'CITY OF BRISTOL'
SCAMMELL SHOWTRAC
In 2021, I played a key part in the restoration of the Scammell Showtrac, ‘City of Bristol’ for which the restoration was led by Hedwood Engineering. For this project, I undertook all the gold leaf, traditional signwriting and lining by hand, using no tape nor digital assistance.
Traditional Signwriting
Gold Leaf
Lining
background & research
Key to the fairground industry’s engineering development in the mid-2oth Century, only 18 Scammell Showtrac’s were manufactured and only 17 survive: meaning this project could be a once in a lifetime job! ‘City of Bristol’ has working Cornish fairgrounds all it’s life and is still owned by the same fairground firm, J. Rowland & Sons. Working from two archival photographs for reference to the signwriting and monogram, I liaised with the owner to ensure the colours used were authentic and as he remembered!
the process
Whilst making reference to the archival photographs, the spacing and layout of the lettering had to respond to the Showtrac’s panels and so this required the wording and monogram to be drawn on-site. Attention to detail was key in this project: the addition of the black line on the monogram, to compliment the gold leaf lettering and green-white blended block, and the addition of ‘& Daughters’ on the water tank: an homage to the future, and wording that is seldom seen on fairgrounds.
