Traction Engines and Tractors
Note: For more info on industrial machines see also 'Lineside Industries - Industrial and agricultural vehicles and equipment', this section relates only to the rail connected factories. Agricultural equipment associed with tractors is covered separately under 'Lineside Industries - Farming Related Industries - Farm Machinery and Agricultural Engineers'. For more illustrations of the equipment see also 'Wagon Loads & Materials Handling - Road vehicles and Farm Equipment'.
Steam 'traction engines' for use hauling waggons on roads were built by W. Hancock in the 1830's and J.R. and A. Ransome in the 1840's but it was the machines offered in the 1850's, notably those of Charles Burrel and Thomas Aveling, which saw them gain widespread acceptance. These machines could haul several waggons along any reasonable road, they could be fitted with cranes and a drive belt taken from the flywheel or a purpose designed drive wheel on the boiler side could be used to power other machinery. The photograph below shows a typical example of one of the larger machines, inset right is a photograph of the driving position on a similar machine.
Fig ___ Steam traction engine
Although production wound up in the early 1930s traction engines were long lived machines, some built for agricultural use remained in operation (towing trailers about or operating farm machinery) into the 1950s. Several were then retained by larger farms and estates to serve as steam heating units, mainly for large agricultural or market garden greenhouses.
The first petrol powered farm tractor was built in America in 1892, the first British farm tractor was the three-wheeler Ivel of 1903 (developed by a bicycle maker in Birmingham). By the time of the First World War there were quite a few tractors on the market but farmers being a conservative bunch there were few at work in the fields.
Saunderson (established in the 1890s with a factory in Bedford) was the biggest British manufacturer.
Fig ___ A Saunderson Universal Tractor tractor from about 1914
Horses and oxen were still in widespread use but the demands of war left the farms short of both labourers and horses and the Government asked the Americans for assistance. The tractors which arrived from America were mainly built by International Tractor. These machines would look familiar today, they have the standard arrangement of two larger wheels at the rear with two smaller wheels in line with these at the front, but the 'tyres' on the rear wheels were plain metal with diagonal metal ribs across them.
At the time a lot of farm equipment such as threshing machines and the like was driven by belts, usually from a steam traction engine or portable (tow-able) steam engine. The petrol tractors often had flywheel like arrangements to either side of the bonnet to drive the belts on this kind of equipment.
Fig ___ Steam roller driving a stone crusher at a road mending job in the 1940s
The hard times of the 1930's left many farms bankrupt and delayed investment in tractors. By the time of the Second World War much farmland was idle but the farmers lacked the men and resources to plough it under for crops. Again the Americans helped by sending tractors, the most common type this time was built by Fords.
One odd design we got from America was the 'row crop' tractor, which had either a single wheel at the front, or (as shown below left) a pair of wheels close together. The example below left is a 1932 Farmall F 20 (produced by International Harvester who had pioneered this design in the 1920s), the example on the right is a John Deere type with pneumatic tyres. As part of lend-lease scheme the UK recieved examples of the older steel wheeled type and some of the more modern pneumatic tyred machines during the war but as far as I am aware there were no British firms producing this design of tractor.
I am grateful to Steven Spall for clarifying the range of tractor colours used in the UK as outlined below:
Fordson (the commercial wing of Ford) tractors were grey until 1932 when production moved from Cork in Southern Ireland to Dagenham and they changed to a dark blue (similar in shade to the Graham Farish LNER sand wagon) with light grey exhausts (the blue Fordson N was the most common tractor in the UK in the pre-war era). Allis Chalmers and Cases were orange John Deare's was green, International harvesters and Massey Harris's (or the later Massey-Ferguson tractors) were red but there were very few Massey Harris's in the UK. By far (and I do mean by far) the most common tractor was the Fordson N this was blue for most of it's run except for those built just before (orange) and during (green) the war. I would advise you that for model purpose's tractors between 1932 and 1957 are blue. You can hitch it to steam stuff, horse stuff, tractor stuff or anything. The post war Ferguson tractors were grey, these had a hydraulic linkage for equipment (discussed below) but a lot of farmers did not take the Ferguson's on straight away because they could not use existing equipment.
Marshalls 'Field Marshall' tractors seem to have appeared in a range of liveries, I have seen 1930s examples in dark green, with post war types in dark green and orange. I believe they were brown and cream in the 1970s and early 1980s.
