This paper deals with the estimation of thermal ratchetting strain of cylinders subjected to short axial travelling of temperature distribution. The estimation is made by considering partly pressurized cylinders as a model. It is assumed that the pressurized region is ruled by the deformation theory with the uniform secant modulus determined so as to be exact in the long travelling case. This assumption enables us to utilize a linear elastic solution for the problem. The secant modulus is specified using the analytical solution which was derived by the present authors for the long travelling case by assuming Masing's rule. It is shown that the model based on the partly pressurized cylinders gives good estimates comparable to the finite element analysis of the thermal ratchetting strain as well as to the experiments on 316FR steel cylinders done by Kitade et al. An extension of the model, in which plastic yielding outside the travel region is taken into account, is also discussed.