Manilla hadn't seen anything like it for a century.
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With engineer Billy Garrad at the helm, the gigantic 16-tonne 1912 "road loco" - which remains roadworthy after more than a century - was an extraordinary new attraction at the Manilla Vintage Machinery Rally.
Mr Garrad hauled the enormous former Wellington Shire Council steam road grader all the way from the Western Plains for the entertainment of thousands of machinery fanatics. It was a loaner; the community still owns it.
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On a cold Saturday, he was feeling very comfortable, just a yard or two from the boiler.
"Up there it feels normal temperature," he said.
"You can take a couple of years to restore one. In the morning it takes about three hours once you put fire in it, three hours before you get steam," he said.
"So a lot involved it's not just turn the key and go, you've got to get up early."
Manilla's showground was absolutely packed with gear, noise and people on the weekend, occupying significantly more space than the town show, itself a record crowd.
But between row on row of ancient - but still functional, and much-loved - gear of all shapes and sizes it was difficult to get an accurate gauge on crowd size.
Secretary of the Manilla Vintage Machinery Group Margaret Hurle said they typically attracted about 3000 people for a weekend, but it was never a guaranteed thing.
"We don't know what's going to be here until we open the gates and they arrive," she said.
"The furthest one has come from Harvey Bay. We've come from Griffith, quite a few from over Grafton and Taree way, down the Hunter, Moree.
"This is a big day for us.
"And the sum knowledge here today of old machinery, it's probably the best we'll get anywhere in Australia."
While build heritage - like the Opera House - has long been legally recognised, Ms Hurle said the country was only just waking up to the kind of "operating heritage" that their group helps preserve.
Minnesota-born Lismore resident Trent Dobrunz hauled a Sundex two horsepower engine made in 1926 at the Hugh Victor McKay factory in Victoria, all the way from Lismore.
"It was my first engine," he said.
"History is my thing. I love to learn. Every trip, I go on to any of these rallies I make sure if there's a museum I haven't been to, I stop."
It was his third or fourth time in Manilla, after trying it out once as a civilian.
"I've met a great group of blokes, and this is one they went to," he said.
"So then I said alright, I'm gonna get me an engine and I'm gonna come in I'm gonna do this.
"Something just to spend my time on
"It took a couple years to get everything together enough to do it."
Shearers Tim Scanlon and Malcolm Burbury showed a crowd of onlookers how to do it the old-fashioned way, using an ancient, mechanical "husband and wife" two-man shearer from 1892.
"When I bought it [at an auction sale] the whole pulley was broken in about five spots. And I was so lucky that those those pieces were still laying beside the last one," Mr Scanlon said.
The avid machinery buff said the weekend show was "the ultimate", something they'd look forward to and plan for for the better part of 12 months in advance.
He said the best part about it has nothing to do with the gear.
"The fellowship, I reckon. It just gets people together."
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