An Irish engineer by the name of Ferguson believed that the tool (plough, harrow etc) should be firmly attached to the rear of the tractor. He worked on this idea and went into partnership with David Brown to produce a tractor based on his principles. As hydraulics improved Ferguson incorporated these into his machines. He switched partnerships to Ford in 1939 but in 1947 that ended and Mr Ferguson then had his own design of tractor (the popular TE-20) built by Stadard Motors with his clever 'three point linkage' on the rear. There were about 20 attachments for the system, from ploughs and harrows to post hole drills and even a circular saw. Three Ferguson TE20 tractors, fitted with a third idler wheel on each side and caterpillar tracks, made the first motorised trip to the South Pole in the winter of 1957/58.
Fig ___ The Ferguson with hydraulic three point linkage
The Fergie was not a big machine, about nine and a half feet long [292 cm], just over five feet wide [161 cm] and about four and a half feet tall [132 cm]. You could fit one on a one plank dropside wagon, two on a longer wheelbase plate wagon. In 1957 Ferguson merged with Massey Harris and the firm became Massey Ferguson, one of the most successful tractor companies in the world.
The 'caterpillar' tractor is not a new idea, Holts in the USA and Hornsby in the UK built steam and petrol engined machines before World War One but most went for export and caterpillar tracked agricultural tractors, although produced in the 1930s, were little used on UK farms until after World War Two (mainly ex military small machines), the small type shown below is (I believe) a 1930s agricultural type.
Small agricultural crawler tractor
see 'Appendix One - Roads and road traffic - Introduction, Licensing, Wheels, Suspension, Brakes and Transmission' for photos of larger machines of this type..
Several of the larger commercial vehicle firms built tractors at one time or another, they were used for a range of industrial duties as well as the agricultural jobs. From the 1930s to the 1950s some local authorities used tractors, fitted with road tyres and usually a cab, in place of horses to tow bin-lorry trailers and other corporation owned equipment about the place.
By the 1970's Britain had the highest density of tractors and the highest number of tractors per head of population in the world. Oddly enough in France, an unquestionably industrialised country, has one of the lowest proportion of tractors in Europe, but it does have the largest number of cows per head of population.
Modelling a Traction Engine or Tractor Works
Traction engines and tractors were produced in relatively small numbers in (comparatively) small factories, these can be represented with a long low building on the backscene with a siding or two in front. Traction engines came in a range of sizes, the smallest were probably small and light enough to ride on a one plank wagon but the photos I have seen all show them on drop centre wagons. This was probably because of the available methods of unloading them. To get the traction engine on and off the railway wagon either an end loading dock or a fairly hefty crane is required, at the receiving end the end loading dock would probably be used as few country yards had cranes big enough to lift a traction engine.
To dress the scene W&T offer a pair of Fowler ploughing engines with a 'cultivator' as a set, most of the traction engine works also built farm machinery so the cultivator is also useful set dressing. I would suggest having one engine made up and ready to go with the second used to add the clutter. The boiler can have the cab cut away and be mounted on brick supports as a stationary engine for the works, and the cable drum can be used as an item of clutter in the yard. The redundant front and rear wheels can be propped up against a wall as 'spares' (in the photos I have seen there were usually one or two pairs of wheels propped up in the yard). A heavy trailer would be likely at the works, to move heavy bits of kit about the place and for sale as a rolling chassis. A simple option is to trim off the flanges from a set of Peco wagon wheels and add a basic body on top (the Peco axle is a bit thick for an open frame chassis), the drawbar can be bent up from wire (ses also 'Wagon Loads & Materials Handling - Road vehicles and Farm Equipment' for an illustration of such a chassis used for a furniture removals van).
Traffic inwards would include boiler plate and girder sections but mostly fairly small pieces. There would be a foundry and forge at the works (both discussed separately), so occasional loads of pig iron might turn up (see also 'Wagon Loads & Materials Handling - Metals' for notes on modelling pig iron loads). Another option would be a piled high and sheeted load of hay or straw for the works horses. I have shown a kick-back siding for deliveries of coal for the factory boiler, this is heaped beside the boiler house. Outgoing would be the finished equipment going to the customer.
Fig ___ Traction engine works
The gantry crane shown in the sketch above would be optional but helps suggest a serious works, the rather rustic example shown below was at an agricultural engineers works and was probably only in the three ton class, a more substantial metal type would probably be more likely in this case but you could opt for a simple jib-and-cab type.
Heavier industries found that a mobile crane was often useful, the steam example shown below left is typical for a larger works. By the later 1930s petrol cranes were commonplace, one popular machine born in the 1930s which served well into the 1970s was the Chaseside crane, a modified tractor fitted with a fixed jib. Even a small works might have one of these smaller petrol cranes.
