Hornsby Train Track Tractor
Built in 1909/10 by Hornsby of Grantham for the Northern Light Power & Coal Company in Northern Canada. Hornsby had been concentrating on Gas oil powered engines and had not built a steam engine for many years. They therefore asked W Foster & Co of Lincoln to make the boiler and steam engine parts. It was the only one of this design produced and one of a very few number of steam tracked vehicles ever produced.
Its purpose was to haul coal from the Klondike coalfields in the Yukon to a power station in Dawson City towards the end of the gold rush period.
Not much is known about its working
life. Not surprising really given where and when it was located. It is
believed it only worked for a very short period of time possibly as little
as 3 years
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Around 1932 it was sold to a pulp mill owner who is shown here at New Westminster Docks in Vancouver. Not much later it's boiler was ripped out and used to heat the workers sleeping accommodation. The remaining tracks, chassis and water tanks were left abandoned for over 45 years overlooking the Broughton Straight at the Northern end of the Vancouver straight |
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In 1987 the remains of the tractor were moved to the Seven Hills Golf Course near Port Hardy
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This is a scale model of the engine exhibited at Abbey Hill Rally in 2006 |
