Steam Traction Engines up close and dirty

Had a day off Friday with some folks into Springfield Mo, stopped at a Tired Iron rally.

The traction engine, in the form recognizable today, developed partly from an experiment in 1859 when Thomas Aveling modified a Clayton & Shuttleworth portable engine, which had to be hauled from job to job by horses, into a self-propelled one. The alteration was made by fitting a long driving chain between the crankshaft and the rear axle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traction_engine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kroEyr_ia0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDJdzqAJTTA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12O4soHEUcE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTJqJC95PxM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpOWunbOtBA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL1W0qhpMcU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLIaqwS0kmM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWyPBROAPkA

As a child a grew up around Traction Engines and Rallies as my late father had 7 Engines though by the time I was an adult he had sold them all off,Though i still know how to drive one. When he passed away he still had a 1/3 scale full working minature.

Alrighty! If my dad had those he'd put me to work on the nasty places and not allow me to move em, alas wisely so.