Around The Rally Field

Road Locomotives

Road locomotives were developed specifically for haulage of heavy loads on the public highway and usually had three speeds, belly water tanks, and latterly, solid rubber tyres. They were the largest and most powerful of the usual types of traction engines and the largest were capable of hauling loads up to 120 tons loaded on heavy trailers or bogies - boilers or transformers etc. Other jobs included stone or brick haulage. Unfortunately, many fine examples have been rebuilt in recent years to the more glamorous Showman’s Engine.

 Showman’s Engines

Showman’s Engines are an adaptation of the Road locomotive. Fair ground owners in the late Victorian and Edwardian times found the road locomotive ideal for haulage of their heavy riding machines, and, fitted with a dynamo, well equipped to provide electric light and power for the rides at the fairground. Later examples reached a high degree of decoration in brass and paintwork.

 Steam Tractors

These little engines were built as a small road engine; operable by one man if less than 5 tons unladen weight, and were very much used in the first twenty-five years of the last century. They were ideal for haulage work with robust trailers - coal, gravel, road stone, flour, furniture and timber being some examples of the loads they used to carry.

 Ploughing Engines

John Fowler of Leeds did a great deal to develop the ploughing engine in the 1850’s, and although other makers constructed them in large numbers, Fowlers are a name synonymous with this type of engine. Mainly used in those areas of the country devoted to arable farming the engines stood on either side of a field and drew the implement progressively back and forth across the field by means of the wire rope and drum mounted horizontally under the boiler.

 Steam Rollers

Steam Rollers are probably the best known and loved form of steam engine, and people will remember them at work until relatively recent years. The basis of the steam roller - its boiler and engine - is much smaller than the traction engine as it was not designed for haulage and only needed sufficient power to move its own weight across its work; to do the latter properly the heavy wheels added to the weight of the rest of the engine to give an average weight of 10 - 12 tons. Early steamrollers usually tended to be very heavy, being used on the water bound stone roads of the period. Later tarmacadam roads permitted a more manageable machine.

 Steam Wagons

Developed from about 1900, the steam wagon presents a multiplicity of designs and ideas -horizontal and vertical boilers; engines over the boiler as on a traction engine or slung beneath the frame as in a modem lorry. Foden wagons of the former type and Sentinels of the latter type were a common sight on our roads between the wars but were gradually displaced by the diesel Iorry.  

Steam developments 1850 - 1900 Flowery Victorian Snippet 

More on steam

 Tractors  The first internal combustion engined tractors were built as long ago as the 1890’s - by Hornsby’s of Grantham in this country and by various makers in America. But they bore little resemblance to today’s tractors, being more like a traction engine in which a massive single cylinder horizontal oil engine had been fitted in place of the boiler; these tractors were very heavy and only really suitable for threshing and similar work.

1902 saw the 3-wheeled Ivel tractor designed by Dan Albone, a cycle maker from Biggleswade. Together with the Saunderson made at Bedford, these were the most popular of the early British tractors. With the coming of the 1914 - 1918 war, and the need to increase home food production, large numbers of tractors were imported from America. Including makes such as Overtime (made by John Deere) and International Mogul and Titan. In 1917 came the first Fordson and in the early 1920’s hte International Harvester Co. introduced powered implements driven through a power take off, such as binders, combines etc., and also a system of ploughing and cultivating by mounted implements About 1932 appeared the first low pressure pneumatic tyres, which allowed tractors to travel at higher speeds; also in the 1930’s appeared the first of the famous Marshall diesel tractors, and in 1935 Harry Ferguson introduced his system of 3 point mounting for implements with hydraulic control. In 1905, Hornsby’s of Grantham built the world’s first crawler tractor, and in 1906 they converted an oil engined tractor to crawler tracks and the next year trials were carried out with this tractor by the War Office at Aldershot where the soldiers christened the strange machine “CATERPILLAR” and it was from here and not America that the name originated.

However, inventions are sometimes ahead of their time and the Hornsby Crawler tractor certainly was, since little interest was taken in it and few were sold. Eventually they sold the Patent tights to The Holt Manufacturing Co. of New York who continued to develop it, and eventually became The Caterpillar Tractor Co. of America

Since the 1939 - 1945 war, there have been great improvements in tractor performance, and detail design, but the basic principles of today’s tractors remain the same as the vintage models we see today.

