Fowler Class Z7 Steam Ploughing Engine in 1:76 scale

[wefalck]

 

In the UK there is a real steam-engine scene, whole in continental Europe and much of the rest of the World these thingies may be only known as a historical phenomenon. Also, due to the industrial development lagging behind, they have not been as wide-spread, as in the UK. Having had the Matchbox model of a traction engine, I was aware of their existing from an early age on, even though I grew up in Germany, I certainly was not aware of the extensive 'steam scene' in the UK until I came to live there in 1987. I then attended various 'steam-fairs' and it turned out that the uncle of a colleague of mine actually had one ...

 

This model was built around 1989/90. I just got my watchmakers lathe, but building a working model was certainly out of scope at that time. I happened to chance upon the Keil-Kraft kit, which was still current then - the company faltered since then. Just at that time the monthly Model Engineer published a series on building a working model of a Fowler Z7 (HAINING, J.: Countryman‘s Steam - Fowler Class Z7S.- Model Engineer, 5 August 1988 - 1 June 1990.), which came very handy for detail drawings, particularly for the actual steam-engine. A local museum owned a Fowler Class BB1 ploughing engine which I could photograph and sketch for more 'typical' Fowler details - the makers followed their design practices independent of the size of the engine. The visits to various steam-fairs furnished further photographs of Fowler engines.

 

The assembled, but not yet painted model

 

The Keil-Kraft kit was ok with respect to the proportions and the principal structure, but lacked most of the technical details that are very visible on such engines. Most notably, there was big hole, were the two-cylinder compound engine is supposed to be. So most of these details were built from scratch in brass, steel, aluminium, Plexiglas, and styrene. The engine, of course, is not working, but the appearance of the engine, the gearing, the ploughing gear, etc. has been faithfully reproduced as far as it is possible at 1:76 scale.

 

 

Fowler was a very interesing and innovative company in the field and the market leader in steam-ploughing sets. A set consisted of two identical ploughing engines and a so-called balance-plough that was hauled between them across the field. The sets were expensive so that only very rich land-owners with large fields could afford them. Typically they were operated by contractors, who would move from farm to farm. Off-season they were employed in drainage work, pulling tree-stumps and everything, where a strong winding drum with a steel-cable was needed.

 

 

The winding drum has an interesting history and was the key innovation by Fowler. The invention was not made by John Fowler himself, but by a young German engineer, who came to the UK to learn and in search of work. Max Eyth also became an important sales engineer, first helping the Viceroy of Egypt to build up a cotton industry and later in his home country from where he worked also in Eastern Europe. In Germany he also became known as a writer through his memoirs and various novels.

 

Compound cyclinders with their drainage cocks, safety valve, and steam-operated whistle

 

The history of Fowler as a company is written up here:

 

LANE, M.R. (1980): The Story of the Steam Plough Works. Fowlers of Leeds.- 410 p., London (Northgate Publishing Co. Ltd.).

 

Fowler not only produced plouging engines and ploughs, but also a wide range of traction engines, locomotives, and other items.

 

 

 

The clutch-system to connect the winding drum to the steam-engine

 

Two-speed driving gear and clutch and boiler-feed injectors including water-hose

 

Driver's view

 

Driving stand with all the levers, valves and gauges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ccoyle]

Antique tractors and engines are still a big deal in the more rural, agrarian parts of the U.S. The town I grew up in has an annual rodeo, and antique tractors are featured every year.

[Jack12477]

See  New York Steam Engine Association . Canandaigua is in the heart of the Finger Lakes region of New York State

[lmagna]

I see that the operator had the foresight to put a pot for tea on the boiler casing but I see no cup to drink it from.

 

I have seen a couple of these steam tractors up close  and they are truly massive, although I don't think I have ever seen one as big as the one yours is modeled from.

Edited July 13, 2021 by lmagna

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work on the tractor and all the details.   I've looked several times now and still see something I missed previously.

[wefalck]

14 minutes ago, lmagna said:

I see that the operator had the foresight to put a pot for tea on the boiler casing but I see no cup to drink it from.

 

I have seen a couple of these steam tractors up close  and they are truly massive, although I don't think I have ever seen one as big as the one yours is modeled from.

Well, the driver has his tea-break with his emaille-mug, if you look carefully

 

The class Z7 was about the second biggest Fowler made. Their biggest was the Superba - several of them were ordered by the Mussolini-government to drain the Pontinian swamps south of Rome to get rid of the Malaria problem that plagued the city every summer.

 

I think some of the German sets that were custom-build to drain the fen-lands (before they were considered wetlands to be protected) in northern Germany and to allow peat extraction. After the peat was extracted, the remaining moorland was deep-ploughed with a single shear plough in one pass to a depth of five(!) meters. One of the ploughing engines and a plough have survived in the Emsland-Museum close to the Dutch border.

[realworkingsailor]

Nice Model! You just gotta love steam!

 

Some great steam tractor pulling can be found on Youtube:

 

 

Andy

[Egilman]

Antique tractors is a big deal here in the USA.... Not publicized much I know, but it is for those who appreciate them....

