Friday, April 5, 2024

Weekend Steam: Firing A Best Traction Engine

 Merle sent the link to this channel back in December, and we are just getting around to posting it. There are a lot of good channels on YouTube, and MrShoptaw is one of them. Click his video over to YouTube and hit his subscribe button! Thank You, Merle!

1 comment:

John in Philly said...

That is a large and odd looking machine.

I found a short description at the Caterpillar website.
https://www.caterpillar.com/en/news/caterpillarNews/history/daniel-best-builds-his-first-steam-traction-engine-tractor.html

A longer description from the California Agriculture Museum.
https://www.californiaagmuseum.org/best-steam-tractor

This is the Best Tractor at the Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont, California.
https://www.farmcollector.com/steam-engines/best-steam-tractor-zm0z16deczhur/#:~:text=The%20Best%20formerly%20on%20display,the%20top%20of%20the%20smokestack

This short video show a red Best tractor at around the 0:41 second mark.

I wonder if the height and motion made the operator's seasick until they got used to it.