Savory-Garrett ploughing engine, eighth-scale (Dave White)

Exhibit
Savory-Garrett ploughing engine, eighth-scale (Dave White) (i)
location:
Arch Four , Area 79 Arch Four, Misc.

The model on the cover of Model Engineer magazine in 2005 [image info]

A one-eighth-scale model of a Nineteenth-Century steam-powered Savory/Garrett stationary ploughing engine, engineered by Dave White of Crawley, Sussex.

Ploughing engines

The ploughing engine was an early example of mobile steam-powered agricultural equipment. Ploughing engines worked in pairs, and would set up on opposites sides of a field, and haul a plough back and forth between them using steel cables. The speed and efficiency with which a pair of ploughing engines could plough a field meant that a specialist ploughing engine team could visit farm after farm in season, ploughing fields to contract.

Although ploughing engines were self-contained and self-propelled (and "hauled" ploughs), they're usually not classed as traction engines, as traction engines are usually considered to be vehicles that tow other vehicles behind them. This puts ploughing engines into their own (small!) category.

Ploughing engines disappeared when the appearance of smaller and more general-purpose petrol-engined tractors came onto the scene. Owning a tractor was a very attractive proposition for a farm, a farmer was less likely to hire a ploughing engine team if they already owned their own tractor, and once enough farms had tractors, the business model of the travelling ploughing engine team became less viable.

Reviews and prizes

This model was a prize-winner at the 74th Model Engineer Exhibition, where it won the Aveling and Barfield Trophy, and a Gold Medal.

The model was then featured on the front cover of Model Engineer magazine (issue 4242), with a photograph on page 254, and an accompanying commentary that described the model's attention to detail as "endless".

External links

• The History of Steam Ploughing (steamploughclub.org.uk)