Blue Force at Newark

[Brian]

Took Dotty to the showground yesterday. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although people are still arriving with tractor the ones already there were an amazing array of New Holland, Ford and Fordson. There are dozens of County, Roadless and others already there.

Pascal was drooling as soon as we pulled in the gate.

Where are you Dave?

[The Swanndri Guy]

Brian, Pascal, make lots of pictures for us members who can't get there

[Dandy Dave]

I wish I could have been there. Had a by Invitation Only car show to take my 1915 Buick to that same weekend at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford Estate in Michigan so I was in good company. My car is the top three photos.
http://forums.aaca.org/f169/eyes-design ... 74224.html

[Brian]

Well! Blue Force 1000 is finished and we are back home with Dotty and Henrietta. What a weekend and what a week!

Pascal, Ann and I have visited the Majors at Cromer beach, Standen Engineering, Team Sprayers, The Royal Norfolk Show, The Gressenhall Rural Life Museum, Charles Atkins Tractor and Implement Sales and Storage yard as well as a short "play" on Nuffy and Henrietta on a small area on our field. All this and Blue Force 1000 as well.

There will be pictures! Pascal took nearly 1000 and I took around 400 and am loading them as I type but it will be later today before they are on Photobucket and I can start posting them.

It was great to meet those of you who found our display of spark ignition tractors immediately opposite the New Holland Stand, quite a good place on a main walkway. We had 2 petrol 2000s, a petrol 3000, a petrol Super Major, 2 petrol/paraffin E1ADKN Majors and a petrol Dexta. There were six petrol/paraffin E1ADKN Majors but only one petrol Super Major and one "real" petrol Dexta on the site.

There was also the "star" of our display, the V8 Petrol Dexta!

Most of the E1ADKN's on site were within a few months of Henrietta but one highly polished one was an 18th January 1952 making it one of the first Majors built. The others ranged from April to October 1952.

There was also a rare L4 powered E1A, I had seen them when I was at Wrights as, because the petrol/paraffin ones were unsaleable after the introduction of the diesel, these tractors were converted to diesel by the installation of the L4 and sent overseas. I have mentioned on the board that I have never come across one over the years and yet, here was one. The casting codes made it a 1952 so it is pretty certain that this was one of the converted ones.

Other rare tractors on site included the loading shovel made by Roadless from a 115 tractor, does anyone remember the other Roadless loader built just before their demise? I saw one at the Royal Show back in the 1980's and think it was an Irish designed unit. It was not a Moffet however.

We all had a great time, watch this space for the (many) pictures.

And the most memorable moment? It happened on Monday morning when we returned to the showground to pick up Henrietta. The showground was nearly all clear apart from the New Holland stand which still had the combines and a few tractors plus a group of New Holland employees clearing the display caravans. Henrietta was parked opposite the van that they were loading and they all looked round as I climbed aboard to load her on our trailer. It was then she performed her impressive (for a petrol/paraffin) trick, she really is a performer when she has an audience, she started after only turning over one compression! There was the sound of a group of jaws hitting the floor of a New Holland van! Bet the modern tractors won't start like that at 62 years of age!

[Brian]

Fordson Tractor Pages stand.



View from the stand.





L4 Fordson Major.



Model F



Model N Rowcrop.



New Way Benson Bale transporter.



J.J.Wright and Sons, Super Steel Wheels.



Two Countys and a few '000nd Series.



County 654.



Very nice 95-100



Fiat.





Northrop 5004



Jewelltrac. Jewell bought Roadless and finished off a number of tractors that were incomplete



Roadless 6-4.



Just a few of the Roadless line up.



Roadless 90. Sorry about the picture quality but it was dark and raining.



Roadless 78.



Roadless N.



Roadless 980



Roadless 118



Roadless 120.







Roadless 115 Loading Shovel. Very Rare.



Roadless rubber jointed tracks.



Roadless J17.



Roadless Super Dexta.



Roadless Portal Axle design.



9804



7804.



Highly polished Dexta.

















This one came a long way! (Well actually from just up the road near Boston, Lincs).





Ford 1000. Never seen one of these before.







Petrol 4000s









Petrol 2000. The back end shows where the Dexta got its heritage



Nice E27Ns



E27N Industrial.



