Steam tractors were the first mobile steam-driven vehicles.

They were used for all types of work and kept going well into the 20th century:

   1) to transport heavy goods

   2) to power machinery like saws, hexels, stone crushers, threshers, ploughs

Usually they drove with their equipment from village to village and offered their services to local farmers and foresters.

Increasing traffic of these heavy vehicles meant that the roads had to be upgraded to accommodate them. And this was mainly done with the use of imposing steamrollers.

After the invention of generators steam tractors functioned as mobile electricity source. Even today you can still find them under the name of SHOWMAN´s-ENGINE.

The steam tractor developed into a steam lorry.

While active for only a short period in Germany before being replaced by the first petrol and diesel engines, they lasted much longer in the homeland of steam: Great Britain.

They were built up to the 1930s and the last examples could be well and truly rated as master pieces.