Tractor heritage, news and features

Easter parade

As I walked between the tightly packed rows of almost 500 tractors expecting to find my entry number, 447, on a little grey Ferguson, I was astonished to see it attached to a huge Massey-Ferguson 1080 whose driving position was so high that it was like riding on an open-top double-decker! 

Of my generous benefactor Keith Broomhall among the seething mass of starters there was no sign (he and his wife Jane were listed in the programme as taking part on a Massey-Harris 44 Diesel Special) so I studied the controls for some time, trying to work out how to start the impressive machine!

To my right was the ignition key, with its ‘start’, ‘off’, ‘heat’ and ‘heat start’ positions so, checking that both gear levers were in their ‘neutral’ and ‘park’ positions, I turned the key clockwise. Nothing! “OK,” I thought, “let’s see what happens if I depress the linked brake pedal and then the clutch pedal,” so I tried both. Again, nothing!

Was the red ‘kill’ knob fully home? Yes, but what’s that little switch just inside the offside back mudguard? Once again, nothing happened.

I was just working out my next move when a fellow entrant who’d come all the way from Cheshire asked: “Are both terminals connected to the battery?”

Where was the battery? I unscrewed a bolt securing a small flat panel to the back of the bonnet top and there it was – with one terminal dangling loosely as a precaution against theft! You learn something every day...

One turn of the key and the big four-cylinder diesel roared into life, the exhaust exiting via a large oval-shaped silencer. All the dials were registering healthy oil pressure, water temperature, amperes etc, but the fuel gauge remained stubbornly on ‘empty’. I lifted another small flap on the left corner of the footplate floor and peered into the deep fuel tank. A reasonable amount of fuel seemed to be sloshing about at the bottom, so I decided to go for it.

Although I was half expecting to hear the diesel sucking air instead of fuel at some time during the 25-mile run, I needn’t have worried at all, for there was easily enough to get me back to the airfield, so thank you, Keith, for a wonderful ride.

One by one, tractor engines all around me were fired up in anticipation of the start until Tibenham Airfield became a throbbing assault on the eardrums, and when I started the big 1080 once again, the exhaust was so clean that the only way I could tell the engine was running was from the vibrations!

The tractors had been arranged in long straight lines which were allowed to depart one line at a time and one tractor from each line at a time, to avoid too much congestion either exiting the airfield or on the roads. With their skilful ropework, the Old Ram Club members definitely knew what they were doing.

Starting signal

At last a concussive thud signalled the start of another great ‘National’, and I heard the thump of the two leading single-cylinder Field-Marshall tractors leading the great Easter parade away. The first was Old Ram Club chairman and event organiser Max Knights’ 1946 Series 1 and the second the 1951 Series 3 belonging to Ashley Godsall of Herefordshire, co-founder of the event that started back in the late 1980s.

Members of the vintage tractor fraternity came from all over Britain to take part in the huge and happy event, with entries from Fife, Dumfries & Galloway, Co Durham, Cornwall, Devon, Herefordshire, Carmarthenshire, Powys, Pembrokeshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Essex, Cheshire, Hampshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Lancashire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire for starters. Oh, and there were also entries from Arkansas and Spain!

Rarely have I driven in a ‘national’ that has been so well organised. There were marshals everywhere, and after the tractors arrived through an avenue of welcoming crowds at the village common in Old Buckenham, all 460 plus were parked with the minimum of fuss and palaver. The collecting buckets were also out in force to boost funds for the run’s chosen charity, the East Anglian Air Ambulance. After a refreshing morning drive along quiet lanes, with primroses growing profusely along the verges, and long sections of off-road driving along farm accommodation tracks, of which there are many among the broad acres of Nelson’s county, it was time to get to work and start interviewing a few people.

Fendt Favorit

The first I met, beside a beautiful recently restored 1969 Fendt Favorit 35, were Cybele de Jong and Ben Ohsten, who have a farm at nearby Pulham St Mary. They’d come across the Fendt during a camping holiday in Holland last year, and bought the ex-farm condition tractor on the spot.

When they got it home, a thorough restoration was started straight away. Many parts were obtained for the two-wheel-drive, 65hp tractor on German eBay, and apart from the upholstery on the driving and typically side-mounted passenger seats, they did all the work themselves.

The restoration had been completed in February, and this was the immaculate tractor’s first run since then. Cybele had driven it as far as the lunch stop, with her partner Ben on the left mudguard-mounted ‘dicky seat’, and he was going to do the afternoon’s driving. It was great to see a smart and unusual tractor like this in the ‘National’, and we hope they complete many more on their new-found pride and joy.

Unusual tractors

Talking of unusual tractors, though, the one that took the biscuit, and all the way from Fife, was surely Alex Steele’s extensively modified 1950 Fordson E27N, into which he had shoehorned a 1948 four-cylinder Gardner 4LW diesel.

