Tractor heritage, news and features

Welcome... September 2011

Taken by our staff photographer Joe Dick it portrays an environment ideally designed for tinkering, and while it was only taken a few weeks ago it could just have easily have been ‘snapped’ in the 1960s or 70s. The person who owns it is certainly a lucky chap.

For me, while it is reminiscent of the times when I was young and used to wander in and out of the lorry workshop that used to back onto our house; it also makes me wonder about the future of ‘tinkering’ itself. Just take for example how technically advanced modern day tractors are in comparison with the tractors shown on these pages. A whole new generation of mechanics is growing up in a world full of ready assembled electronic modules which can be found in abundance on the vehicles of today. It may be that without guidance they may be prone to thinking that the solution to a problem may be the buying in of a sub assembly to cure a problem, rather than stripping it down if possible to rectify or manufacture a part which is the cause of the trouble.

My brother-in-law, a Ford mechanic by trade, has been involved with engineering for most of his working life and often admits that nowadays the first thing done in the workshop to solve a customer’s problem is to hook it up to the diagnostic computer.

Although he also denies that he has been on the two-day seminar that teaches mechanics to suck air through their teeth, having the psychological effect of making the customer reach for his wallet quicker than Clint Eastwood for his gun in A Fistful of Dollars.

Thankfully there are teaching establishments about, such as the Riseholme College at Lincoln for example, which is keeping basic engineering skills alive while still embracing the wonders of modern technology.

So is the home workshop also becoming a dying breed? Not so while there are people who keep the tractor restoration movement alive. Not only is it the place to get things done, but for some it is also a refuge, as we have all heard of someone who makes their excuses at the weekend just to get a bit of peace. And it is not the first time I have caught someone sat outside their shed watching the world go by instead.

Having established that the workshop is the sacred place that we can practise the arcane art, I have to ask the question what’s in your shed? If you have your own workshop it is something to be proud of and we would all be pleased to see a picture of it – so why don’t you send in your images.

Tony Hoyland
Editor