1912 Steam Traction Engine

An icon of American steam technology, the Case® steam traction engine was the heavy duty 'work-horse' of the late 19th and early 20th Century. It was used for decades on the farm, for logging, and in road, dam and general engineering construction. Being self-propelled, it could be used for towing heavy farm and construction equipment, and once on site used as a powerful stationary engine to power machinery, harvesters, threshing machines and small sawmills. Strong, reliable and well engineered, it was one of the basic forms of power and propulsion that drove American Industrial and Agricultural expansion. The Case® Traction Engines were used worldwide, and at the time Case® was the largest steam engine manufacturer in the world.

The Model
The CAD model for my 1912, 40 HP Traction Engine was created in SolidWorks™ as one of my many projects in the field of Industrial Archeology (IA). It was reverse engineered from many sources, drawings and photographs, and is an accurate representation of one of the most popular designs of the era. Research was done at the noted Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum, in Vista, California, USA.

The high-resolution 4,723,927 poly model is highly detailed, suitable for extreme close-ups, and is ideal for inclusion into period scenes and shop environments in the early 20th century. All parts are modeled to facilitate animation.

All appropriate parts and surfaces were color-mapped in SolidWorks™, and migrated to the .obj format to simplify material and texture application. Images 17, 18 and 19 show the mapping on the .obj model.

Converted from SolidWorks™ to .obj using SimLab Composer. Preview renderings created in KeyShot2 Pro from Luxion. Lighting created in HDR LightStudio.