This programme shows the impact on agriculture of steam in the 19th and early 20th century. It records in detail both portable engines and traction engines in action threshing, ploughing, hauling timber and driving a saw bench. Interviews with people who used to work with steam recall what the life was really like. Lesley Colsell, former Curator at the museum of East Anglian Life, gives a vivid account of how engines were managed and how they fitted into rural life.