Stithians Steam Fair, Cornwall

On the last day of our stay in Cornwall in 2010 we went to the Stithians Steam Fair to see in excess of 50 traction engines, and many other attractions. There were about a dozen steamrollers arranged in a semicircle all in steam together.

The weather was wet on and off all day, but we escaped much of it by visiting the various marquees. The video attached was taken in the Modelling marquee, where there were 3 or 4 model railways, various different modellers areas, military models, radio controlled boats, aircraft, and cars (with demos outside - cars only!), and a large area set aside for Meccano modellers!

The Meccano models in the film depict traction engines as used for ploughing and show how the process used to be done before tractors were developed. Each ploughing engine had a large winch fixed underneath the boiler which would draw the plough from one side of the field towards the engine winching. Once it arrived at that engine, the plough would reverse and be pulled back by the other engine on the opposide side of the field.

Ploughing traction engines always went around the countryside in pairs due to this method of operation!