Tasmania's three-day Steamfest has been lauded as one of the best in the world by entrepreneur and steam enthusiast Dick Smith.

The steam festival has smashed its previous attendance record of 6,000 over a long weekend in just two days.

Loading

Mr Smith said the event, hosted by the north-west Tasmanian town of Sheffield, ranked as the best in Australia, if not the world.

"It's definitely the best steam festival in Australia," he said.

"And I'd say it's one of the better in the world and I've been to quite a few."

Mr Smith is himself a great lover of steam.

"Yeah I love steam," he said.

"I've got myself a little gauge steam train that was built in 1904.

"I have that at my farm for going from the airport down to the homestead."

He said the variety of engines on show at the Sheffield Steamfest was impressive.

"The rock crusher's incredible," he said.

"I've just seen the binding and the threshing of the hay, and I've also seen the chaff cutter working.

"We've just been trying to get a diesel-powered road tractor going, [it's] probably one of the first in the world."

The festival ends today.