The Pub 2017

[oehrick]

I've been thinking for a while that we need a pub for the odd 'one posters' that don't really justify a new thread, or sneaking into a 'proper' thread, so welcome to the snug of the Broken Crankshaft, were we can chat, point to pics or videos, have a moan, note the days events etc.

So I'll kick the ball off with a tiny film clip of Henry Ford and what should have been the ancestor of our tractors, unfortunately some fool persuaded him to get rid of the boiler and the fire

https://archive.org/details/CEP178

BTW this is one of the best archives for old books on technology, machinery etc, just search and be amazed, I've filled up two hard drives so far and still finding stuff

I suppose it must be my round, so each of you can take a few quid/bucks/euro out of petty cash for a pint/short/coffee

[brockwood]

not bad i have seen a longer clip with voice over apparently he had a life long interest in steam when the plant railways went to diesel he kept one steam engine in serviceable condition everything had to be able to work

[oehrick]

For a man often quoted as saying 'history is bunk' he went to extraordinary lengths (and investment) to collect, preserve, display and interpret early examples of machinery and equipment at his museum in Dearborn, in the late 20's & 30's he and his agents combed the UK for early engines and machines significant to the development of industry- let alone the efforts he went to in preserving the lab of his friend and mentor Edison (the Great Pretender and his dead end electrical system!) although strangely, Nikola Tesla and his massive contribution appears to have been overlooked by him - and without his inventionsof international power and radio distribution would have checked the progress that Ford profited from..

I'll have another look to see if I can find that longer voiced film, I'm sure I've seen more on his prototype and development tractors but that may not have been from an on-line source.

Meanwhile I shall keep in mind the picture of my totally silent Major with 10 times the torque, chimney mid bonnet belching black smoke, surging forward to its next water stop - I suppose that is the effect they try to recreate with tractor dragging but they always fail with the noise.

(and before anyone rhubarbs the idea, the Bryan steam tractor watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG2mBu3pxVo )

[oehrick]

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/fin ... ?s=594x594

I'd be really impressed if they had the tractor running at this angle.

'The Pub' seems to have been a resounding failure of an idea - must be more teatotallers about than I thought

[blackbob]

'The Pub' seems to have been a resounding failure of an idea - must be more teatotallers about than I thought

The problem is that you don't come into the pub until we're home and tucked up in our Fordson pyjamas - we've given up waiting for you to stan' yer han', *





*buy a round

[Brian]

I am going to say "Great minds think alike" Rick.

Way, way back in the mists of time when Oscar invited me to join him on the site, the ethos was to be that of a bar where people came to discuss their Fordson tractors, implements and all things related to tractors. We could deviate into other areas but not to get into arguments or religious discussions and to remain courteous at all times. Also to remember that our comments are read by people who live all over the world and to whom English is not their first language.

Over the years both Oscar and I are very proud of the fact that this site has achieved that aim and continues to achieve it. The site, thanks to its members, has become the premier site for Fordson tractors on the net and long may it continue. I think that, over the years, apart from the regular attempts to infiltrate the site by various "funnies", I have only had to ban one person.

All right, we all get a little grumpy at times but, as I am one of the biggest culprits, I hope it can be forgiven. (My excuse is OLD AGE).

So the bar or pub idea is running and working well. Perhaps you would like a "Snooker Room" "Smoking Area" or "Snug" added?

[Brian]

Rick buy a pint?

The last time he opened his wallet King George VI asked if the new Fordson Major had been announced.

[oehrick]

You hear about that as well Brian - trouble is, you do your research on Wikipaedia and you are bound to get it wrong

It was his DAD

You and Oscar gave us a jewel, I'm only sorry it took me so long to discover !

As for that Black Bob - I can't help it if Mrs Black Bob has him under orders to be home before last orders are called

Interesting new news, the dear old Doom and Gloom (as the Horse & Groom at Tunstead was always known) home to planning the Tunstead Rally of the 70's & 80's has not been a pub for a long time but in these days of pubs closing down at a horrific rate, someone has just bought it to re open as a pub, what sort it remains to see but it couldn't be any more spartan than the original was.

