A RARE steam engine that was used in lessons at the former St Neots Technical Institute in the 1950s has been restored and is now on show at a museum. The 1892 Savage Twin Cylinder Horizontal Steam Engine was presented to the Ramsey Rural Museum in 1981,

A RARE steam engine that was used in lessons at the former St Neots Technical Institute in the 1950s has been restored and is now on show at a museum.

The 1892 Savage Twin Cylinder Horizontal Steam Engine was presented to the Ramsey Rural Museum in 1981, but for more than decade has stood unrestored.

Alan Wilcher, a volunteer at the musuem who restored the engine, said: "It was great to see the old girl return to life and run so smoothly the first time the power was switched on. Only about 500 of them were made so it is an honour to have a working one on display for all to see at the museum."

The engine was manufactured by F Savage, of Kings Lynn, for Murphy and Company, a fairground operator, and it would have been used to power fair ground rides.

It eventually found its way to St Neots Technical Institute and then Huntingdonshire Regional College.

In St Neots it is thought to have formed an important part of the ONC Engineering Heat Engines syllabus in the 1950s and 1960s.

When it moved to Huntingdon it was glass-cased as a memorial to the late Louis V Mountford, former head of the St Neots Technical Institute.

The engine stood un-touched at Ramsey Rural Museum for 15 years until volunteers decided to start restoring it in 2006. A year on and the restoration is complete, making it one of the only working ex-hibits in the museum.

INFORMATION: Ramsey Rural Museum, Wood Lane, Ramsey is open Thursdays 10am to 5pm, Sundays and Bank Holidays 2pm to 5pm. Call 01487 814304.