Steam traction engines near Stenton Forest
Forestry Commission copyright image of Forest Research photographs courtesy of Glenn Brearley, Roslin. A1126
A pair of steam traction engines with cable winding gear ploughing a very steep field with 5-6 furrow plough on the cable. Registration of one is DO2239 and the other may be BL8290.
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Groups: Forest Research, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines
Group: Forestry in Action - 1908 pictures
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Steam Traction Engines near Stenton Forest
Pictures 2246 & 2247, Forest Research
“A pair of steam traction engines with cable winding gear ploughing a very steep field with 5-6 furrow plough on the cable. Registration of one is DO2239 and the other may be BL8290.” 1957
As you have correctly identified, the registration numbers are DO 2239 (front) and BL 8290 (rear). I assume Stenton Forest is near to Dunbar?
These are steam ploughing engines built by John Fowler at the Steam Plough Works, Leathley Road, Leeds. They worked in pairs, pulling the implement to-and-fro between them by a cable which was wound around a winding drum beneath the boiler. The drum can be seen clearly in the second photograph.
Fowlers built many classes of engines from 1862 and both of these are 18hp Class AA7 two-cylinder compound engines. Their partners would have been positioned at the other side of the ground being worked by the plough “ up to 600 yards away. This is recorded as the drum size for each engine.
From the engine records, the engine on the right DO 2239 is works number 15566 which was completed in June 1920 and delivered new to The Holbeach Steam Ploughing Company in Lincolnshire with its partner, number 15565. After one maybe two subsequent owners, in the late 1940s the pair were bought by Sir James Hope, Dunbar, East Lothian. Engine number 15566 was scrapped at Low Lynn, Northumberland, around 1964/5 but the remains of its partner survive.
The other engine (rear left) BL 8290 is number 15351, one of a pair numbered 15350 and 15351, both completed in January 1919 and delivered new to a F. Ridgeway in Berkshire. They had one other owner from whom they were bought around 1950 by Sir James Hope whose address at the time was given as East Barns Farm, Dunbar. It seems both were scrapped at Low Lynn in 1963.
The second photograph is of number 15351 BL 8290 and shows the ‘spuds’ fitted to the ‘tire’ of the rear wheel. These improved traction grip when moving on slippery surfaces.
Dick Eastwood
Secretary, Steam Plough Club
www.steamploughclub.org.uk