Streams of black smoke and grey steam

With everything else that needs doing on a Saturday I really didn’t have time to go out in the afternoon. But my brother wanted to go to a steam raising, so after lunch (bread rolls, ham, cheese, current buns, cups of tea) we drove about ten miles to a remote field (several acres in extent, enclosed by hawthorn hedges that had been left to become high and unkempt). About a hundred cars were parked on the rough meadow. We walked over to where thirty or so traction engines were arranged, owners, enthusiasts and admirers milling round them. There was a strong smell of soot, with streams of black smoke and grey steam propelled upwards into the sky and carried off in the brisk cool wind. The noise of trundling wheels and hissing steam was so loud we could hardly talk to each other.

The elemental nature of the fire and steam made the machines seem almost alive. Each of the engines was soundly constructed, appearing unmarked by the passage of time. If oil ever does run out, I thought, here is a technology waiting to reassert itself.





















(Above): Traction engines are steam engines that move. They were originally designed to pull loads along ordinary roads (and should properly be called road locomotives). They were also widely used in agriculture.




















(Above): Traction engines were all built by hand, and represent engineering at its best. When a traction engine moves along a metalled road it makes a loud clattering noise that can be heard long before the machine actually appears. Lots of them have names (similar to battleships: Dreadnought, Prince of Wales, Carlisle).