 

Gorgeous model, wonderous skill on display....

 

Very, Very well done!!!

Edited July 14, 2021 by Egilman

[Wacom]

Congratulations on producing a very realistic looking engine, a credit to uou.

[popeye the sailor]

a very detailed tractor........looks superb and nicely done!   

[Roger Pellett]

Wonderful work!  Just deciphering the complicated mechanism would be a major challenge let alone producing it.

 

As noted above, here in the US there are antique agricultural equipment shows throughout the US, usually in late summer and anything  steam powered becomes the star of the show.  

 

County fairs throughout the US often feature tractor pulling contests, which have resulted in some crazy custom equipment; multiple engines ,jet engines, etc.  I remember back in the late ‘50’s when this sport was in its infancy, internal combustion powered equipment had a hard time competing with the “steamers.”  When gas or diesel powered equipment approached their limit their engines would stall.  This was not a problem with steam as it would continue to push against the cylinders at very low speeds or even standing still.  As a result, least at our local fair in Ohio, the steamers were separated into their own class.

 

Roger

[wefalck]

Thanks for the kind words on this 30+ year old effort of mine

 

Here in Europe the term 'tractor' seems to be used only for IC-engine powered tractors, otherwise they are 'traction engines'. However, this is not a 'tractor', but rather a 'ploughing engine' as it does not pull the plough across the field directly, but rather by cable and winding drum:

 

From: http://fumtools.co.uk/product/ploughing-engine-and-steam-traction-engine-jumbo-fridge-magnet/:

 

And yes, the torque these engines can excert depends on the psi in the boiler and the cross-section of the cylinder(s) and not on rpms, which is why they survived for certain high-power applications (such as the deep-ploughing mentioned above) into the 1960s.

[JohnB40]

On the subject of Fowlers traction engines,here is a photo (from The British Tanks 1915-19 by David Fletcher) of an 1899 armored traction engine with armored trailer for transporting field guns. There were 3 trailers  in the train. The heat in the cab must have been overwhelming.

 

[realworkingsailor]

5 hours ago, wefalck said:

However, this is not a 'tractor', but rather a 'ploughing engine' as it does not pull the plough across the field directly, but rather by cable and winding drum:

I seem to recall an episode in the BBC Historic Farm series (can’t remember which season though, Victorian or Edwardian), where they demonstrated ploughing with one of those. Amazing to watch, but plenty of opportunities for the judicious mechanical removal of misplaced limbs!

 

Andy

[wefalck]

The Brits used armoured traction engines in the Boer Wars in the early 1900s and later during the early years of WW1. The problem with any kind of steam-engine in a war zone is, that even a direct hit with rifle bullet could lead to a catastrophic boiler explosion.

 

The first use of traction engines in war I am aware of was during the Franco-German war of 1870/71. It was an experiment for towing supply waggons and also heavy siege artillery as the one used around Paris. I think the experiment was quite successful as such, but met with reservation from senior generals, who were used to horses. The railway on the other hand played a major role in the strategic planning. At that time the traction engine engineering was still in its infancy. 

[realworkingsailor]

 

 

I haven’t yet been able to locate a clip from the BBC series, but I did find these YouTube videos of Fowlers ploughing. You can see how labour intensive, and time consuming this style of ploughing is (as evidenced in the second clip that momentarily jumps to a little bit more modern equipment in the form of a little red Nuffield, and a grey Ford 8N).

 

Andy

[wefalck]

I think they operated with a crew of 4: 2 drivers on the engines, 2 men on the balance-plough. In addition, the farmer/landowner had to provide a few hands to move the trolleys with which the idle cable was kept off the ground and a horse with driver to be harnessed to the water-cart that supplied the engines with boiler feed-water. He normally also had to supply the coal for the engines, I think. 

 

These ploughing teams would go across the country, one engine towing the plough and the other the living-van and the water-cart, the latter two also supplied by the engine manufacturers.

 

There is a 1970 book that describes the 'business' and some of the folklore around it:

 

HAINING, J., TYLER, C. (1970): Ploughing by Steam.- 360 p., Hemel Hempstead (Model & Allied Publications Ltd.).

 

In those pre-Covid days there were often steam-ploughing demonstrations at the big steam-fairs, such as the one in Dorset: https://www.gdsf.co.uk

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by wefalck

[Egilman]

50 minutes ago, realworkingsailor said:

I haven’t yet been able to locate a clip from the BBC series, but I did find these YouTube videos of Fowlers ploughing. You can see how labour intensive, and time consuming this style of ploughing is (as evidenced in the second clip that momentarily jumps to a little bit more modern equipment in the form of a little red Nuffield, and a grey Ford 8N).

Andy, it seems labor intensive until you remember what they were replacing.... A man with a horse and a single cutting plow.... That rig could do in 5 minutes what it would take a standard plow 30-60 minutes.... The Nuffield and Fordson tractors are showing why they were a revolution in farming, with a dual blade plow, (and the Fordson three point floating hitch) they could do in 5 minutes what the Fowler rig took 10, without the setup, and do it with only one man instead of a minimum of 6....