Cheers n beers chaps

[Brian]

Our place was a pub in the 1700's according to records. At one time it had stables and a wheelwright in the yard.

At the start of the last century it is said that the music hall singer Marie Lloyd used to stay here as a retreat. Old villages used to ask if we had any of the signed pictures of her but the last publican was a bit of a fly boy and they disappeared with him.

Another celebrity that used it was Bill Maynard. He stayed here whenever he appeared in Norwich Theatre Royal.

When it closed in March 1982 it was in a bit of a state with plaster hanging off the walls, damp and mould everywhere plus one end wall falling down. A little better now but not perfect.

One strange thing, after all those years it never smelt of beer, smoking yes. I can smell beer a mile off and (shock horror ) have never liked the smell. My drink used to be rough cider or Gaymers Olde English. I suppose that could be due to the fact that in later years Watneys Red Barrel was the main brew and, I am told, there are still debates going on as to whether you could call that brew a beer.

[blackbob]

Ok it's my round, same again everyone?

I wanted to talk about energy..

Some people have a great dislike for wind turbines; personally I don't mind them, and we have a lot around here. I was working in the field next to one this week, there is a bit of 'whooshing' when you're close-up but I wouldn't call it annoying.

But my main point comes from this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39675418

I know there isn't much coal used in houses nowadays anyway; but surely it would be better to burn coal in power-stations to generate electricity, where the emissions can be controlled, and keep our supplies of gas solely for domestic use, where (presumably) the flame in our boiler or oven is just as efficient and clean as the flame in a power-station?

[oehrick]

The 'renewables' of Wave, Wind and Solar have some major real problems Bob, let alone the objectors on scenic grounds - onshore wind and solar (apart from wasting good land) are high maintenance, you try getting a real life figure of periodic or life time costs and don't the catch fire easily, the offshores even more as the tree huggers refuse to allow cables to be buried so they scrub themselves to death on the seabed at least the units can at least be big enough to gain some efficiency. If the environment agency, power companies and SAS got together we might be rid of the NIMBYs and place wave capture arrays at the points of our coast where erosion is worst and get a double win but thats not joined up thinking...........

However, the biggest threat is the intermittency of supply and the cost of feeding into the Grid, as a result of very little solar wind and wave feed on still frosty winter nights they have to keep generating plants 'hot' now, the tickover power from the nuclear stations is saved at some efficiency by the Dinorwic pumped storage scheme, come morning they open the taps and breakfast kettles glow, but it is not the same for coal or gas burning stations so the more left on standby the higher the cost of power. Until they come up with a viable power storage method this will only get worse.

We should be making more use of waste tip Methane and burning, rather than burying plastics, tyres etc, that or save them cleanly for chemical feedstock.

Old technology and us can play a part of course, Make Ole Blue Greener, Fart in a Fordson!

Brian, doubt I will be 'out to play' Sunday after all, after three days of searching I hooked our lovely little Tom Kitten out of the river on Thursday, family are devastated and there are tears before, during and after bedtime - I'm not ashamed to say plenty of them being mine.

[Brian]

Rick, I totally understand and send our condolences. My best friend was a grey and white fluffy tom cat about 12 years old. He would be with me everywhere, sitting on my knees and being a right nuisance. He was with me out in the yard this last Spring when he took it into his head to run straight out across the road in front of a car whilst I watched.

I will not have another after 60 years of having cats, we have got only a few years left ourselves and it is wrong to leave an animal to be either put down or put in a cats home when we pass. IMHO.

Ahow is a big disappointment this year, not many tractors as something went wrong with the notification system and a number of people did not get invites. Couple that with the Cheffins Vintage Auction, the Game Fair and Stradsett next weekend and many people did not turn up. The featured tractor is Case and there are few of the C, L and LA's about here now so there are not many in presevation. The sheds are nearly empty.

