What was the largest farm steam engine ever built?
Authorities on the subject agree that, in the United States, the largest traction steam engines were rated at 150 horsepower and were built by the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company of Racine, Wisconsin, and Russell & Company of Massillon, Ohio.
150-horsepower Case (on the right)
The Case Catalog for 1907
150-horsepower Russell
Jack Norbeck's Encyclopedia of American
Steam Traction Engines
(Sarasota: Crestline, 1976).
Authorities believe that not one of the 150-horsepower behemoths remains, although George Hedtke has a boiler from a 150 case.