Chaseside Conversion.



Halftrack N.



Mailam 5000. Gates of Baldock, Ford Dealer brought these in from Italy.





The "must have" tractor on the show ground for me! A Dexta crawler!!!!!!



Ford 9600





Another 6 cylinder conversion. Think it is an AVR chassis.



Versatile.



Thames Trader and friend.



Ford Transcontinental from Watton, just down the road from me.



FW60



Henks new plough!







Matbro 6 cylinder.



Matbro Loader.



Sanderson display.



County Industrial Dexta



Part of the County display.



County Hi-Drive.



One of the last Countys built by Benson.



County Forward Control.



County Super 6.



County 4 Drive.



County 1454.







The V8 Dexta on our display.







The rare petrol Super Major on our display.

[henk]

That plough behind the Matbro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or behind the FW 60. There is one in the nabourghhood at the Heerema plant.

Great pictures Brian. Lots of specials.

[oehrick]

Wow another set of super pics - thanks Brian - some rare old troopers there

I like Henks new plough how many weights on the front of the Major and kPa/cm^2 in the tyres Henk ?

[Brian]

If I were going for a big plough and tractor it would be that plough behind the County 1454, I love the sparkly gear levers and hydraulic controls on the 9600 based tractors.





That control layout really made my heart leap when I climbed up on the first one I demonstrated at a Wrights open day, with only a four furrow plough!

I have ploughed with a six furrow Dowdeswell semi mounted plough behind a 9600 and behind a TW35. The turnover seemed strange as you roll the plough over the wheel when you change direction rather than lifting the whole plough out of the ground. The first 9600 we sold from the Wisbech depot of PM Tractors suffered breaking lift arms because the operator lifted the hydraulics to fully raised before turning the plough, the whole weight of the front of the plough was dropping on one lift arm from about 3m high.

[The Swanndri Guy]

Brian, the Ford 1000 is a Shibaura tractor from IHI Shibaura Machinery Corporation, painted blue and white instead of red,grey and white, Shibaura supplied tractors to Ford upto about 40 horsepower.Previously, I had a Shibaura SE 4040 Mk1, the SE 4000 /4040 Mk2 is the same as the 4 cylinder Ford 2100. TSG.
Nice pictures too

[Pascal]

Hi guys,

I can only confirm what Brian mentioned: what a week and what a weekend! Truly a great holiday for me! It was the first time I went to the UK, but it definately won't be the last time!
It was great to stay at Brian & Ann! They must be the warmest and nicest people of Norfolk!

BlueForce 1000 was the best! The moment we drove onto the festival terrain, I felt like a boy in a toystore!
I have never seen:
- a real Doe...there were about 30 Does over there
- a County 1884...there were two over there
- a Matbro...there were three
- a Northrop...there were two
Truly amazing!

When I see two County's on a Dutch festival, I am excited...on BF1000 there were like 35? And about 30 Does, about 50 Roadless, about 10 Ford 7000, etc, etc!

And last but not least, I got the honour to drove Dotty, Henrietta and Nuffy!

My pictures are currently uploading into Photobucket. Depending on how long this takes, I will post them this afternoon or tonight.

[Pascal]

At Cromer beach













Truly built to last...these 50-60 years old tractors work on the worst conditions (run about 15 minutes a day, salt sea water, sand), but still do their job!
I doubt if todays tractors will do that within 50 years...



Royal Norfolk show...never seen anything like this in my life. Besided machinery there were a lot of other stands like plants, caddle, universities, etc.

New Holland T9


Henrietta next to a David Brown Cropmaster


Field Marshall


Ford 3000 with cab


The Dye family seems to be quite active in blue tractors...


Ford 4000 and (Super)Dexta's


E27N


JD's


a French Bene tractor/truck










I like these...behind a big fence...pretty big cows...


Grimme beet harvester


Henrietta being the star of the demo!




Massey Harris combine, with Brian's favorite engine: a 6 cylinder Rover?


Massey Harris with tedder

2

[Pascal]

Here is a small selection of my BlueForce 1000 pictures. I took about 1000 pictures If anyone wants to see a special model, please let me know...I probably
have some pictures of it.

