A SIP TEMPEST PRESSURE WASHER WORTH £432 N I W JANUARY 2014 www.tractormagazine.co.uk
AND FARMING HERITAGE MAGAZINE
100s
SHOW SHINES SUPREME WORKSHOP OF TR A
FOR SCTORS A INSID LE E
Full report from Newark
Don’t let starters wind you up
Make do & mend
Repairing tinwork
PREVIEW
GEORGE MUTCH January Sale
Mind the Generation Gap MF 100 & 500s compared
Memorabilia
Farming Heritage
More practical tips for buying a tractor
John Farnworth’s Massey collection
How war changed this woman’s life forever
No. 123
January 2014
£3.90
Expert Advice
In among the Blue Force display at Newark was Robb Morgan’s 1962 County S4 fitted with blade. When he eventually acquired it, he just attended to the mechanicals and now intends to leave it in unrestored condition – quite right too.
Welcome A
t the 11th time of asking, how can we here praise the amazing achievements of the Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show enough? Well... for a start the bacon butties were perfect, crispy and on the verge of cremation – just how I like them. But seriously, my first port of call is always the George Stephenson Hall. Here all make, manner and form of tractor are polished to perfection to create what must be the most perfect tractor showroom ever; I’ve watched the owners preparing their nominated steeds and all the hard work they have put in is not lost on me. In fact to me they outshone the Aston Martin on display (although I’ll have one if it’s going spare).
It’s a stark contrast going from that hall into the extension area, where the first thing that hits you is the sight of a very original Fordson F and implement. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the owner, Richard Wray, but someone who did told me a long list of mechanical work that had been carried out – a fantastic job well worth the award for Best Tractor & Implement Combination. en it was off to the Lady Eastwood Hall, ostensibly to see the Sawyer Massey and veteran line up, but it struck me that organisers and ‘veteran’ tractor owners should get together here for next time, as there is the makings of another fantastic centre-piece to the show. By the way, if you’re lucky enough to unwrap an iPad or other device on Christmas morning and you’re itching to play with it, Tractor is available as a digital magazine and can be downloaded from the outlets advertised on page 20 of this issue.
Meet the team...
Ben Phillips
Polly Pullar
Jo Roberts
Richard Lofting
Dave Bowers
Stuart Gibbard
Tractor restorer – aka the tractorlad.
Photojournalist with a passion for heritage.
Professional heritage Roving reporter and writer based in Wales. technical writer.
Tony Hoyland
Editor
To link to our Facebook page, just scan the image (right) with your smartphone. Alternatively, go online and visit www.facebook.com/TractorMag
tractormagazine.co.uk
Feature writer with a keen technical eye.
Author, historian and tractor specialist.
Also thanks to Pete Kelly, ‘HR’, Peter Henshaw,
Old Sump Plug, Alan Barnes, John Blake, Joe Dick, Graham Hampstead, Pete Small. January2014Tractor
3
CONTENTS
TRACTOR AND FARMING HERITAGE JANUARY 2014
Regulars 3
Welcome
18
News
22
All the latest news in the world of tractors and heritage.
Tractor Talk
Modellers’ paradise
78
Memorabilia – the next big thing?
84
Henry Smith reports on the Toytrac Farm Toy and Model Show.
Jo Roberts visits the extensive John Farnworth Massey-Harris collection to explore the world of tractor memorabilia.
34
40
122 Tractor widow
42
COVER STORY
12
48
COVER STORY
26 27
28 COVER STORY
4
With a stupendous array of entries, and surprises around every corner, we review Britain’s foremost tractor show.
52
60
What a difference a day makes
Charles Bryant Jnr. tells us about his mother and her wartime work on a farm driving a tractor as well as horses.
TractorJanuary2014
British Tractors 1945-1965
Stuart Gibbard tells us about his latest book, which recalls the era when Britain was at the forefront of world tractor production
63
Don’t get me started
Graham Hampstead discovers that the larger an organisation gets the more useless it becomes.
The Oxfordshire Waggon
“So what was it like when I was young and the horse drawn waggons were being used 70 years and more ago?” asks John Blake.
Dave’s tractors
Dave Taylor has plenty of tales to tell about his tractors, as he explains…
The Home Farm diaries - January 1969
We follow the fortunes, or lack of them, of H.R. through the farming year month by month - anytime from the 1940s to the 1990s.
We compare two mid-power Massey Fergusons – one of the last 100 series with one of the next-generation 500s.
