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Traction Engine Archive, The by Richard Willcox Hard Cover
Traction Engine Archive, The by Richard Willcox Hard Cover
Hard Cover
160 Pagers
Copyright 2004
Contents
PREFACE6
A representative selection of traction engines in Britain arranged in alphabetical order of manufacturers.7
THE LYONSHALL ENGINES 123
An account of the first self propelled traction engine in Herefordshire and its later companions.
TRACTION ENGINES IN THE BOER WAR127
The story behind the use of traction engines during this campaign with photographs from the collection of the late Tom Paisley.
A CAVALCADE OF SHOWMAN'S ENGINES142
An assortment of engines seen at the fairground and on the road..
Introduction
To earn a living with a steam road engine was not easy work. Days were long and conditions invariably hard. The engine had to be in steam and ready to start work when the gang was due to start, be it thrashing, ploughing, steam rolling or haulage, and that meant stirring the fire at least an hour before the rest of the gang arrived. On the fair ground, the day's work was not over when the fair closed, the engine had to be "put to bed" first and that would usually mean a great deal more than filling the boiler
and dropping the damper! Much glamour is now attached to showland work but it involved long hours, a good deal of hard labour and often carried out in less than hospitable conditions. Nevertheless, many men enjoyed the work and some were very good at it. As in all occupations, the level of skill possessed by drivers varied from excellent to incompetent with the majority falling somewhere into the middle ground. The very good had a natural ability and affinity with their charge, at the other end of the scale they struggled for steam or water and were often in trouble of one sort or another. Mishaps are a recurring theme through these pictures. An upset engine and tackle often had a human tragedy attached to it, whether it was loss of limb, life or job. Perhaps more than a passing thought should be given to the men involved with the engines seen in use during the Boer War. Hostile conditions in more than one sense!
The Road Locomotive Society's collections of archives, records, books and photographs are a store house of information and knowledge carefully garnered since the early 1930s by members past and present. It is good to see some of the accumulated collection of photographic material being published. It has been talked about before but it has needed someone of Richard Willcox's stature to take on the task of writing captions to complement the photos. It is a task I undertook when the Society published "The Major Ind" photographs and I well remember the time and effort involved. This collection has been carefully selected to maintain balance and has only been achieved after trawling through many hundreds of views to select the 160 presented here. It is an excellent selection ably supported by a text that is authoritative, informative and readable. I commend this book to all who have an interest in steam on the road and very much hope that it receives the success it so richly deserves.
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