The Fordson Tractor Pages Spark ignition stand at BF 1000








Henrietta


Dotty


Petrol Fordson SuperMajor


Petrol Ford 3000


Petrol Ford 2000








County 1474 longnose


County 6700-four (for Frode )


County crawler for swamps (wide tracks)


Highway Fordson Dexta (made by County)


County 752 High Clearance


Big Ford's!








Ford 7000


Very nice Ford 3000 4wd with Schindler front axle (anyone knows spare parts for this tractor??)


E27N tricycle


Ford 7810 and 7910 including Silver Jubilee


Doe 130


Doe Triple D




Home made


Doe 5100. Based on Ford 5095 (EVA conversion), but with heavy duty County clutch?


Fordson Major Roadless conversion




County ForwardControl 1004; pretty rare in agricultural specification




2x County 1884...the biggest County's built!


County 1184 with dump trailer for mining


County FC1004


County SuperSix


County 4000-Four....really like this model. There were 4 on the show








Ford 1000-series


Roadless Ploughmaster




Roadless front axle








Roadless tricycle


Roadless Shunter


Roadless crawler


Whitlock (?) digger


MuirHill








Northrop




The Fordson Tractor Pages crew!


Remember the discussion about the orange grills...and look at the next two pictures (numberplate)...




Fordson Major engine




A beauty.




Nuffy at work Please not the correct shirts of the drivers! Everybody should have a couple of these shirts...buy them at Brian's.




Last but not least a very rare Dexta creeper box


Enjoy the pictures!

[county654]

Thank you Brian and Pascal for sharing thes great pictures with us.
I am shure, I will scroll them a couple mor times

[oehrick]

Thanks for adding to the enjoyment for those of us who couldn't be there Pascal - did you enjoy the wide range of customised seat in use on the Cromer tractors ?
1000 pictures at BFN - you'll go blue colour blind

[Ambidextarous]

Some very nice photos there chaps, thanks very much.

[henk]

Looks like you all had a great time.
Thanks for the pictures.

[BearCreek Majors]

Thanks guys! we really enjoy the pictures!

Pat

[Dandy Dave]

Great Photos. Thanks for Sharing. Dandy Dave!

[Pascal]

Very welcome to share the pics, guys!

@Oehrick
Yes, great seats...some of the even had the "Rest-o-Ride".

[oehrick]

@Oehrick
Yes, great seats...some of the even had the "Rest-o-Ride".

Rest-o-Ride > Norfolk translation = seat loosely retained with Baling Twine and covered with a sack (poor farmers) or Bungee Cord (the likes of those wearing Bowler* Hats at the RNS)

* Should be known as a Coke (pronounced cook) Hat - invented by one of the Earls of Leicester from Holkham as an early form of hard hat for his gamekeepers, made from felted rabbit fur impregnated with dissolved Shellac then baked until hard.....

BTW Brian was there any particular significance in the spark ignition display (aniversary of some sort ?) or just a chance to display a rare type en-mass in rocking horse droppings corner

Doesn't seem a year round but I just got the reminder that 'Old Leaky' needs a new tax disc at the month end - may be the last one ever if they haven't gone electronic already

Cheers 'n Beers all

[Brian]

Rick,
Fordson Tractor Pages were invited to put on a display of petrol Dextas for Blue Force 1000 but, as there are so few in the country and their owners are not all prepared to show them or travel I suggested it would be easier to display spark ignition tractors from 1952. We had two of the rarest tractors on the field in the Petrol Super Major and the Petrol Dexta and these created a lot of interest amongst the many Dutchmen who attended and the New Zealanders who also came along for a chat. One couple have about 5 petrol Dextas and did not realise they were so rare here in England.

It will be interesting to see if the tractors appear in any of the tractor magazines, two of the leading (?) writers walked passed on the other side of the roadway and when I caught one of them later, he had not even seen them.

The Dutch were there in force! Pascal had his work cut out translating! Pity there were not a few more English, Welsh or Scottish as at times, we seemed outnumbered.

I did meet a couple of our posters and had a long chat with Dave from Gretna and one of Ann's ex-pupils recognised her and also came over for a chat. You go 100 miles from home and get recognised by someone you taught nearly 30 years ago!