Fig ___ Steam mobile crane and Chaseside petrol crane
Pre 1980s petrol and diesel tractors are small enough that they could be side-loaded onto open wagons from a loading bank, or craned on (larger hand cranes could manage this but a powered types is I think more likely at a works). At the docks and railway goods yards tractors were commonly lifted on and off wagons using a crane and a simple hand operated 'yard crane' probably did the same job at some smaller railway stations, but a simple raised loading bank would allow the tractors to drive onto the railway wagons from the side.
Langley offer both modern and period (1940's-1960's) agricultural tractors and use these to offer a ground preparation scene and a harvesting scene with additional models of farm equipment. For the 1940s onward you will need a few tractors to line up in the yard awaiting despatch, as with the traction engines canibalising one or two provides you with clutter in the form of engine units, axles and wheels for set dressing.
Traffic into the works would include some metal bar and sheet but the engines would be supplied in cases of crates, as would a lot of the other fittings used to build the machines.
Tractors may have been shipped out often as one-offs, probably on a simple one plank wagon, however larger factories would send them out in batches, I gather in the 1950s rakes of plate wagons carrying pairs of Massey Ferguson tractors were a common sight emerging from Trafford Park in Manchester. In the post war era a rake of perhaps four or five one-plank wagons, each carrying a single tractor for export, might be seen heading for the docks. For examples of tractors as wagon loads see also Wagon Loads and Materials Handling - Road Vehicles, Industrial and Farm Machinery.
The sketch below is (loosely) based on the post war David Brown factory in Huddersfield, the prototype was not rail connected. Tractors ready for shipping were parked in the large timber shed shown on the left, for which I have added a loading bank. The deliveries to the factory are handled in the extension at the front of the building, which would contain a crane for heavier gear such as back axles, steel bar for the chassis etc. I have shown a kick-back siding for deliveries of fuel oil for the factory boiler, this is stored in Ratio type tanks to the right of the boiler house. This leaves a small area for clutter, perhaps a factory tractor, a couple of large rear tractor wheels and an empty packing case or two.
Fig ___ Tractor factory
Tractor builders often also produced other farm and industrial equipment which can be used to add variety to the scene, and to outgoing wagon loads. At the very least a trailer or two would help add a sense of industry (see also Lineside Industries - Farming Related Industries - Agricultural Engineers' for other possible products). Also not all tractors were for agricultural use, you might well see one or two equipped with mudguards and even a cab intended for industrial users.The example shown below was intended for use towing aircraft about at airfields.
Fig ___ A 1950s David Brown industrial tractor
Some industrial tractors were fitted with much smaler wheels, these were used as tugs to haul trailers about in the works. The example shown was used at a factory dealing in copper in the 1950s, similar machines might appear at the works for internal use or ready for shipment. By making one of these from a kit, using the front wheels for the rear and adding a disc under the front for the third wheel, you get a set of rear wheels for set dressing the scene.
Fig ___ Three wheel industrial tractor about 1950
Up to the 1970s tractors were dangerous machines, if a wheel went into the ditch they were top heavy and would roll over, the driver was supposed to 'jump clear' if this happened. It is therefore unsurprising that few agricultural tractors were fitted with any kind of cab, although those built for industrial or road use, with smooth road going rear tyres, were often cabbed. There were exceptions, the illustration below, taken from a 1950s advert, shows a cab available for agricultural tractors.
Fig ___ Add-on cab for agricultural tractors
Thereafter health and safety legislation, coupled with a demand from farmers, saw the development of the 'roll over protection system' or ROPS, essentially a roll cage for tractors. These became a legal requirement in 1970 (the alternative was a 'safety cab' which served the same function), early designs were often just an open frame but by the later 1970s a cab was increasingly the norm and from the mid 1980s the cabs had to be built to reduce the noise as well. The example below is a Nuffield with an early design of safety cab.
Fig ___ Nuffield tractor with safety cab
Another fairly common product from tractor firms was the 'skid unit', essentially a bare bones tractor sold without wheels, usually supplied strapped to a timber or steel pallet or 'skid' (hence the name). These were then modified by the customer to produce unusual designs such as half tracks and four wheel drive cranes. The early JCB back-hoe front loaders used Fordson skid units, changing to Nuffield and then British Leyland 'skid units' from 1968 until the later 1970s. This means you can have a wagon load without wheels fitted and the wheels can then be used for set dressing the factory scene (the small wheels can be used to make a trailer, the large rear wheels propped up against the factory wall).
