last week. The steamroller is now valued at £40,000.

John said: “Financially, it’s been a huge investment. It needed a new boiler first off, which cost thousands.

“Last week we put the replica name plates on for the first time in 40 years, and this is the first time it’s been back to York in 44 years.”

The vehicle has been loaned to the National Railway Museum to be displayed along with similar vintage vehicles until Saturday, and John took it out for a spin to the Minster at lunchtime yesterday.

He said: “We had a gentle trundle through York, taking snaps of where it used to work- Lendal Bridge, Foss Islands Road, where it lived for many years, and Skeldergate Bridge.”