Yet another dazzler!
12
By the power of elec-trickery
Yet another dazzler!
74
Heritage
YourTractors Mind the generation gap
Enthusiasts from the far side
When John Escolme’s International B-275 restoration ground to a halt he came up with a brainwave to dissolve the rusty problem away.
Jean Brown’s female friend displays a sudden liking for John Deere tractors.
6
Ford’s ‘narrow gauge’ line
Jo Roberts finds that there are Fordson Fanatics in all four corners of the earth.
Graham Hampstead heads up north on ‘sheep business’. Preview of the February issue of Tractor & Farming Heritage.
78
The next big thing
It’s perhaps not unusual to find a Ford 3600 orchard tractor like this In the depths of Kent – but a narrow gauge tractor at the Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway?
Inspecting the troops
103 Next month
Ancient ploughs and furrowed brows
There are many aspects to our farming heritage and ways to keep our traditions alive; Jo Roberts looks at how ploughing matches play their part.
All your news, views and comments around the classic and vintage scene.
56
COVER STORY
32
68
72
Tractor Archive
More heritage memories from the farming literature of yesterday.
Double the Power!
We take a look at Sweden’s quest for greater output with tandem tractor conversions.
Gray ‘Drum Drive’
A quaint design that showed potential but never quite made enough impact to survive.
The Tolbooth revamped
Polly Pullar continues her visit to the ‘Magpie of the Mearns’, Jim Bruce, who unveils another vast haul of artefacts to her down in the harbour at Stonehaven.
Workshop 88 COVER STORY
92 COVER STORY
96 COVER STORY
Make do and mend
If you’ve got the time and the inclination, repairing your tinwork can be a highly satisfying and rewarding process says Ben Phillips.
Don’t let starters wind you up
Now the starter ring gear has been tackled, Richard Lofting moves the next critical assembly along the line - the pre-engaged starter motor.
Buying a tractor suits you sir!
Ben Phillips continues to measure up the marketplace by looking at some more of the popular tractor marques that could be a perfect fit for you.
Marketplace 104 Sale Preview COVER STORY
The George Mutch Collection at Forfar Mart, Lawrie and Symington, January 18.
106 It’s red and it’s a record Cheffins Vintage Sale, Sutton, Cambs, October 19.
tractormagazine.co.uk
YourTractors
Whatever your favourite there was a talking point for everyone at the show.
Yet another dazzler! 11th Newark Vintage Tractor & Heritage Show With a stupendous array of entries, and surprises around every corner, there’s no looking back for Britain’s foremost tractor show. WORDS Pete Kelly PICTURES Joe Dick, Tony Hoyland & Pete Kelly
B
Exhibited by David Webster from North Yorkshire, this rather unusual PD25 Bristol crawler was among a batch produced for the Forestry Commission and fitted with a Broughton winch for timber extraction.
12
TractorJanuary2014
ack in 2003, the first Tractor & Farming Heritage-sponsored Newark Vintage Tractor Show drew around 130 exhibits. For 2013 the count was closer to 900, with a range of machinery stretching from the dawn of tractor time right through to the mighty leviathans of the 21st century... and everything in between. With displays by Blue Force, Friends of Ferguson Heritage and the National Vintage Tractor & Engine Club rapidly becoming shows within a show, a feature display linking Wallis, Massey-Harris and Ferguson as the common ancestors of MasseyFerguson and a priceless line-up of some of
the rarest pioneering tractors in the world, nobody could have gone home disappointed. All tractors great and small were there to admire and be inspired by, their condition ranging from rusty and running and offfarm condition to some of the most immaculate restorations you’ll ever find, their variety of form covering everything from tiny horticultural jewels to giants of the classic and modern eras. For those turning up with empty trailers and cash in their pockets, there was plenty to bid for in the Saturday auction and Sunday Sortout. With over 200 trade stands, a popular livestock show and demonstrations galore, the unmissable November 9-10 spectacular more than lived up to its enviable reputation. tractormagazine.co.uk
Henry Dixon’s John Deere 1010 Industrial won the award for Best John Deere at Show and also Best NVTEC Members Vintage Tractor. Part of the Blue Force display of blue and grey tractors celebrating 50 years – a small taster for their 2014 event at Newark in the summer.
Below: The ubiquitous grey Fergie made an impressive lineup in the feature marquee.
