Boydell's design saw service with the British Army in the Crimean War (1853-56) where it was known as "The Megatherium war horse".

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160210413929306&set=gm.10159839373594556

This is reported to be the 1st photo of a motor vehicle in the history of locomotion

I see 5 trucks in the distance.... why in hell aren't they using them to pull the cannon?

 https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2020/09/soldiers-struggle-to-pull-huge-piece-of.html

many years ago I post a couple photos of one of these, and this is the only photo I've seen of this type of cannon since

the wheels on the front of the one completely in the photo are missing the Diplock Pedrail parts, and since it's been forever since I've posted about what Diplock Pedrail is, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/pedrail-system-by-diplock-in-1904-pages.html

https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2020601/contributions_1186.html#&gid=1&pid=1

Shas (thanks!) identified it, it's a WW1 Italian standard 305mm howitzer, mounted on a De Stefano chassis and rail system which helped with the recoil and eliminated the need to dig a hole for recoil clearance.

Designed in 1908 and built between 1914 and 1917, a total of 44 were built by Armstrong-Pozzuoli and Vickers-Terni.

here are the common images found around the internet for years

The barrel is seventeen feet long and it stands, ground to trunnion about 12 feet. Weight was around 34 tons!

the model makers do such a damn good job, I'm posting these images to show in great detail what these looked like

http://www.onthewaymodels.com/articles/BPowers_Italian_Obice_305mm_DS_scratchbuild.htm

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/topic/173218-ww1-military-motors-1916-set-x-50-cards/?page=217

Update Mar 2018, those are not Diplock Pedrail, they are  ' Bonagente ' tracks and the cannon is an  Italian Army  Obice da 305 D.S.

A Dreadnought Wheel on the Megatherium war horse... much like the Diplock Pedrail system

A dreadnaught wheel is a wheel with articulated rails attached at the rim to provide a firm footing for the wheel to roll over, they have also been known as endless railway wheels when fitted to road locomotives, and were commonly fitted to steam traction engines.

Boydell's design saw service with the British Army in the Crimean War where it was known as "The Megatherium war horse".

http://cyberneticzoo.com/tag/dreadnaught-wheel/

Thanks Steve!

Fowler R3 with double long, double wide Botrail

By Australian engineer Frank Botrill, who devised the planks to get the heavy tractor over soft ground

Found on http://strangernn.livejournal.com/908127.html

the Big Lizzie, biggest tractor built in Australia, invented by frank Bottrill (invented of the pedrail system)

the below is just one of the trailers, it has two steam engines on it

above 2 images found at http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/766470/negative-mildura-district-victoria-1925-1935

Big Lizzie had a Blackstone single-cylinder engine that delivered 60 horsepower at 275 rpm, running on a mix of diesel and crude oil. It was cooled by water, and had an exhaust-induced airflow "radiator" that Bottril had designed. The 7 feet diameter flywheel weighed three tons, and the entire engine weighed eight tons. The tractor was 34 feet long, 11 feet  wide and 18 feet high. Big Lizzie included a blacksmithy and anvil mounted on the foredeck. The total weight was 45 tons.

Botrill's patented wheels were also used on "Big Lizzie", a huge traction engine which McDonald's built to his design in 1915. Big Lizzie could carry almost 90 tons when two trailers were attached. There were just six bearers on each wheel, compared to Bottril's earlier designs which had as many as twelve bearers. This placed more strain on the cables retaining the bearers, and had the effect of reducing the tractor's speed to one mile per hour. Big Lizzie was awkward to maneuver, with a turning radius of 200 feet.

Bottrill planned to drive Big Lizzie to the Broken Hill mines, with two pedrail-equipped wagons in tow. He left Melbourne early in 1916, taking his family with him. He traveled at a maximum speed of 1 mph, going off road where bridges were not strong enough or the road bends were too sharp

From 1920 to 1924 Bottrill worked in Red Cliffs, in the Rural City of Mildura, clearing the ground for a 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) irrigated farming settlement for World War I veterans. Up to 16 men helped attach cables to trees and stumps which Big Lizzie then hauled out.

above info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bottrill

She was rescued in 1971 by the Redcliffs Big Lizzie Preservation Committee who restored her and settled her in her final resting place.

K.N McDonald has recently located the missing second trailer and this has now been sent to Mildura for restoration  http://www.oldengine.org/members/kennedy/mcdonald/docs/biglizziedet.htm

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fintano/with/7033683333/

learned about it on http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com

the "Pedrail" system by Diplock in 1904, pages 90-94 and 113-117 of the Automotor Journal

To see a couple more: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/diplocks-pedrail-what-name-somebody.html

For the most thorough look at the Pedrail system: http://cyberneticzoo.com/tag/walking-wheels/

if you want to read about it http://books.google.com/books?id=63QnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA699&dq=belgian++pipe&hl=en&ei=Xc1GTqjoCIGssQLRscSSCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=belgian%20%20pipe&f=false

Diplock's Pedrail. What a name! Somebody should call their band this name.

If it had caught on, we'd still know about it, but it is a interesting idea for rough terrain, maybe rocky terrain. Reminds me immediately of these other two unusual ideas in rim/wheel design http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/justacargal-found-most-unusual.html

Found on http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com/