One thing of interest though, they put the BIG Holt on the sled at the tractor pull. No real noise compare o the other tractors but plenty of black smoke and she went the full length of the track.

[oehrick]

This one was a feral orphan and had absolutely no roadsense so I had expected to find him in one of the hedges by the lane when he failed to return for a feed and a play, river was the last place and ironically, I was within 20 feet of where he was found, pulling big oak logs out which some kids had rolled in at the church staithe.

Sorry to hear about yours - this is the first of ours that has not lasted into high teens or 20's at least we both know how and where they ended, one that just disappears is long term horrible.

A shame to hear the show is not up to usual standard, given that it was such a success from day 1 they are allowed an 'off day' I guess. Why did they change the date ? it had been the weekend adjacent to my birthday previously.

Not surprised the Holt gun tractor pulled the course and as for the exhaust, I presume they are a pretty low compression ratio. Pity I'd like to have seen 'em, maybe they will do Marsham.

At least it looks like the weather may hold for the rest of today.

[blackbob]

I know it's an over-used word nowadays, but it seems appropriate here..

Amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbWVbDEIc9c

[oehrick]

Wouldn't that be A-maize-ing over there Bob I'd quite like one of those camera drone jobs although have declared the airspace over our place a no fly zone for both them and those Chinese fire baloons - had some of them over when our roof was being rethatched so treated them to a forced landing with the 12 bore befor they could do any damage.

Do you reckon there could be that much Jack Daniels in the world ??

They are now making Scotch here in Norfolk, don't know what its like, even the Russian Oligarchs are saying 'oh thats a bit pricey'

[blackbob]

An interesting video, but what I actually meant to post was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isk4kcFR1I4

Wouldn't they, nowadays, get their insurer to write-off the whole lot, grain and all, and transport the mixture of wheat and rubble to the nearest landfill?

Again, amazing!

How dare you, call that product 'Scotch', when it is made in England with English barley and English water? There is a fuss here nowadays, when we grow so much wheat here, that malt is made from wheat from elsewhere.

And I can understand your worry about these lantern things, living in your thatched house, thankfully they don't (yet) seem to be part of Scottish culture..

[Brian]

Got to be a bit careful when you complain about national issues like malt Bob.

We have a large maltings here at a place called Great Ryburgh, during the season a constant stream of lorries loaded with barley leave for Scotland, once there the trailers are dropped off and the ones taken up the previous day are hitched up, still loaded, and taken to the port for export as Scottish barley, then brought back to Norfolk for refills.

My son worked in the office dispatching the lorries and arranging all the paperwork.

[oehrick]

There have been various references to Big Lizzie, the enormous Botrail wheeled tractor, on the forum, I stumbled upon a webpage the other day that shows she had predecessors in the steam age, large log whims or carriers which straddled tree trunks in the forests of Western Australia and carried them either to rail lines or the mill http://pickeringbrookheritagegroup.com/sawmills7.html will take you there. I'd love to see one of these working, a bit different from todays skidder / forwarders

I shudder to think what discoveries or inventions are currently being missed due to the suppression of this sort of innovative development in the cause of bumping up insurance premium profits while costing the end user again in paying out to eliminate the risk of a payout by the insurers - oh, sorry, we are supposed to call that 'health and safety' aren't we

[oehrick]

I recently picked up from Ebay a copy of "A Square Deal All Round" by David Boulton (for £1.02 delivered!!), the history of Perkins Diesel Engines. Talk about a lump of a book 250+ larger than A4 pages and lots of pictures.

Only got as far as the P6 / P3 era so far and the balance seems to be a bit more company than technical content but its a bit early to condemn on that - its well written and with some anecdotes to lighten it up a bit.

Worth keeping an eye out as for it was published by the much lamented folk at Landmark Publishing up in Asbourne who are no longer trading so unlikely to be reprinted elsewhere.

