14/08/2026
John’s not around today, so he’s sent us his irregular "What the Friday" post to share....
🔢 Messing with numbers, and being a bit nerdy…
Everyone knows we currently have two World Record-holding Brush Tractor units on Hythe Pier: 16302 and 16307. But did you know they’re actually part of a batch of six units built in 1917?
• 16302 – Hythe Pier, “Edward”
• 16303 – Amberley Museum
• 16304 – Spares for 16302 & 16307 at Hythe
• 16305 – Welsh Slate Museum
• 16306 – Spares for 16303 at Amberley
• 16307 – Hythe Pier, “Gerald”
So, of the six units built, we have the first and last of the batch – making Edward the first and Gerald the last!
When built, the tractor units were identified by the last digit of their electric motor’s serial number, meaning they were originally numbered 2 to 7.
However, due to a quirk of fate (or perhaps dyslexia!) sometime in the last 100 years, “7” was mislabelled as “1”.
So today, Gerald at Hythe – now known as tractor #1 – is actually the youngest of the siblings, while Edward, #2, is the eldest. Probably by only a matter of days or weeks! 🎉
And if all these odd and even numbers are getting confusing, there’s an easy way to tell the twins apart…
👀 Look at the roof seam.
On the even-numbered Edward, the roof seam splits the roof into two equal sections. On odd-numbered Gerald, the roof join is off-centre, giving him odd-sized roof panels.
As for remembering which number is who, Gerald starts with the 7th letter of the alphabet, “G”, so clearly this is tractor #1 :-o
So there you have it – you’ll never look at the two World Record-holding Brush Tractors quite the same way again! 😊
PS: Don't say "but Gerald has an orange lifebuoy" - we can only afford the one, and they share it depending on who's working (y)
