Fred Dibnah's traction engine was a time capsule of Britain's industrial past. Every part of it had been invented and manufactured in the United Kingdom. It took Fred twenty-seven years to restore the engine and, after he felled his last chimney, he retired from steeplejacking and took to the road, travelling the length and breadth of Britain to search out the remarkable achievements of the craftsmen, engineers, inventors and industrial workers whose endeavour made engines like his possible. This is a record of that journey, made all the more remarkable by Fred's heroic efforts to complete it while suffering from terminal cancer.