1960s Fordson skid unit
Tractor companies who made their own engines (which many did) would also sell the engine itself as a 'skid unit', the example below is a Fordson portable generator on a metal skid, using their standard tractor engine, By using a standard engine it made the spares and repairs easier for farmers and other users.
Fordson generator skid unit
Tractor companies produced anything they thought they could sell, the example below is a David Brown fork lift from the later 1970s, based on their standard tractor. The driving position is reversed, so the machine is now rear-wheel steering.
David Brown fork lift
Some Notable British Traction Engine and Tractor Manufacturers
Richard Garrett & Sons Ltd., established in the eighteenth century and based at Leiston in Suffolk. This company was famous for its traction engines (introduced in 1857, the last was built in 1931) and later for steam lorries but also built tow-able portable steam engines and threshing machines and (in the 1920s) electric vehicles and trolley busses. Got into difficulties in the early 1940s and was taken over by Beyer Peackock & Company (based at Gorton in Manchester) and renamed Richard Garrett Engineering Works Ltd. The Leiston works finally closed in 1985.
Charles Burrell and Sons Ltd. established in the mid 18th century was a notable traction engine manufacturer. Based at Thetford in Norfolk their machines were noted for being of very high quality, however they could not compete effectively and effectively closed down in the early 1930s. The example below is a Burrel 'compound', the detail view shows the high and low pressure cylinders.
Fowler Based in Leeds and probably best known for the steam ploughing equipment, a pair of ploughing engines and a cultivator in N are available as white metal kits from W&T. The illustration below shows a Fowler ploughing engine and a large balance plough, these ploughs continued in regular use (although often hauled by tractors rather than steam ploughing engines) into the 1960's.
Marshall, Sons & Co. Based in Gainsborough were manufacturers of a range of steam tractors and engines as well as agricultural equipment, notably threshing machines.
The companies early attempt at an Internal combustion engined tractor was the huge Marshall Colonial of 1908 but it was really only from 1930 they became a major tractor manufacturer with their Field Marshall range based on a German (Lanz Bulldog) diesel engined tractor design with a large and distinctive exhaust. The example shown below is a Series 2 machine from 1947 by which time the exhaust was even larger (the earlier design had a very box like flat fronted engine compartment with a large hemispherical air filter mounted on top).
They also worked with Fowlers of Leeds to produce a successful range of tracked tractors marketed as Marshall Fowler Ltd. some of which appear to be a tracked version of the diesel tractor shown above. The caterpillar side of the business was sold off to British Leyland in the mid 1970s. This was a difficult time for the company and other parts of the Marshall group were also sold off at about this time. In the early 1980s they bought out Leyland Tractors, at which time the Marshall colour scheme was cream and brown. In 1985 Marshalls went into receivership, tractor production was sold to Bentall Simplex and production moved to Scunthorpe, till they folded.
Saunderson Established in the 1890s with a factory in Bedford was the biggest British tractor manufacturer before, during and after the First World War (see also illustration above).
The slump in agriculture after World War One saw many British tractor firms disappear, Saunderson was bought out by the Crossley Bros in 1924, but they kept it going as Crossley's (although this was in competition with Crossley Motors). The business was sold off in the 1930s and became Bedford Plough and Engineering (not I believe making tractors), the Bedford plant closed in the 1970s.
Overtime Farm Tractor Co There were a number of tractor manufacturers in the early years, many failed in World War one but Overtime Farm Tractor Co lasted into the 1920s. The illustration shows their offering of 1918. Compared to the 1914 Saunderson this machine has a distinctly vintage appearance but tractors of this type soldiered on into the later 1930s.
Austin Built a small range of paraffin engined tractors from around the time of the First World War until the later 1920s, when they moved production to France. The example shown below was photographed at a show in 2009.
David Brown This company, based in Huddersfield, was primarily a gearbox manufacturer (they built the gearing for the rotating restaurant on the GPO tower in London) but in 1936 they agreed to manufacture tractors for Harry Ferguson, marketed as the Brown Ferguson. They built a factory at Meltham (West Yorkshire) and eventually developed their own engines for the machines (early machines used Coventry Climax engines). The illustration below shows the grey Brown Ferguson from the mid 1930s with all-metal wheels.
This arrangement came to an end in 1939 when Ferguson did a deal with Ford to produce the Ford Ferguson range (starting with the Fordson N series) but David Brown continued tractor making. During the war they built tractors with mudguards and front and rear bumpers for the RAF, used to tow aircraft and bomb trolleys about, often with twin rear wheels to prevent damage to the airfield surface. The example illustrated below is a mid 1950s machine intended for airfield use.
