(Photos by Greg Rourke) – We’re back with more great photos from the 2017 Northern Illinois Steam and Power show. We think it is pretty cool that Greg Rourke was at this event while Chad and I were pounding on the salt all week. It shows just how wide and deep the gearhead enthusiast world is, right? Some people love hammering the gas and going as fast as they can, making sure their equipment is capable of doing the job. Other people, like those featured here are not at all concerned with speed but rather celebrating the history and evolution of the machines that revolutionized the world of farming in America.
Greg Rourke is a ful on tractor freak and I say that as a tractor freak who is not on his level. The great thing about having a guy like Greg shoot this show is that he knows what he is looking at, he knows what’s cool, rare, and interesting as well as the fact that he knows what’s boring junk as well.
Enjoy these images from the Northern Illinois Steam and Power Show.
Click on images below to expand them and then scroll with arrow keys to see ’em all
It does look like he let one Boring tractor into the mix… 😀
What’s the deal with the two steam contraptions that are rolling on what looks like modern pneumatic tires? Something that was kept running for a while and repaired with whatever was at hand?
Lots of times guys put like rubber cleats on them so parade them on the street as to not destroy asphalt and rattle their teeth out. Wondering if this was a step beyond that.
You may be referring to the couple of home built self propelled steam wagons, built just because they could. The one with what appear to be one ton truck tires and wheels?
Correct. Both the three wheeled thing and the vehicle that seems to have a dropped truck axle with drum brakes. Just wondering what the story was behind them.
Some of the steam parades I’ve been to have also had what appears to have been a traction set on a truck chassis, with the traction engine driving the truck’s axle. These home-brew contraptions are different and less obviously mash-ups – the three wheeled thing looked like it could plausibly have been built around the 1900s and was simply set on modern tractor wheels, and the one with the truck axle – I couldn’t figure out what it was, but it also was clearly not two devices that had been crudely shoved together.