Living it up at 81
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At 81, Black Jack, a happy extrovert, is devoted to showbiz, drinks with moderation, enjoys a quiet smoke and occasionally blows his top.
"You could say that he is more than a little big-headed,
says John Boughton, group managing director of the Boughton Engineering Group. He certainly has the largest chimney of any threshing machine that I know."
Black Jack is a Fowler steam engine and was a 21st birthday present to Tom Boughton, a Buckinghamshire farmer, from his father in the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. He was almost sold by auction in 1921 but at the last minute Tom reprieved him. He has remained in the family ever since and was in daily service, including haulage, until 1947.
Black Jack now lives it up with the good and the great. He appeared in the Lord Mayor's Show in London in November, hauling a trailer carrying a Rolls-Royce aero engine reputed to be worth £1 million. Even Richard Burton hasn't done that.