Steam on the Land

Please educate me on the ploughing setup with the engine sideways on the "headland" of the field in the OP. Would the winching attachment that is under slung on the engine be an aftermarket implement so to speak, or something that was factory fitted to a purpose built machine? It looks like it would be a heavy handful to fit!

Also, I think I heard once that that sort of ploughing work was mostly done by contractors - correct?

 

Ploughing engines were certainly purpose-built, being larger, heavier, wider and with a lower centre of gravity than "ordinary" agricultural traction engines. They needed to be heavy to prevent them being pulled sideways when winching, though this sometimes happened anyway if the ground was wet, in which case convenient hedgerow oak trees could come in handy as anchors. A major drawback of steam ploughing, especially on "heavy", i.e. clay, land was that in wet weather they could become totally bogged-down, a serious problem, as in the hay-day of agricultural steam there was nothing else with sufficient power to rescue them. The only way out was to use the winch, multiplying the pull by using snatch blocks and either ground anchors or, if you were lucky, convenient trees. My father used to relate the time when his father hired a pair of ploughing engines, shortly after WW1, on the family farm near Rochford in Essex. The cost made the operation marginal in any case, but when one of them got bogged down the resulting chaos persuaded him never to use steam plowing again. Thereafter all ploughing was done with horses, until the first tractor arrived at the beginning of WW2.

A ploughing set was an extremely expensive bit of kit and could cover so much ground in a relatively short time that only the very largest farm businesses could justify owning one. As a result, steam ploughing was almost exclusively done by contractors.

 

Thankyou flaman for that excellent reply

The problem of mud and machine just won't go away it seems. I work in agriculture and when one of our two largest John Deere tractors gets bogged it is pretty much game over until a 20t excavator can be brought in. Oh the chains we have snapped...!

 

Oh dear, that's not supposed to happen with a John Deere!

 

Going back to last in use, when I used to volunteer at Arley on Thomas weekends we used to have a local farmer bring his traction engine over to masquerade as 'Trevor'. This was in the late 1990's but I recall he still used it as a working peice of kit on his farm, it's appearance was far from pristine, it was very much a working machine, I remember being allowed to drive it out the yard at Arley down the hill towards the river, turn it round then back up the hill to the station, quite an experience for a 14 year old lad!

 

Not quite "steam on the land" but interesting nonetheless, in 1991 I saw a Ransome threshing machine being used in Northern Portugal. It was being powered by a tractor that had a driving pulley that emerged from just in front and below the steering wheel and the crew had jacked up the front axle and removed the offside wheel to allow the belt to pass to the threshing box. To my everlasting regret, I didn't stop and take a photograph.
I wonder when threshing ceased in the UK?

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

 

Commercial threshing still takes place in this country as it is the only way to get the thatching straw for house roofs etc.

 

Portugal is (or at least was; I haven't been for years) somewhat behind the rest of Europe in terms of agricultural technology. In 1998 I went to the Expo in Lison and as well as getting some class 1400 loco haulage, my two abiding memories of the trip are of the train whizzing along with the doors open and kids hanging out (well, it was hot), and of seeing from the train window an old woman ploughing a field with an ox.

 

Or ahead of it....................

That old ladys going to be OK when the oil runs out

BTW I don't know about anyone else but the dating ads seem to have been replaced by ones for Tractors............. Does this thread have anything to do with it or was it a visit to The Landworkers Alliance site?

 

You're seeing adverts for steam tractors?

That's tidy!
Would they be for the new build Foster Steam Tractors that are available now?

 

These are the tractors I have an interest in, wonderful pieces of kit.

 

Billy Griffiths' Ruston tractor

 

Ah right, yes. A nice characterful engine, not seen out and about all that much.

 

So any idea how many steam traction engines are active in preservation in the UK?

 

Some 3000 or so road steamers of all kinds are still extant in the UK, probably around 1000 or so steamable at any one time, from fire pumps to steam lorries.

There's a book, the Traction Engine Register, which lists all those that are known about

 

The National Traction Engine Trust issue in the order of 3,000 of their voluntary insurance discs each year. This is in the style of a tax disc and represents independent confirmation that an engine is covered by an appropriate insurance policy and a boiler cert issued by an inspector who holds professional indemnity insurance.

Many engines will have two discs issued in a year as their insurance and boiler ticket expire at different times, but not all owners can be bothered with that so some don't get a second, and then some years an engine won't need a boiler inspection because the 14 months from the previous year will carry them all through the current year's "season". As it is a totally voluntary scheme there are also many owners who choose not to participate and thus don't have a disc at all (it doesn't replace or carry the weight of actual certificates, but many event organisers respect it the same as proper certs), but if you half the 3,000 then that could give a rough indication across both full size and miniature road going steam vehicles of the number operational in a given year, which will include traction engines, steam rollers, steam tractors, ploughing engines, steam road locomotives, steam waggons, fire pumps, steam fairground rides, steam cars etc.