In the feature marquee, Mark Ducksbury’s Massey-Harris 701 baler worked by an air-cooled Armstrong-Siddeley diesel engine was coupled to a 1943 magnetoignition Ford-Ferguson 2N.
Neil Roberts’ 1950 Ferguson TEA, fitted with a 1953 Dinkum digger, was just one of many talking points in the long marquee housing a Wallis, Massey-Harris and Ferguson display. Another was a superb 1929 Wallis 12-20 orchard tractor fitted with a Wiard three-furrow orchard plough and exhibited by Malcolm Robinson. tractormagazine.co.uk
January2014Tractor
13
YourTractors
Ford’s ‘narrow gauge’ line
FORD 3600 ORCHARD TRACTOR It’s perhaps not unusual to find an orchard tractor like this in the depths of Kent – but a narrow gauge tractor at the Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway?
Colin Hazlehurst uses the Ford to move his Marshall portable engine. It is fitting the tractor still finds some employment in its ‘retirement’ around the village of Bredgar, where it used to work the orchards.
WORDS Alan Barnes PICTURES Bill Best, Tony Baker, Jim Tyler & Alan Barnes
W
ith Kent long being regarded as the ‘Garden of England’, and with many thousands of acres of land given over to fruit production, it is hardly surprising that the area was a strong market for specialised narrow version or orchard tractors. Many of the leading tractor manufacturers added production models to their ranges of tractors, while a number of independent engineering firms offered orchard conversions of standard models.
Modified for narrow use
e changes to the standard tractors were not particularly dramatic and in many cases the basic alterations involved the redirecting of the exhaust system to run horizontally and to reduce the overall width of the tractor by changes to the axle layout.
In some instances the rear wings were also replaced with redesigned units which provided sufficient clearance when the track of the rear wheels was at its narrowest setting. is allowed the adapted machines to work in the narrow lanes between the fruit trees, while the redirected exhaust with the outlet repositioned under the rear of the tractor would prevent smoke and fumes from damaging the sensitive blossom and young developing fruit. As well as being suited for working among the fruit orchards the tractors were also used in hop gardens, while in Europe such machines were sold as specialist vineyard tractors.
One and only Ford
Apple grower Eric Boucher used the narrow orchard versions of tractors for many years on Bexon Manor Farm, near Bredgar, in Kent. Most of the tractors on the farm were various types of Massey Ferguson and in later years these were replaced by Fendt tractors. ➤
Workshop
Make do
and Mend If you’ve got the time and the inclination, repairing your tinwork can be a highly satisfying and rewarding process says, Ben Phillips.
Words and Pictures Ben Phillips
L
ast month I described how to get the best results out of a reproduction wing, but what if you want to keep things original? e cowl on this Fordson Major was worth saving and as I always say, I will
88
TractorJanuary2014
repair what’s repairable. Repairing panels is a time consuming job and requires a skill in tapping out dents, cutting out and welding in new sections and applying body filler. is cowl was structurally sound with dents above the grille and also holes caused by rot that needed addressing.
tractormagazine.co.uk
Fordson Major cowl is bent and rotten 1 This and in need of some tender loving care.
have the panels sandblasted first as it 2 Always will expose problem areas like this.
in the front of tractors are common, 3 Dents their working life dictates that this will be so.
anything off that is scrap is best done 4 Cutting first, these lights cannot be used again and
behind the panel to beat the dent 5 Getting back is essential, I’m using 2.5Ib hammer with
Turning the panel over to check how you’re 6 doing is needed from time to time; this is
the bolts are seized up so the grinder is the only way.
tap back to get rid of any high places 7 Ais gentle useful later on when a skimming of filler is
an old bolt; ideal when placed on an anvil.
holes can be filled with glass fibre paste 8 Small mixed with hardener and this is the ratio I use
looking better all ready.
a thick layer of the filler is useful 9 Creating here and it can be sanded back at a later stage
applied to the cowl.
to make sure it goes off quickly.
of the process.