Originally installed in a Foden lorry, the engine produces 75hp at a lazy 1500rpm, and the extensive modifications required to fit it into the old tractor have included lengthening the whole machine. There’s very little room for the rocker cover beneath the fuel tank, which has been lengthened with a deep portion added near the back to provide the capacity required for the 12mpg motor. There was also evidence of much modification around the bellhousing, and we hope to bring you the complete feature in an issue or two’s time.

The work was only finished this year, and apart from a single shake-down run in Scotland, this was the tractor’s first proper outing.

The multi-award-winning  Massey-Ferguson 135 of Lancashire ‘National’ organiser Geoff Dunn looked as immaculate as ever despite all the mud and water-filled potholes we’d all driven through. He’s like those top link locomotive firemen whose boots used to remain highly polished from the start of their journey to the finish. He ploughs and does all kinds of other things with his 135 as well!

Showing off a fine Easter bonnet was Maria Gaskin, from Kersall, near Newark, Notts, who drove a spotless Massey-Ferguson 35 that had been prepared by her partner, Mick Long. His own choice of machine was an equally tidy MF 135.

Nigel Greggs of Durham had the bonnet of his 1958 International B250 open as he checked the fuel system, and another nice International nearby was John Coombe’s 1964 B275 that has now completed four ‘Nationals’ in a row, and he hasn’t even had to change the oil since the first one. Before that he drove a grey Ferguson in the big Easter events.

A Super Major fitted with a gorgeous V8 engine, and a lengthened Power Major with a six-cylinder Ford engine, stood out among the many Fordson Majors taking part, some immaculate and some in barn condition, the latter seeming to have a charm and patina all of their own.

Original

I just had to speak to a couple in delightful period costume, the top-hatted Spot Long and Easter bonneted Pam, who had an original-condition 1962 cabbed Massey-Ferguson 65 with the springs coming out of the seat and the county flag of Norfolk flying proudly. They just seemed to typify the carefree nature of the event.

In a trailer behind Denis Worby’s 1983 Reform County Muli 50 was a happy family group consisting of Sandra, Liam, Vicky and Julie, with Sian on the mobile in the cab in typical teenage fashion!

Quite a few of the tractors were towing trailers for families and friends to ride in, and in one of them Ashley Godsall’s wife Glad was playing mum once again by providing sausage rolls, sandwiches and coffee to friends as they dropped by. Ashley’s face was well spotted with oil from the exhaust of his former Irish Field-Marshall that has taken part in countless ‘Nationals’ now.

At breakfast it had been good to meet retired farmer David Smith, another local entrant on his 1943 Farmall H, who still grows three acres of long-stalked wheat for thatching and threshing displays. Later this summer he’ll be joining in a 1940s’ harvest weekend organised by Graham Kirk that should prove well worth a visit.

Along the potholed tracks and byways, punctures appeared to be a problem for some of the runners this year. As the surprisingly chilly wind blasted my face from my high-up perch on the Massey-Ferguson 1080, an even bigger MF was on my tail, the articulated 1200 being driven by local entrant Mark Eastoll. He suddenly started revving his engine as we made our way along a wide-rutted track between an avenue of trees, and the next time I checked in the big mirror there was no sign of him. I later learned that he’d suffered a puncture.

Pronounced list

As I made my way home after the event, some of the tractors were still coming in, and I noticed one pulling a trailer that seemed to have a pronounced list to starboard. As we crossed, I could see that his offside trailer tyre was completely flat, and wondered how many miles he’d been trying to coax his outfit home.

As usual, there wasn’t the time to talk to everyone I’d have liked to, but after one of the best runs I can remember – and there have been many – I came away more impressed than ever with the organising skills of the Tivetshall Old Ram Tractor Club, so named because of members’ meeting place, the Old Ram Coaching Inn along Ipswich Road, Tivetshall St Mary.

Long may they flourish – and already I’m looking forward to next year’s ‘National’ which will start from the Pembrokeshire County Showground at Haverfordwest, South Wales, next Easter Sunday, 24 April. This will include some fantastic coastal views, and a richly varied route is guaranteed.

It is being organised by Henry Dixon along with friends and members of the South-West Wales Branch of the National Vintage Tractor & Engine Club. The closing date for entries (£15 per tractor) will be 25 March 2011, and this time the League of Friends of Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest, will be the beneficiary.

In Norfolk, entry forms for next year’s event were included in every entrant’s starting pack, but others are available from Mr M Evans, Gorsemount, Whitland, Pembrokeshire SA34 0QX (01994 240142). Please send a stamped, addressed envelope.

It definitely looks like another ‘good ‘un’, so hopefully we’ll see you there.