In the backyard at Ray Butler’s place, hundreds of pieces of history are silent after a lifetime of noisy operation.
Mr Butler has restored chainsaws and stationary engines for more than 50 years, and his collection has become a familiar sight at markets and fairs across the New England region.
In his shed, Mr Butler’s eyes rest on each engine like an old friend. In his hand is a photo album showing how some have been transformed from dirt-caked castaways to polished working machinery.
“I always say, if you are going to restore something, you have got to use the original recipe,” he said, running his hand along the heritage green paintwork of a 1915 Lister engine.
“If you are not going to do it properly, don’t do it at all.”
Mr Butler first felt the fascination of old machinery as a boy in Tenterfield. He grew up among his father’s working Tangyes engines and soon grew to have an understanding of the engines which once drove machinery such as saw benches, shearing plants and pumps.
His interest included chainsaws, and the first piece in Mr Butler’s collection was a 1956 chainsaw when he was about 16.
“Dad and I bought it and we used to get around felling trees and logs in forests,” he remembers.
“It weighed 42 pound (19kg). After all day carrying that around, you really felt like your dinner at night.”
He still has the chainsaw, but Mr Butler’s collecting took a backseat when he started work in the timber industry.
“I’ve spent all my life in the timber industry,” he said.
“I’ve met some interesting people and I’ve covered a lot of territory with the Forestry Commission including places like Moree and Narrabri. I’ve been places where birds wouldn’t get out of the way because they didn’t know to be scared.
“I was in the first batch of trainers to do accreditation for chainsaws in 1988.”
Mr Butler also had a motor and chainsaw business in Tenterfield between 1969 and 1983.
“I retired in 1989, and since I’ve been retired, I spend my time fiddling around and restoring engines,” he said.
“I do my best trying to preserve them. This stuff is finished, they are not making any more of it.
“I get some satisfaction and a bit of pride out of it.”
Although Mr Butler has moved around Tenterfield, he has ended up living next door to the house he grew up in. He said it has room for his two passions - machinery and growing vegetables.
He spends at least a couple of hours a day in his sheds painstakingly restoring the machinery he gets from all sorts of places. He said some people find they have beautiful old pieces in disrepair in the back of a shed, and he has even salvaged a 1922 Emu engine from a stone out in the bush.
His shed is kept like a miniature showroom for the engines. Names such as Massey-Harris, Buzacott and Emu shine from nameplates on the machinery, and an adjoining shed houses not only shelves of chainsaws but a maze of pieces he might need for a future restoration.
Chains and tools hang from the wall. When he can’t find a piece, he makes it.
“I tell people I collect sparkplugs, and I only collect engines to put them in,” he smiled.
His collection now includes about 30 stationary engines and more than 100 chainsaws.
Mr Butler’s wife Gloria passed away in 1998, but he said two of his three daughters have an interest in machinery and a grandson is showing some signs of following Mr Butler’s passion for engines.
Mr Butler and his collection can be seen at work at events like the recent Show and Shine car show and the Q150 train’s arrival at Wallangarra. He takes with him a selection of working stationary engines that he can start up to fire up the enthusiasm of a new generation.
“There is a satisfaction in showing them off to someone who hasn’t seen them,” he said.
“I just had a little fellow - about eight years old - ask me how to turn them on. That was great, because most of the kids just walk by and don’t understand what the engines can do.
“I started one and finished off starting about eight of them.
“If someone else can get something out of it, it is worthwhile for me.”
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