Below is a selection of exhibits from this year's event. Click on an image to view larger picture with engine details. Pictures courtesay of Mark Worbey, Pete Gray, Clive Flack and Alan Nash.

Agricultural and General Purpose traction engines were the most common types to be seen around the countryside. They were basically used as a mobile power plant for threshing, tree pulling and general farm duties, such as driving a saw-bench and pulling loads. Though not generally owned by the farmers themselves, contractors operated them, touring from farm to farm. Production ceased in the late 1930’s with continued preference of the petrol-paraffin tractor, which was less costly to operate, but they were still in use into the 1950’s.

Ploughing Engines were the largest variation of the traction engine and were fitted with a large steel cable on a drum under the boiler, used to pull implements across a field. Usually the engine drivers couldn't see one another, so they used a series of whistles to indicate commands such as pull. As one engine pulled the plough, cultivator or mole drainer towards it, the other engine let its cable drum freewheel and be pulled out by the implement. Ploughing engine pairs were also, and sometimes still are, used for lake dredging, by pulling a large skip-sized bucket between them.