[wefalck]

However, soil scientists still think that steam-ploughing was better for the fertility of the soil, as going over the soil with heavy machinery compacts it increasingly, thus reducing its water retention capacity (the hydrologists call this field capacity) ... 

Edited July 20, 2021 by wefalck

[Egilman]

Yep that's one theory being promulgated today, one of many... But back then it was the industrial era and more efficiency meant bigger yields and more profits....

 

Not saying either point of view is correct, but quantity over quality is always more profitable.... (and very subjective)

Edited July 20, 2021 by Egilman

[bruce d]

20 hours ago, JohnB40 said:

... an 1899 armored traction engine with armored trailer for transporting field guns. There were 3 trailers  in the train. The heat in the cab must have been overwhelming.

Were those the machines used in South Africa? IIRC they were local conversions with boilerplate for armour. You may as well have boiled yourself in oil.

Edited July 20, 2021 by bruce d

[Roger Pellett]

Were these small tractors like the Ford really that much heavier than the towed rig shown in the video?  I can understand that the massive machines used today are.

[realworkingsailor]

1 hour ago, Egilman said:

Andy, it seems labor intensive until you remember what they were replacing.... A man with a horse and a single cutting plow.... That rig could do in 5 minutes what it would take a standard plow 30-60 minutes.... The Nuffield and Fordson tractors are showing why they were a revolution in farming, with a dual blade plow, (and the Fordson three point floating hitch) they could do in 5 minutes what the Fowler rig took 10, without the setup, and do it with only one man instead of a minimum of 6....

Absolutely. Not arguing that it wasn’t an improvement over the older method. Although I thinks there’s an old joke about having a good team of horses and the old farmer could just sit at the end of the field yelling “gee”

or “haw” every now and again.

I’ve done some ploughing myself, with an IH 384 and an ace bottom plough. No matter what, ploughing is a time consuming (but satisfying) process. 

Andy

[Canute]

It may have to do with the footprint of the tractor. There is a small point for each tire contacting the ground. The tractor weight, including the fluid inside each of those rear wheels, is concentrated in a very small area. [Yes I did say fluid in the wheels. Adds weight for traction. I forget what it is, but getting a puncture was a pita. Luckily, the tractor wheel mechs are traveling workshops to make repairs.] Heavy weigh, small footprint= high PSI, compacting the soils.

[popeye the sailor]

we had a tractor when we were kids........primarily used to cut and rake hay.   my older brother usually drove unless our dad wasn't working.   I recall many a time being on the cutter or rake.

[ccoyle]

Further to my observation about my hometown's rodeo, here's some images from this year's follow-up event, the "Hit 'n' Miss Engine" show.

 

[Canute]

Nice lineup, Chris. There is a cable/satellite TV channel here in the US called RFD-TV. It has several shows on a lot of this stuff.

[realworkingsailor]

On 7/23/2021 at 4:17 PM, ccoyle said:

Further to my observation about my hometown's rodeo, here's some images from this year's follow-up event, the "Hit 'n' Miss Engine" show.

 

As near as I can determine... Left to right:

 

J.I. Case model LA (1940-1953) or model 500 (1953-1956)

IH model 650 (1956-1958)

IH-McCormick Super W6 (1952-1954)

Allis-Chalmers styled WC (1938-1948) 

Massey-Harris possibly model 44 (1947-1953)

 

Andy

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by realworkingsailor

[Egilman]

58 minutes ago, realworkingsailor said:

Further to my observation about my hometown's rodeo, here's some images from this year's follow-up event, the "Hit 'n' Miss Engine" show.

Very good Andy I think you got them all.... Shame they don't have a Ford & Sons Model F there...... Fordson's (British name) don't get a lot of interest from the tractor collecting crowd and to be honest I don't understand why.... They were the Model "T" of the tractor world, hundreds of thousands of them being made in the US and Britain, (1917-64) It pioneered the frameless design used by most of the above.... 

 

The gentleman across the road from me has a running 9N on display.... 

 

They Then became the Ford-Ferguson, for the inventor of the revolutionary three point floating hitch, contracted to Fordson... Ferguson split with Ford and sold his own version, then was bought up by Massey to become 
Massey-Ferguson. today one of the biggest names in tractors in the world today.....

 

Henry Ford contributed much much more to the world than just affordable cars...

 

Kingsford charcoal briquets is another name not associated with Henry Ford...  The company, Ford Charcoal was created by Henry to make a product out of all the wood waste his auto plants were producing..  Along with it, the town of Kingsford, Michigan which formed around his original charcoal plant.... It was renamed Kingsford charcoal in 1951 when the charcoal plant was divested by Ford corporation. named in honor of Edward G. Kingsford, Ford's Real estate and timber agent and the first manager of the charcoal plant....

 

But I digress, sorry.... 

[wefalck]

" ... But I digress, sorry.... "

 

Yes, the original post was about steam-ploughing machinery