The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Why Oh why do I persist in calling this great show The Aston Bank Show? I only hope the organisers, if they happen to read this site, forgive me. Even Mike has stopped correcting me.

Weather makes a show and it certainly did on Sunday here. Not a cloud in the sky, bright , hot sunshine, one could almost believe summer was here. After the rain and cold of last weeks Shrewsbury Show you could have believed you had moved and gone to Australia!

Might have been the vine-yard tractor that was in the lines that made the difference.



Standing next to it was one I had not seen before. It had come from the Swiss border area and they were certainly proud of its name as this was cast into every available part.



But it had every sign of being a winner with Oscar Not only was it the right size to fit in his garage, he could use it to cut his lawn AND its controls make it look like driving a railway signal box!!



The tractor I would like most to take home, at least the one that would fit in my yard is this one.



An interesting tractor on view was the County Sea Horse. If you read the blurb, it was supposed to be the actual tractor that was driven across the channel in that famous publicity stunt but a plate with the build date contradicted that. Still what a beauty.

That is Mike and Colin admiring it.






There was also a Chinese tractor in the lines. Could not quite work out how it came to be in the vintage lines. Very much doubt it will ever reach the age of some of the exhibits, but it takes all sorts. Have not also worked out how a tractor, sold in the EU and subject to our laws, can have all the controls marked in Chinese, without an interpretation. HSE not doing its job perhaps.



The BIG boys toys were also there in force!







And, of course the tractor pulling,






And this one was doing rather well until something large and expensive went BANG in the rear axle,



But after all the noise and smoke of the pulling, in a quiet corner this old girl was ticking away and the gentle hum of the drum took us back many years,



This Dexta powered log splitter was working nearby and seemed to have plenty of power for the logs involved. This one however is not a good example,



Then, next to these working tractors and again hidden in the corner, a bit of a find,





The gentleman in charge said she is an original prototype Roadless that was used at the factory for a test bed. She had also appeared on the early leaflets advertising the Roadless system. She certainly was a Fordson ASP with a MK 1 engine with the throttle through the block but without the wide pulleys, a Power Major (?) gearbox housing or at least a 1957/58 one, a Super Major rear axle housing with dif. lock and disc brakes and a Major/Power Major lift.

It certainly was a mix of parts and just the sort of thing Roadless would do on a long term test bed tractor.

All together a very interesting day. Many thanks Mike for suggesting it. By the way, the gauge is faulty, I tried it on Nuffy this morning.

Brian wrote:
There was also a Chinese tractor in the lines. Could not quite work out how it came to be in the vintage lines. Very much doubt it will ever reach the age of some of the exhibits, but it takes all sorts.

I think I know why. They are aging so quickly that they become vintage after only a few years.

The first time I saw a picture from a Vendeuvre tractor was at 2002. Later on a saw a few in France. They made tractors at a place called Vendeuvre sur Brase. A small town nearby Troyes in France. That my home town.
They had some sort of cooperation with Allis Chalmers. Maybe our France readers will know more.

i went on sat and the dexta with the log splitter had a DAR valve fitted. then on the sunday i went and got a Fordson N to Fire that has been on the same farm since new.

Regards
James

Great Roadless!
Very rare frontweights! You don't see them a lot.

Thank you for sharing those pictures, Brian.

Brian wrote:But it had every sign of being a winner with Oscar Cool Not only was it the right size to fit in his garage, he could use it to cut his lawn AND its controls make it look like driving a railway signal box!!

You're right, Brian! It's a lovely little tractor. Nevertheless, I don't think I would buy it because finding spare parts for it will be a nightmare. Instead, I'd rather go for (dare I say it?) one of those McCormicks that have more levers, knobs and twiddles than a 747. And that Roadless Major, now that's an awesome tractor!

I managed to get to the Astwood Bank Show this year for the first time. It was a good show and I had a great afternoon, the highlight for me was looking around the yard of S.E. Davies especially the collection of crawlers, draglines and other plant, I had heard that it was a unique collection but I was blown away when I saw it. There must have been in excess of 100 crawlers incl. Fowler, Allis Chalmers, County, Track Marshall, Caterpillar, David Brown, International, Cletrac, Vickers and the star of the show the mighty Euclid!!!!


The blade of the mighty Euclid.

The Euclid with its independant engines and transmissions for each track, I'm told that when moving location they used to split the machine and transport the two halves separately!

Vickers crawler

A general view of one of the sheds

Some of the other plant stored in the open.

This is just a flavour of the collection!!

Say, who else around here has the historic construction equipment bug?

Here is a little toy I put together myself from discarded scrap metal and odd parts of which none were meant to be a power shovel.


Just a big kid in a big sandbox.



Dandy Dave!

Hi Dandy Dave,

That's a really smart piece of work! It must have been an very interesting project. I haven't seen anything like that over this side of the water.

It's a real display of your skills.

Hi,

Very nice machine.

Best regeards

Emiel

Dandy Dave,
Nice machine. How did you get the idea to make such a thing?
Better not show it to the labour safety controllers. They would be

Chris,
Nice picture. I think I have seen the Vickers earlier on the old board.

Some think it is old, Some think it is new. And on both accounts, both would be right as it was created in 2001 from parts that are from all sorts of stuff.

I have other larger power shovels. A 1952 hanson model 41. Also a 1928 Hanson (10-20 McCormick-Deering powered full swing tractor shovel) that I donated to Connecticut Antique Machinery association (CAMA) several years ago that I still run during the show. Also a 1930 Universal 3/4ths swing that I rescued from a sand pit that was slated to be buried that I am working on with another fellow, Art Downs, that has taken the reins and was able to rescue the original motor. I have also ran, and repaired other cable machines though the years of which I cannot remember how many different makes. I took the design that I liked best about each make, and incorperated it into this little project.

I started with the undercarrige from an old WA1 Vermer trencher from the 1950's that was at a local junkmans house. The first time that I saw it, the first thing that past though my mind was what a neat shovel that would make. I had no idea what it was from at the time as all that was left was the under carraige, a hydraulic pump, some hydraulic motors to drive it, and the valves to walk it.
The stance was perfect. I fabricated the deck, boom, shovel front, mast, center pin, and other small parts from scrap steel that I had laying around. The swing gear, and pinion is from a McCormick-Deering horse drawn corn binder. I coupled this to a hydrolic motor to make it full swing. The rotory coupling I found in a junk shop for the steep price of 15 US dollars. ( When the man told me that, I could not get the money out fast enough, And ran out of the door like a thief after I payed for it. ) This coupling is what makes it possible to walk the shovel with the hydraulic motors that are underneath the unit, with the pump that is on top of the unit and still have full swing that will not tangle the hoses. The motor was from a Jacosen mower from around 1970 and is a 301 series Kohler. The forward and reversing clutches for the power crowd are from a wayne road sweeper. The drum for this I fabicated. The hoist drum was an old builders winch. The seat is from an old horse Drawn John Deere plow. The hoist brake is from an old Toro reel mower. the crowd brake is from the wayne road sweeper. Many other small parts too numerus to mention.

It took about three years to gather enough parts and scrap. And about two months to put it all together. I had some down time you might say back in those years and all I did was,eat, Sleep, and work on the baby shovel.

Safty control??? I guess that would be OSHA over here. Those guys have no idea what they are looking at when they see this thing. Dandy Dave!

Brian, do you have a lower pic from the roadless from the front, I do have the same front axel as I can see but mine is a complete 1960 power major and not a bitsa....

Sorry Frans, they were the only pictures I took.