Bigger holes will require a section welded in, 10 first measure what size of tin metal you need.
out the section required carefully, in this 11 Cut case with an angle grinder.
rough edges need smoothing out, a bench 12 The grinder with a stone followed by a brush is ideal.
tractormagazine.co.uk
January2014Tractor
89
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ADvintage The place to buy and sell ALLIS CHALMERS D272
BUNGARTZ T5
with factory Perkins P3, 1957, lovely original condition, easy to tow, light weight, perfect to rally, engine superb, a few jobs required to be 100%, £2500 open to offers Tel. 07557 095519. Cheshire
diesel tractor, excellent working order, starts instantly, £2650 Tel. 01326 221730. Cornwall
CASE CS 86
CASE CS 86
CASE MAGNUM 230
CASE MAXXUM MXM155
c/w Quicke Loader, 2002, new tyres, very tidy tractor POA Tel. 07976 575120; 07779 248021; 07807 603870; 07972 102323. Melton Mowbray (t)
c/w Quicke loader, 2002, new tyres, very tidy tractor Tel. 07976 575120; 07779 248021. Melton Mowbray (t)
2004, 5750 hours, clean tidy tractor, available with set of rear dual wheels POA Tel. 07976 575120; 07779 248021; 07807 603870; 07972 102323. Melton Mowbray (t)
2003, 4WD, a/c, front linkage, front axle & cab suspension, 4 DAV, 540/65R28 and 650/65R38 tyres, 3700 hrs Tel. 01777 870111; 07970 805364. (t)
CASE PUMA 155
CAT 765B
CAT TH62 AG
CAT TH62 AG
2008, 50k, front & cab susp, air brakes, 4 x SCV, front weight, air seat, pass seat, 600/65R38 - 480/65R28, 5320 hrs £31,500 Tel. 03336 000670. (t)
2007, 4 x SCV, front weights, 25” tracks 70%, bottom rollers 80%, 5454 hrs £74,500 Tel. 03336 000670. (t)
1999, Turbo, powershift, joystick, forks & new Bucket Tel. 01652 648787; 07831 108382. North Lincs (t)
1999, Agri Spec, Turbo, 100hp, pick up hitch, joystick control, diff lock. Tel. 01652 648787; 07831 108382. North Lincs (t)
CATERPILLAR 865
CLAAS 7030
CLAAS DOM 108
CLAAS TARGO K50
2003, 30” tracks 70%, drawbar, 4 x SCV, front weights, no linkage or PTO, 5154 hrs £68,500 Tel. 03336 000670. (t)
Scorpion tele-handler, 3360 hours, Varipower, choice of Claas or Matbro carriage, 2010 £35,500 Tel. 01926 640637. (t)
SL Maxi, 1992, 3D 17ft auto contour, 3400 hrs Tel. 01697 342191; 07775 688642. (t)
2005, c/w JCB head and tines, 3100 genuine hours, tidy £15,950 Tel. 07976 575120; 07779 248021; 07807 603870; 07972 102323. (t)
DAVID BROWN 1200
DAVID BROWN 1390
DAVID BROWN 990
DAVID BROWN 990
restored, original panels, full set of wheel & front weights, new tyres, rebuilt engine, V5, £6500 Tel. 07974 013235. Gloucs
with power loader/bucket, good working order, good hydraulics, power steering, ideal for small holding, £3950 no vat Tel. 07779 986072. Gloucester
built 1971/2, with front loader & rear forklift attachment, all working and complete, £2000 ono Tel. 07860 733340. West Sussex
Selectamatic, older restoration, runs well, £1675 Tel. 01353 740470. Cambs
110
TractorJanuary 2014
CASE 410 SKID STEER
BOOK YOUR AD NOW!
year 08, 435 hours only Tel. 01652 651832; 07774 737966. (t)
CASE 4230
1995 & Chilton Powerloader, 4x4, 5700 hours, joystick, V5 logbook present Tel. 01652 648787; 07831 108382. North Lincs (t)
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NextMonth
AND FARMING HERITAGE MAGAZINE
A special Marshall ▲ Jonathan Whitlam recalls his first taste of tractor ownership – straight from the internet and with only a couple of photographs to go by, he and lifelong friend Stephen Richmond jumped right in and bought a Marshall 904XL!
Tractors in winter
Stuart Gibbard looks at snow ploughing with tractors – a story of men and machines battling against the elements to prevent the countryside coming to a standstill and protecting the farmers’ threatened livelihood.
ON SALE JAN 7
Wallis Wonder
This 1916 Wallis Cub was one of the stars at the 2013 Newark Tractor Show; people with the skills involved to restore it to working condition are hardly commonplace, but we meet the man who has – David White.
Plus Masseys at work ■ Jo Roberts ■ Home Farm Diaries ■ From the Archives ■ County ■ Practical Workshop ■ Porsche ■ Tractor Widow ■ Tractor Talk tractormagazine.co.uk
January2014Tractor
103