James & Fred Howard of Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

, later known simply as Howards, were one of the smaller English makers of agricultural machinery and steam traction engine

Traction engine

A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine 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...

s. At The Great Exhibition of 1851 they exhibited a range of horse-drawn implements. After World War I, Howards became part of AGE, Agricultural & General Engineers

Agricultural & General Engineers

Agricultural & General Engineers was a combine of British engineering companies formed in 1919. The constituent companies were assigned sectors of the market to reduce competition within the group. The group headquarters were located in Aldwych, London, but most of the member companies were in...

, along with many of the other British makers of similar machinery.

Traction engines

Howard traction engines are recognisable by their distinctive placement of their steam engine behind the boiler, rather than on top as for the far more common overtype. This gives them an unusually long and low appearance, with the flywheel set particularly low. This also requires the provision of a steam dome

Steam dome

A Steam dome is a vessel fitted to the top of the boiler of a steam locomotive. It contains the opening to the main steam pipe and its purpose is to allow this opening to be kept well above the water level in the boiler...

 atop the boiler, an unusual arrangement for an English engine.In most English engines, the casting for the cylinder itself forms a steam dome. Although usually plain in appearance and painted black, with little ornamentation compared to the later Edwardian engines, Howards carried very large brass nameplates on their boiler sides and smokebox

Smokebox

A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a Steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is exhausted to the atmosphere through the chimney .To assist...

 door reading "James & Fred^k Howard. Bedford. England".

They also built ploughing engines. Unlike the better-known Fowlers, the Howard used a pair of winding drums. This allowed a single engine and an anchored return pulley to plough, rather than the Fowler system that used a pair of engines, each one pulling alternately. The two drums were too large to fit in the usual position beneath the boiler and so were moved to a horizontal axle behind the engine's scuttle, with a pair of sheaves beneath the boiler to guide the cables.

Surviving examples

Survivors are rare:

• Works Nº24 of 1872. A two-speed traction engine, originally sold to Australia.

Re-imported and restored by Tom Varley

Tom Varley

Tom Varley was a collector of steam-powered vehicles, known for the Tom Varley Collection, a steam museum mostly of steam wagons, "a lasting legacy of which [British steam road enthusiasts] can be proud"....

 in 1980. Sold after his death to Peter Rigg of Todmorden

Todmorden

Todmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....

.

• Ploughing engine Works Nº110 of 1876, AP9197

• Brittania Works Nº201, 9nhp Some confusion exists here, and many web references are in fact to Tom Varley's Nº24