I actually bought it for £9.27 and it arrived in a poly bag having been dropped by the post and the front coverboard badly damaged. I left decent feedack as it was not the sellers fault and emailled separately suggesting they offered a FOC plus a sensible amount to upgrade to a cardboard box for despatch or added a bit to the price of a heavy book and do this automatically. I had made a point of stating it was not a complaint but I got a very nice email back thanking me for the feedback & suggestion plus a credit for £8.25 (I guess the difference is their real postage cost) I was happy enough despite the damage as they have been selling for around 30 quid !

[brockwood]

the article about the timber carriers is great i read it a while ago how ever they were built as straddle carriers for that job i have seen pics from the us of similar using a fordson f power plant . Big Lizzie however was built as the power plant of a go any were road train towing two tanker flat top combo trailers to service the outback because of floods it couldn’t get there and was adapted for land clearing by the direct pull method in which teams of men would run out cables to mutible trees and stumps it would do a pull and then the processes repeated

[oehrick]

Thanks for that Brockwood, I wasn't intending to imply Big Lizzie was along the same lines, she was clearly designed for heavy pulling on ropey ground.

I'm amazed those timber whims could sustain the weight (I think I saw 30 tons load marked on one) with the cart type wooden wheels - must be a testament to Jarrah for the spokes (BTW I type this recumbent on a bed, the head and foot frames of which were made by my Grandfather in the 1920's along with two single beds, from a couple of Jarrah Sleepers he bought off the Railway, where he worked as a porter) In the UK the Felloes (curved bits forming the circle the trye is bonded onto) would be Ash, do you know what they would be in your neck of the woods ?

It just goes to show how innovative people can be in adapting what they have to meet the circumstances - it drives me nuts when you get these so called specialist archaeologists or the 'ancient aliens' looneys who rubbish the idea that our distant ancestors couldn't have built the pyramids, stonehenge or numerous other large structures as they were ignorant and must have had outside help dropped in a wilderness I know who I would put money on being alive at the end of the month !

The mechanisms apart it is surprising that something so remote from the main centres of population would have been photographed so extensively but I'm delighted they were !

Cheers and stubbies

[Brian]

Think I might have posted these before, Brockwood got me interested in seeing her and my friend Leigh took me to visit her on our last trip over.







She was supposed to pull 10 like this as far as I remember,













Leigh is 6' 4" so that gives you an idea of the wheel size.



She carried her own blacksmiths shop. Unfortunately there is no engine as that was removed many years ago.

[oehrick]

You had posted some before which got me interested Brian, quite a beast even if not a Fordson Blacksmiths shop and kitchen sink to be well prepared if delivering supplies I wonder how many gallons of paraffin it took to deliver 10 gallons of paraffin

Still broiling here, but with some thundery rumblings, still wouldn't be Strumpshaw weekend without it switching from dry and dusty to a sea of mud in the blink of an eye...........

[brockwood]

as i remember each trailer holds enough fuel for a years running ? there was one good story amongst many one morning on her delivery trip she wouldn't start blocked or frozen fuel filter after three attempts they were out of air which i think was recharged from the engine vir the decompresser its a 60 hp Blackstone hot-bulb theres a 40 in it now for display any way of cause in this day and age you wouldn't think it but of cause the was no compressor available so they had to get another charged tank sent up on the train sounds like a bomb to me to start it and then left two on it i think you asked about timber i had to check local names and all that we had a sawmill i can just remember it working mountain ash and massmate were what we cut we ran it with a Marshall portable then a foden 10 hp road loco then the diesel fordsons the last was a 4000 b

[oehrick]

A years fuel supply thats a chunk of weight - would have thought the weight and cost of a hand operated compressor would have been a drop in the ocean by comparison ! I'd imagine they needed a fair bit of water both for cooling and crew use if they were plodding about through the bush for months at a time - what a shame there doesn't appear to any film of it working on line - loads of archive and modern photos .

Mountain Ash we know as Rowan but I don't recognise the other one - interesting progression of power sources for your saws.

Thanks for adding some detail