The thresher was made by Fosters of Lincoln c. 1946. Fosters were also instrumental in developing and building the early British tanks in WWI.
In the forground I think is an early PTO driven baler, but it doesn't seem to be knotting very well
Nice looking Major with Boughton winch.
Last edited by Bensdexta on Wed Nov 09, 2011 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Emiel wrote:...but these fenders,.......
Are the the Lambourn safety fenders?
I don't know. They look pretty modern don't they? I guess it's a working tractor so some updates are allowed!
Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can identify them
Having spent some time using a threshing machine (mill) in the 1960's I can offer a few suggestions about the baling part of the operation.
At the far end of the thresher, away from the tractor is a fitted straw trusser. The straw was normally dropped loose from the thresher onto an elevator which lifted it to build a straw 'stack'. Alternatively the straw was dropped onto a baler which was powered by a belt from the thresher.
In this case the straw is being fed into a 'Trusser',fixed to the top back of the thresher, which made loose bundles of straw tied automatically with twine. In the demonstration the straw is then being fed into I think a Claas buncher which made tighter bundles. The loose straw lying around is probably the short bits of straw and chaff, known as cavings, ejected by the thresher deliberately to keep them out of the straw.
fenhayman wrote:In this case the straw is being fed into a 'Trusser',fixed to the top back of the thresher, which made loose bundles of straw tied automatically with twine.
Yes I think this is correct. The bundles were collected by hand from the end of the thresher away from the Major and stacked. Although the 'buncher' was running off a M-F65 not much was being feed to it. They said it was Aquila wheat straw for thatching.
I'm interested that theshers like this were still being used in the 1960's. Of course horses were still quite common on farms in the 50's. I remember school-boy debates as to whether tractors were better than horses - showing my age
Threshing with a drum and elevator/buncher had died out here in Norfolk by the mid 1950's. I remember the steam engines and the change over to Marshalls by the local contractors. One sold about 10 steam engines for £50 each for scrap.
We then had combines like the Massey Harris 21, Massey Harris 726 and the Massey Harris 780. Another popular one was the Claas Super and Super Automatic.
There were others around like the trailed Ransomes, my fathers boss bought a Grain Marshall powered by a Ford 10 hp car engine. The Marshall combine I would have loved to have seen was the "Silver Queen", a combine with two engines.
By the early 1960's Claas SF and SFB had become the combine of choice for the bigger farms and these were replaced by the Matador and Matador Gigant.
From 1963 to 1998 combines were a major part of my working life.
Fordson Tractor Pages, now officially linked to: Fordson Tractor Club of Australia, Ford and Fordson Association and Blue Force.
Brian
Thats a nice working tractor. The way its raining here in Canada at the moment I could do with that winch as theres going to be work for it pulling combines .
I think those fenders are from a late 5ooo series ford they do not look wide enough to be county mud gaurds as I have seen fitted before.
Regards Robert
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