Talk:Steam tractor

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See Talk:Traction_engine for the merge discussion thus far... Bookgrrl 01:32, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article NOT to be Merged - Reasoning

For some months during 2005-6 it had been suggested that the steam tractor article should be merged with traction engine, although this suggestion was disputed (see Talk:Traction engine for full discussion).

The merge suggestion was made because certain Wikipedians considered that steam tractors were just a variant of traction engines, and could be covered by the same article. Further research has revealed that the term 'steam tractor' meant different things to different people, and that the vehicles themselves had followed wildly different development paths. A US steam tractor is a very different creature from a British one!

The clinching evidence was the provision of a picture of the Best steam tractor by Gwernol. Compare this to any traction engine and it is clear that beyond being steam-powered wheeled vehicles designed for pulling, the two machines are very different indeed.

So, I believe that the request for a merge was brought about because:

(i) Wikipedia has woefully inadequate coverage of traction engines and the like;

(ii) There was little information in either article

(iii) because of (i) and (ii), the distinction was not clear to most users.

The discussion appears to have come to a grinding halt, and I feel that since the articles have now been expanded somewhat (with scope for plenty of future growth), now is the right time to close the matter.

Merge banner removed. EdJogg 12:33, 11 September 2006 (UTC)