We are one of those families that have odd hobbies. The world is littered with these families who fill up their time with pastimes which the rest of the world usually considers pretty bizarre and pointless, like collecting condom wrappers or building dry stone dykes. Well, our particular odd pastime is...collecting vintage tractors. Basically, we buy old wrecks from farms, or from anyone who happens to have one handy, and we then spend a year restoring said piece of junk to it's pristine, brand-new state. Mostly, we try to maintain the originality of the piece, but it isn't always possible. To compound your opinion that we are all completely insane, we now have 35 of the things!! We specialise, however, in American Case tractors. Every two years, we take a trip to the American mid-west, in order to buy these things. We now have all the 1930's and 1940's Cases, and are in the process of restoring them. We also have Fordson, Ferguson, Field-Marshall, Farmall, John Deere, and one or two others. As if that was not enough, we also maintain two vintage lorries, an Austin and a Scammel Highwayman, to cart these tractors around the country to various vintage shows. We recently bought a 1980 Foden truck to haul our vintage caravan, which is actually a 40ft Showman's Living Wagon, literally a house on wheels. We also have over 60 stationary barn engines (the things which used to power washing machines, pumps etc. before the engines were built in), and a vintage car (Rover P6, TC2000). We spend our winter in restoring our latest tractor, the summer in showing it at vinatge rallies all over Britain, and the autumn in vintage ploughing. It may sound slightly eccentric, but there is a growing fraternity of people in Britain, and America, who are interested in preserving our great agricultural heritage. The reason I am telling you all this is that we are desperately looking for spare parts for our tractors, particularly Case, as most of these parts are no longer manufactured. If you can help, or know of anyone who can, please e-mail us and let us know!!
Links to other sites on the Web
A good collection of vintage tractor and engine links
Tractorsusa
The History of Case
JI Case Homepage
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