In the immediate post war era they were the largest tractor building firm in the UK.
The example shown below was photographed at a show in 2009.
From 1947 until 1972 they owned Aston Martin and Lagonda (producing the DB series of Aston Martin cars) but the car business did not prosper and they sold it on to Company Developments Limited. David Brown tractors were painted a purple red plum colour, this faded over time to an orangey slightly grey colour, in the 1970s some tractors had a pale cream body around the engine with the plum colour on a stripe bearing the company name. They got into difficulties in the early 1970s when Rolls Royce had problems as David Brown supplied the gears for their engines. In the later 1970s they were bought by Tenneco Corporation who integrated their range with the Case tractor range, later with the recently purchased International Harvester brand, the David Brown brand ended in the later 1980s when Case became the standard name.
Fordson (the commercial wing of Ford). Tractors were originally made at their works in Cork in Southern Ireland (starting in 1913) by 1917 they had developed the Fordson F and production was dedicated to supplying the UK (where farms were very short handed due to the Great War). Between 1917 and 1928 over 750,000 Model F tractors were sold, more than any other tractor before or since. Fordson painted their tractors from Cork grey but when they moved to their big factory in Dagenham in the early 1930s when they changed to a dark blue (similar in shade to the Graham Farish LNER sand wagon) with light grey exhausts. The blue Fordson N was the most common tractor in the UK in the pre-World War Two era. The examples shown below are (I think) 'N's. The orange example is immediate pre-world war two, the green one was built during the war. Both were photographed at a show in 2009). The grey pipe on the left is the exhaust, the green pipe with the dome on top on the right is the air filter.
From 1939 until 1947 they produced the Ford Ferguson, using the three point hydraulic linkage developed by Harry Ferguson and I think these were painted Ferguson grey. This agreement was terminated abruptly by Ford in 1947, making Mr Ferguson a very rich man in the resulting court case. The machine shown below was one of the early all-big-wheel tractors, this one being the Fordson County Super 4 from the early 1960s.
Ferguson Mr Ferguson was the first Irishman to build and fly his own aeroplane (a monoplane in 1919), he also dabbled in racing car design but then concentrated on agricultural equipment. He developed a plough that could be mounted on a Model T Ford chassis in 1913 that sold well, The first machines were called Ferguson Brown (illustrated above under David Brown), released in the mid 1930s they took a while to catch on. From 1939 they were built by Fords and sold as Ford Ferguson, an agreement which ended in 1947 and resulted in Mr Ferguson getting a multi million pound court settlement. Mr Ferguson then had his own design of tractor, the popular TE-20 built by Standard Motors (over half a million were built). The Ferguson T20 of 1952 was released in a purpose built 'industrial' version, complete with mudguards over the front wheels and larger then usual mudguards on the rear wheels. Note that the front mudguards were removable, they had to be taken off if the 'front loader' bucket attachment was used).
Fig ___ A 1952 Ferguson T20 Industrial tractor from an advert of the time
In 1957 Ferguson merged with Massey-Harris to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson Co., the name changed to Massey Ferguson Ltd in 1958, concentrating on agricultural machinery including a successful range of tractors and combine harvesters.
Massey Harris and Massey Ferguson Massey Harris was a Canadian company (the largest agricultural equipment maker in the British Empire), they began making tractors in the 1920s when they bought out the Case plough company who had one in their range. Tractors have always been only a part of the business and in 1946 they took over the former Ford tractor factory at Trafford Park in Manchester (itself a former tram building site) to make agricultural machinery and their own range of tractors. In 1957 they merged with Ferguson to form Massey Harris Ferguson, making tractors as part of their range of farm equipment. The name changed to Massey Ferguson in 1958. The illustration shows the Model 35, the first type produced in connection with Ferguson in the 1950s.
The firm ran into difficulties in the 1970s but in spite of several changes of ownership Massey Ferguson has been the world's leading tractor brand since the 1960s and remains so today.
Nuffield tractors appeared in 1948 with the Nuffield Universal. This was an arm of the BMC organisation and production was based at Bathgate. Nuffield tractors were painted an orange-red colour (officially called 'poppy red', it may be that the examples I saw had faded paint jobs). The illustration shows a 1954 Nuffield Universal. The company was bought out by British Leyland in 1969 and re branded as Leyland Tractors. The Bathgate factory closed in about 1981.
Leyland Tractors this firm came into existence in the late 1960s and painted their tractors in a two-tone blue of the Leyland corporate colour scheme. In 1981 the business was sold to Marshall's and production moved from Bathgate to Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. The example shown below has a safety cab fitted.
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