Opinion & Answer 23 Edition 43: 2 Unique Locomotives-Traction Engine + Crane Locomotive

Hi Folks, 

Good Sunday Afternoon everyone, It's time for another edition of Opinion & Answer. In today's edition, I wanted to cover 2 unique locomotives that luckily have been preserved and to define what is a Traction Engine & Crane Locomotive. I do hope you learned something from this and if not, I hope you find this interesting to read.    

Please Note: Most of this information will be from the Wikipedia pages with the links below to read. 

-Conductor Wolf 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We'll first dive into what a Traction Engine is and how they operate on & off the rails. 

A traction engine is a steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it. They are sometimes called road locomotives to distinguish them from railway locomotives – that is, steam engines that run on rails. Traction engines tend to be large, robust and powerful, but also heavy, slow, and difficult to manoeuvre. Nevertheless, they revolutionized agriculture and road haulage at a time when the only alternative prime mover was the draught horse. 

Around 1850, the traction engine became popular in industrialized countries when the 1st self-propelled portable steam engines for agricultural use were developed.  

Off-railroad Examples:

1. Agricultural (general purpose) engine
2. Ploughing engine 
1. characterised by the provision of a large diameter winding drum driven by separate gearing from the steam engine.
3. Steam Tractor
4. Road Locomotive 
5. Steam Roller

Traction engines as railway locomotives

In their crudest form these simply had flanged steel wheels to enable them to run on rails. More sophisticated models had the boiler and engine mounted on a chassis which carried railway-wagon style axles. The rear axle was driven from the engine by gear or chain-drive. These unusual locomotives were sold to small industries for use in shunting and marshalling duties, although they also found favour with engineering firms engaged in the construction of mainline railways for hauling men, equipment and materials over the partly constructed line.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next lets dive into what a Crane Engine is and how they operate on the rails. They are also another unique locomotive that are surprisingly interesting to see and at least we can see examples today that have been preserved.  

A crane locomotive is one of the unique locomotives because it's a locomotive with a built in crane that is either on the front,middle or back of the locomotive. According to "Crane tank locomotive" wikipedia page, "A crane tank (CT) is a steam locomotive fitted with a crane for working in railway workshops, docksides, or other industrial environments. The crane may be fitted at the front, centre or rear.

The 'tank' in its name refers to water tanks mounted either side of the boiler, as cranes were usually constructed on tank locomotives (as opposed to tender locomotives) for greater mobility in the confined locations where they were normally used. There is also a crane engine in the museum of Scottish railways

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that folks concludes another edition of Opinion and Answer. We'll be back with another edition next Sunday. Please click on either link for further reading. 

Traction Engine Wikipedia Page Link

Crane tank locomotive-Wikipedia page