Traction engine

A traction engine is a steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location.

Steam fairs are held throughout the year in the United Kingdom and in other countries, where visitors can experience working traction engines at close hand.

However, where soil conditions permitted, direct hauling of implements ("off the drawbar") was preferred; in America, this led to the divergent development of the steam tractor.

[3] Limits of technical knowledge and manufacturing technology meant that practicable road vehicles powered by steam did not start to appear until the early years of the 19th century.

The first half of the 1860s was a period of great experimentation, but by the end of the decade the standard form of the traction engine had evolved and would change little over the next sixty years.

[citation needed] Right through to the first decades of the twentieth century, manufacturers continued to seek a way to reach the economic potential of direct-pull ploughing and, particularly in North America, this led to the American development of the steam tractor.

British companies such as Mann's and Garrett developed potentially viable direct ploughing engines; however, market conditions were against them and they failed to gain widespread popularity.

These market conditions arose in the wake of the First World War when there was a glut of surplus equipment available as a result of British Government policy.

Large numbers of Fowler ploughing engines had been constructed in order to increase the land under tillage during the war and many new light Fordson F tractors had been imported from 1917 onwards.

Through 1921, steam tractors had demonstrated clear economic advantages over horse power for heavy hauling and short journeys.

The tax was payable by all road hauliers in proportion to the axle load and was particularly restrictive on steam propulsion, which was heavier than its petrol equivalent.

[10] Initially, imported oil was taxed much more than British-produced coal, but in 1934 Oliver Stanley, the Minister for Transport, reduced taxes on fuel oils while raising the Road Fund charge on road locomotives to £100 per year (equivalent to around £9000 today, 2024) provoking protests by engine manufacturers, hauliers, showmen and the coal industry.

This was at a time of high unemployment in the mining industry, when the steam haulage business represented a market of 950,000 tons of coal annually.

[citation needed] Perhaps the first organisation to take a general interest in traction engine preservation was the Road Locomotive Society formed in 1937.

Favourable soil conditions meant that US traction engines usually pulled their ploughs behind them, thereby eliminating the complexities of providing a cable drum and extra gearing, hence simplifying maintenance.

[14] Onto the drum a long length of wire rope was wound, which was used to haul an implement, such as a plough, across a field, while the engine remained on the headland.

The majority were underslung (horizontal), however, and necessitated the use of an extra-long boiler to allow enough space for the drum to fit between the front and back wheels.

Mostly the ploughing engines worked in pairs, one on each side of the field, with the wire rope from each machine fastened to the implement to be hauled.

Other implements could include a mole drainer, used to create an underground drainage channel or pipe, or a dredger bucket for dredging rivers or moats.

The engines were frequently provided with a 'spud tray' on the front axle, to store the 'spuds' which would be fitted to the wheels when travelling across claggy ground.

Another ploughing engine, devised by Peter Drummond-Burrell, 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby, possibly designed by Daniel Gooch and constructed at Swindon Works, the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, awarded £100 out of a possible £500 of its prize for creating a steam ploughing engine,[19] was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London[citation needed].

Lord Willoughby had indicated that his design could be copied freely, and Fowler had visited Grimsthorpe Castle, the estate where the ploughing engines were deployed.

The winch is powered by bevel gears on a shaft driven directly from the engine, with some form of clutch providing raise/lower control.

[36] Four years later, the Locomotives Act 1865 was passed limiting engines to 4 mph and requiring that they preceded by a person carrying a red flag.

[36] The first traction engine focused on road haulage was offered for sale by Charles Burrell & Sons in 1856 and tyres were introduced around the same time.

Some traction engines were designed to be convertible: the same basic machine could be fitted with either standard treaded road wheels, or else smooth rolls – the changeover between the two being achieved in less than half a day.

The front of an overtype steam wagon bears a close family resemblance to traction engines, and manufacturers who made both may well have been able to use some common parts.

Steam wagons were the dominant form of powered road traction for commercial haulage in the early part of the twentieth century, although they were a largely British phenomenon, with few manufacturers outside Great Britain.

Although no longer used commercially, traction engines of all types continue to be maintained and preserved by enthusiastic individuals and are frequently exhibited at agricultural shows in Europe (particularly the UK), Canada and the United States.