This web page took two to thre hours to scan, research, design, and upload. Thank you for supporting the Virtual Steam Car Museum!

Subscribe to the Virtual Steam Car Museum Newsletter!

The Tractobile was an avant train attachment for horse-drawn vehicles, but was unique in that it was steam powered. The boiler was made up of five separate unites, each with 40 small tubes, and one or more units could be removed for cleaning. The two vertical cylinders acted on each front wheel direct, although it is difficult to see this in surviving photographs. As the Tractobile was an enterprise of E. J. Pennington, it may be wondered whether any ever ran at all, or if they were merely a stock promotion scheme.[1]

Pennsylvania Steam Vehicle Company, Floyd Clymer, P. 37, 1900 Advertisement

This advertisement is found in Floyd Clymer's Steam Car Scrapbook, p. 37. As with all of the illustrations in Floyd Clymer's Scrapbook, there is no source.[2] The buggy's front wheels have been replaced with bicycle-style wheels connected to steam cylinders.

Pennsylvania Steam Vehicle Company, Carlisle, PA, August 1901, The Automobile Review, John A. Conde Collection.

In August 1901, this advertisement appeared in The Automobile Review. Photocopy. John A. Conde Collection..

Pennsylvania Steam Vehicle Company, Carlisle, PA, September 1,1901, Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, p. 18, John A. Conde Collection.

"The Tractmobile as applied to ordinary vehicles," is the title of this short article in the Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal for Septembrer 1901, p. 18. Photocopy. John A. Conde Collection..

Pennsylvania Steam Vehicle Company, Carlisle, PA, October 1901, The Carriage Monthly magazine, p. 75.  John A. Conde Collection.

The Tractmobile was the perfect article to be advertised in The Cariage Monthly, as its primary selling feature was the ease with wihch it converted a horse drawn carriage into a steam powered carriage. Photocopy. John A. Conde Collection..

Conde's File Folder, Pennsylvania Steam Vehicle Company, Carlisle, PA, 1900

John Conde's File Folder. John A. Conde Collection..

[1]Georgano, G. N., Encyclopedia of American Automobiles, (New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1968), p. 196.
[2]Clymer, Floyd, Steam Car Scrapbook, (1945, Bonanza Books, Crown Publishers, Inc.), p. 37.

Contact us if you have additional information about the Tractobile or the Pennsylvania Steam Vehicle Company, or if you have questions.

Thank you for your financial support.

Subscribe to the Virtual Steam Car Museum Newsletter!

This web page took two to thre hours to scan, research, design, and upload. Thank you for supporting the Virtual Steam Car Museum!