However that is a very rough figure. There are further engines that operate at museums, engines whose owners don't take them to (m)any public events, instead they'll enjoy them as and when they please where ever they please. That's the joy of road steam - it's yours to do with as you want, when you want, where ever you want, with whoever you want.

 

I like the sound of that. Trouble is I can only afford a Mamod!

 

Yeah, that is the down side - such freedom does come at a price: The owner foots all bills for running and repair, and if you have a problem at the side of the road miles from anywhere there's no phoning up for a thunderbird diesel to rescue you - make do and mend to limp on as much as possible, or call in favours from others you know.

For some the relam of miniatures is preferred over full size. That can be from 3/4" to the foot (about Mamod size) all the way up to 6" to the foot (ie half size). They aren't necessarily cheaper, some miniatures sell for more than a basic full size roller, but transport can be easier for smaller stuff. Whilst Sentinel waggons and steam cars might trundle along at over 30mph, a humble roller might do well to average 3 or 4mph on a reasonable journey. To go longer distances or to avoid spending excessive time driving from place to place many people own their own low loader, which brings with it the initial cost of a category C+E license and vehicle purchase, not to mention on going repair and MOT tests (and fuel). Most miniatures will either go in a car, van or a trailer behind a 4x4. Whilst full size engines have been squeezed in a variety of front and back gardens, many will have to rent space to keep them at farms/yards and the such like, whereas a miniature will go in your garden shed or garage. There is of course a big difference in 'experience' between sitting behind or on a miniature and being 'on' a full size engine though, some people just don't like the little 'uns.

Most owners will tend to have others help them - these days it's considered fairly normal for all engines to be driven by a crew of two (driver and a steersperson) even when the engine could be legitimately driven by a single person on their own. This is where it gets more tricky for people who are enthusiastic and would like to get involved, but don't know anyone with an engine. In most cases owners will already have people they are friends with who already help them out, so you don't tend to come across adverts for assitants. It's not like a railway where you can turn up and write your name down and be fairly sure that if you stick at it long enough you'll eventually be doing something on an engine. With road steam you basically have to become friends with an owner, and even if someone introduces you, if you don't make friends with that person then you're probably not going to get much chance to play with their engine! If you conquer that bit and get involved helping, then you'll probably end up getting known and friendly with other local owners and could find yourself invited to help with other engines as well on occasion. It's all very different to railways, both in how they're run and organised.

 

You left out what one owner told me a few years ago, owning an engine is a guaranteed way of causing severe anorexia of the bank account, probably the reason why most have their own engineering facility. I wouldn't use the term steersperson within earshot of a steam man, its steersman regardless.

 

Lol.

That doesn't have to be the case, but you're right it can be expensive - cost is a relative thing depending on how much you've got (or haven't).

One quite nice thing is a common love of steam can be a great leveller. There are some owners who undoutedly have an awful lot of money, either directly at their disposal or tied up in their businesses and property, but then there are also owners who have fairly 'normal' average jobs on modest wages. They'll happily talk to each other on equal terms, and once you're standing in a dirty boilersuit cursing a clinkered fire it doesn't much matter how rich you are. Yes, some owners will tend to employ others to carry out maintenance and repair work which isn't necessarily cheap, but then there are others who will roll their sleeves up and do it themselves, either because they enjoy doing it or simply because they can't afford anything else. Having your own engineering company is nice, but unusual. Many will have a lathe and possibly milling machine, but that is likely to be the extent of their facilities, and even then not guaranteed. It's possible to own and maintain an engine without even that. It's often possible to beg machine time on other people's equipment who you get friendly with for odd repairs and replacements.

Annual costs aren't necessarily eye watering. A boiler cert is less than road tax on a modern(ish) car, insurance is less than a modern(ish) car. Fuel cost will vary, if it's a quick engine like a steam tractor or waggon then you'll spend only a fraction of the time on the road that a slow engine will, so you'll only burn a fraction of the coal. Steam coal is about £280 / tonne at the moment, so a slow roller could be burning about £2.50 to £3 per mile.

Boiler work can be very expensive, especially if it's contracted out to others, but none of it is rocket science, it's all pretty basic metal bashing. I've put a new barrel, smokebox, tubeplate and re-stayed firebox working on my own outdoors in the corner of a field. Material costs weren't too excessive and were spread across the 18 months it took me. I took it to a friend's to do the riveting, where they and my father helped (easier to rivet as a team of three than on your own!), I then used my friend's lathe to screw cut all the stays before I fitted and donked them. I did keep tabs on the cost, the bottom line is it was a few thousand pounds (4 or 5?), but that's a fraction of the cost getting someone else to do it would have cost (10+). For those interested there are a few of my snaps in <this flickr album> (sorry for the selfies in there).

Each to their own.
I'd be interested to know what the definition of a "steam man" is - clearly you consider I don't qualify.