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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Miscellaneous -> Holt Steam Caterpillar: Working Replica Video
Post Info TOPIC: Holt Steam Caterpillar: Working Replica Video
Roger Todd


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Holt Steam Caterpillar: Working Replica Video
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When I was a wee nipper, one of the first Big Books I bought was 'Tanks & Weapons of World War I', to me at that age a real eye-opener with articles on the Paris Gun, Big Bertha and, of course, the early tanks. It was packed with wonderful colour illustrations by the great John Batchelor, including this magnificent contraption, a steam-powered Holt caterpillar, the first time I'd ever seen such a thing:

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/ww1/Holt-Tractor.jpg

Of course, as time went by I found more pictures and the internet now reveals Mr Batchelor's source image:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holt_steam_driven_crawler_tractor_circa_1890.JPG

But did you know that a mad American named Don Hunter has spent several years building a full-size working replica?

http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45891

And here's a brilliant video of it in action:

http://youtu.be/ZMuDSLYNw4w

Thank God there are such madmen in the world!



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Rectalgia


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What a glorious thing. Always had a fondness for stuff driven by "hot fog" so Mr. Hunter joins my little list of heroes.

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Rob


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Those books and illustrations inspired me as a nipper too, as my dad had a few of the 'putnam specials' lying around the house, beautiful illustrations, in the same book the one s of the St Chamond and Schneider are superb too

 

The replica is amazing, especially the video - all the motion reminds me of the replica very, very early (ie Locomotion and Puffing Billy) steam locomotives at Beamish Open Air Museum



-- Edited by Rob on Tuesday 24th of January 2012 12:31:23 AM

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