a British thing

i've just gotten a new book on Showmans Road Locomotives. these are all British as i don't think much of this type of thing happened in USA. these engines were used by circuses and other types of entertainment businesses to haul their equipment on the road. mostly in USA the railroads were used for this, also riverboats. these have got to be some of the most beautiful steam powered machines ever made. the first is a Garrett from 1908 named "British Hero". most of these critters had individual names. second is the magnificent Burrell from 1900 called "Vanguard" and looking much as things must have looked about then. except maybe the modern tires on the trailers. next is an excellent Fowler engine of about the same era. and last is a Marshall engine named "Punch" pulling a trailer. "Punch" is not a full size road locomotive like the above ones but is rather what would be called a road tractor. these were smaller and somewhat handier and of course were used for smaller loads. notice each of the showmans locos have a large dynamo mounted clear out in front over the boiler. these were used for on site electrical power and were usually driven by the engines flywheel. the Garrett in the first picture has the belt hooked to the flywheel and the dynamo