While the Showmans engines were a curiosity at carnivals, the Foden Trucks were the workhorses of industry. This Wilesco D310 is a wonderful little recreation of one of these vehicles, designated the ‘Mighty Atom’.
Traction steam engines were smaller, steam powered industrial vehicles used to haul heavy loads.
In contrast to stationary steam engines, which as their name suggests, remain stationary (to represent how steam engines were used as a power source in factories and the like), traction engines are representations of vehicles that used to be powered by steam engines.
These models are largely old tractors and steam rollers that would have been used for more heavy duty construction work (anything that an old steam engine could do more efficiently than humans and horses). As steam engine technology was largely used on bulky trains, when it was adopted for smaller vehicles it was only really used on heavier industrial machines.
