The Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company is a name that will be familiar to a great many Australian engine enthusiasts. However, I have not been able to establish when The Waterloo Boy was first marketed in Australia or, indeed, how many were sold, but from the number of engines that have survived into preservation, they must have been a popular engine.

The story of the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company is very interesting and worthy of a mention; it dates back to 1893, with the formation of the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Company in the town of Waterloo, Iowa, USA. The company was originally founded to manufacture an agricultural tractor as designed by John Froehlich, and powered by a vertical Van Duzen gasoline engine. The Froehlich tractor was credited with being the world’s first gasoline tractor.

However, as with many new ideas, the Froehlich tractor was not readily acce