Steam Engines

There were 52 eangines on display at the 2011 rally three of which were locally built engines by Alchin of the Globe works at South Bridge in Far Cotton, Northampton. Allen Eaton’s Rebel, Richard Poole’s Evedon Lad are both regulars which were joined this year by Mary and Matthew Sproxton’s Old Bill which has been in the same family since new.

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.   – text font changes half way through

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 modern 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 Lorry.  

Go to the Gallery in the "About Us" tab to see more photos of Steam Engines and Steam Vehicles at Hollowell.