Dennis Read tells the story of the unique Hornsby steam chain track tractor, built in 1909 to the order of an enterprising Yukon gold engineer, to transport coal from a railhead 40 miles away across the rough terrain to his mine.

This is a tale that shames the restoration fraternity of Britain and Canada. A steam caterpillar tractor built to the highest specifications by Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham incorporating a William Foster of Lincoln steam engine, an example of British engineering of outstanding merit is at this very moment a forlorn sight residing in a car park of the Seven Hills Golf Club on Vancouver Island resting on the famous caterpillar tracks, decapitated and with its heart torn out. Its boiler and engine ruthlessly removed and used for other purposes, it is patiently waiting for a rescuer to return it to its former glory.

The first field trial. RAY HOOLEY COLLECTION

How did this unique tractor come to be in this precarious position?
It all began when Gold was discovered at Rabbits Creek in the Yukon on August 16, 1896 and precipitated the famous Klondike gold rush. Over 100,000 people worldwide succumbed to the lure of untold riches and began the treacherous journey to the Yukon but the majority never made it – beaten by the severity of a Yukon winter.

The first road trial in rural Lincolnshire. RAY HOOLEY COLLECTION

The gold eventually became too difficult to mine and needed sophisticated machinery to make the claims pay so the big mining companies moved in buying up huge areas around Dawson City, providing sawmills, water ditches, and power plants to fuel the 800 ton dredges that were coming on stream. The Northern Light Power & Coal Co. was formed in the early 1900s with a mandate to construct such a power plant on Coal Creek, 44 miles from Dawson and 17 miles from the Yukon River. The company was also a major shareholder in three subsidiaries that provided electricity, water and telecommunications to the area - they had a coalmine at Coal Creek and were having trouble transporting coal to a railhead some 40 miles away in Dawson City. The absence of well maintained roads, the freezing Arctic bite of a Yukon winter plus the marshy terrain in the Yukon short summer was hampering the movement of coal to the city. An unknown company engineer had the bright idea of using a caterpillar tractor to surmount the difficulties they were experiencing moving the coal. The tractor had to be driven by steam because of the scarcity of oil so an order was placed with Hornsby for a Steam Caterpillar Tractor. However, because of the successful trials under the auspices of the War Office, their managing director David Roberts, the guiding light behind the ‘Endless Track’, had abandoned steam in favour of oil. Fortunately William Foster of Lincoln was found and agreed to supply steam engine No. 12459 and with Hornsby Chain Track No. 35086, a unique experimental tractor was born.

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