James Boydell was a British inventor of steam traction engines. His most significant invention was the first practical track-laying vehicle, for which he received British patents in August 1846 and February 1854.

Boydell described his invention as "endless rails" or an "endless railway wheel". In his system flat boards were attached to a wheel loosely at their centres, as the wheels revolved they were capable of spreading the weight of an engine over the surface of the board. Boydell worked with the steam traction engine manufacturer Charles Burrell & Sons

Charles Burrell & Sons

Charles Burrell & Sons were builders of steam traction engines, agricultural machinery, steam trucks and steam tram engines. The company were based in Thetford, Norfolk and operated from the St Nicholas works on Minstergate and St Nicholas Street some of which survives today.At their height they...

 to produce road haulage engines from 1856 that used his continuous track design.

The United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee named Boydell Glacier

Boydell Glacier

Boydell Glacier is a glacier on Trinity Peninsula in northern Graham Land. It is about long, flowing southeastward from Detroit Plateau to enter Sjögren Inlet in Prince Gustav Channel north of the terminus of Sjögren Glacier and west of Mount Wild...

on Trinity Peninsula in northern Graham Land, Antarctica, after him.