Home Page → Engines → Types of Traction Engine → Showmans Tractors
Showmans tractors were simply steam tractors with a front mounted dynamo, full length canopy and some form of electrical lighting. This as on their bigger showmans road locomotive counterparts was used to illuminate the engine whilst it was powering equipment on the fairground after dark.
Showmans tractors generally powered very small rides or illuminated stalls that were dotted around the fair. They were commonly used to haul packing trucks or perhaps an owners living van between fairs and were fast on the road.
Very few showmans tractors were constructed as such new. More likely they were standard steam tractors which were converted to showmans specification later in their career. A sizeable number of tractors and road rollers have been converted to showmans tractors during preservation times such is their popularity and the romance of the work genuine examples undertook.
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