 Barn Engines

These were made in large numbers during the 1930 - 1940 period. They were made both in horizontal and vertical forms, and in a wide range of sizes and types, and were used to drive farm machinery, saw benches, pumps, electric lighting plants, workshops etc. There are several types of engines a below is a short explanation of some of the oddities. Without mechanical connection with the rest of the engine - these are known as automatic inlet valves, and are sucked open by the piston traveling down the cylinder on the induction stroke.

Engines that need no spark plugs, are either Low Tension “igniter Type”, with a mechanically operated pair of contacts inside the cylinder, and low magneto, or “lamp” start engines, in which part of the cylinder head heated with a blowlamp before starting after which they will run unaided by an ignition system.

Engines that fire irregularly are what is known as “Hit and Miss” types - in these when the engine speed rises above a set limit, the governors hold the exhaust valve open until the speed drops, whereupon firing begins again. The more conventional engines have mechanical operated inlet valves, “Throttle Governing”, and high-tension magnetos with spark plugs.

   Pedal Cycle

Although one of the most popular forms of transport, it is difficult to credit one person with the invention of the cycle, in the late 15^th century Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Italian artist, drew some rough sketches of a machine That looked like a bicycle. However it was not until 1690 that the Hobbyhorse was invented (a cycle with wheels but no pedals).

 A major step towards the modern cycle came in 1840, when a simple Blacksmith called Kirkpatrick MacMillan developed the Velocipede. It was a simple machine with two pedals connected to a rod, which powered the rear wheel.

The appearance of the safety cycle in 1886 was a breakthrough, giving the shape to the modern cycle.

The pedal cycle has many different shapes and sizes showing how adaptable a machine the cycle is, being used not just for leisure but also by various trades as well.

 Fairground Organs

Fairground Organs comprise some of the most colourful automatic musical instruments ever made. These instruments loudly voiced so they could be heard above the surrounding din, provided music for merry-go-rounds, carnivals, amusement parks and similar attractions.

Typically, such an instrument contains several ranks of pipes, all voiced on high wind pressure (usually from 8 - 12 inches of water - column pressure).

In accompaniment to the pipes, percussion effects - usually a bass drum, snare drum and cymbals.

Unlike most other areas in the automatic instrument field, the business of building fairground organs has never completely stopped.

The largest and most magnificent instruments were built from about 1880 to 1914; smaller instruments predominated in the 1920’s and early 1930’s.

The depression of the 1930’s saw most organ firms go out of business.

England was noted for barrel street pianos, a much larger version of these organs are still seen in Germany. People in Berlin and other parts of Germany still earn a living from “Street Organ” playing, sad to say not in England!

Today we have continental organs reproduced, with a tone and volume of a much larger instrument, although compact enough to be easily handled. Most of the wooden carts are “Berlin” styled easily maneuvered around shopping malls and the streets.

Horse Section  More

In addition to the three English breeds of carthorse, a number from the continent were imported. These consisted of chestnut horses from Belgium, who were slightly smaller than Suffolk Punches and popular for use as strong Vanners, and Percherons from France. Percherons were always gray and clean limbed, which many farmers liked, and some drove them in the French style; with only one rein attached to the left side of their mouths and they responded to the slight pulls or jerks accompanied by word commands.

Besides the different jobs on the land in the usual agricultural implements, horses provided the power for a variety of static appliances such as water pumps, stationary threshers, root cutters and hay lifts. All these required the services of either a horse or a pony, or even a donkey, to perform the long and boring task of walking endlessly in a circle, but today there is no place for horses on the land. Even the few jobs such as working in the confined rows of fruit or hop gardens - at one time the prerogative of the horse - have now been mechanised, and for all heavy work the tractor has long since superseded the horse. Fortunately, there are still a number of enthusiasts who enjoy working with horses and this has saved the heavy horse breeds from complete extinction. Indeed, by means of classes for heavy horses at Agricultural shows there remains a demand both in England as well as overseas for heavy horses.