rorsday

Right, you've really done it now, Lord F, rubbing salt in the wound like that with that lovely 1982 WWC, which I've never even seen before. I am going to have to counter this by taking a picture of my 1980 WWC (the one you DON'T have!) and also my Green Books (British tractor and machinery directories).

RD

Thanks for the comments, guys, most appreciated. Glad you are enjoying the issue.

Regards

R Day

Classic Tractor

1982 MF WWC catalogue.....want, want, want, as they say!

RD

Lord F,

Sadly, I won't be making it to Zwolle. I have to stay at home and count my brochures. Seriously, I will be leaving it to you this time mon ami. I can't remember what I'm doing, but I've had 5-6 weekends on the trot away from home or working and need a breather. It's a hard life.

Regards

R Day

Lord F,

I know where that early MF range catalogue came from and I know how much it made! You must have wanted it very badly. For once, I'm relieved to say that I have most of your latest intake, apart from the rotary tillers and possibly the swather.

You are truly an animal....but you know that already! Respect!

I gather Pudding/Matt Gray is coming over to see you while he's in the UK? I think he's coming up here one day next week, looking forward to seeing the old chap.

Regards

R Day

Lord F,

Dont think it's either of those, so just taken a picture and e-mailing it over. Have included the A-C brochures on there as well, as they are Perkins powered, so a slightly tenuous link to MF!

I'm not sure if I've got the vineyard one yet, will have to check. I didn't think it was bad as a 'Buy it Now' from Tim Bolton at £14.99.

Regards

RD

Lord,

That MF 865 French brochure and the MF 25 one are both superb.....never seen either of them before.

I have had a few bits and bobs recently. A nice early MF 35 vineyard leaflet, 3 reasonably priced early 1970s Allis-Chalmers brochures today, plus a whole car load of ex-John Deere training slides (including some marketing slides) from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s.

Plus I also seem to have taken delivery of rather a lot of County books which are taking up far too much room in the barn. Hopefully it will not stay that way for long and the pile will gradually become smaller.

Regards

R Day

Your body might be weak, but your wrists are strong. I gather you have been over to Wales to see John's collection. What's the verdict? Spill the beans?

R Day

Hi Colm,

Yep, done it now, so you should be OK. It was all those messages from Lord Ferguson clogging it up!

Regards

R Day

Thanks Colm, you were the second online purchaser! It is being dispatched today.

Our online ordering facility, via our website (which goes through PayPal), is now working as well.

Regards

Rory

Just a quick update. 'The Best Job Ever' book by former County demonstrator John Hull is now available and be purchased via eBay. An online ordering facility will be live on the Farm Power Publishing website by the end of the week. Thanks for looking!

R Day.

Thanks for the feedback Flash600, much appreciated!

R Day

Lord, that Brazilian MF literature is superb....wouldn't it be great to import one of those MF 95s with the MF 65 styling? That would probably be unique in the whole of Europe.

The MF 825 is also a great brochure, never seen this one and it wasn't expensive either. I'm pleased to say I have the MF 732 mower and MF 35X Industrial, but they are still rare items.

Has the WWC arrived yet?

R Day

Well, thanks all, that's great, that's at least nine copies accounted for!

We hope that the book provides a combination of good value, good quality and good reading. It contains quite a lot of previously unpublished archive pictures which combined with John's career story will hopefully make a tidy package.

Regards

Rory

Thanks Flash 600! Glad you liked the issue and thanks for the feedback.

R Day

Lord F,

Thank you, that is most kind. There are, as it happens, some pretty solid future plans for some Massey Ferguson books from Farm Power Publishing, the first of which will hopefully come to fruition in 2011.

Regards

R Day

At risk of getting hauled over the coals by Andy for a blatant piece of self-promotion, I am in the process of setting up a new publishing venture and publishing a new book on John Hull's career as a demonstrator for County Commercial Cars, circa 1967-1983. The book, titled 'The Best Job Ever', will be published at the end of October.

More details below. An image of the front cover can be seen on Old Pond's website at http://www.rogergsmith.typepad.co.uk/

I hasten to add that this is a completely separate entity to my ongoing - and very content - role as editor of Classic Tractor magazine.

R Day

The Best Job Ever, John Hull. Softback book 244 x 168 mm, 100 pages inc. 127 illustrations. ISBN 978-0-9567019-0-9. Available end October from Farm Power Publishing at £9.95. Post and packing UK £2; Ireland and Europe £3.50; Rest of World £5.

Ford tractor conversion specialist County Commercial Cars of Fleet in Hampshire was at the peak of its powers when John Hull joined the company as a field test driver and tractor development engineer in 1967, having previously worked for a Fordson tractor dealership in Berkshire.

Promoted to chief tractor demonstrator in 1970, John travelled all over the world demonstrating the company’s four-wheel drive tractors. His autobiography not only provides a rare insight into what it was like to work for the world’s best-known manufacturer of Ford tractor conversions, but also charts the development and evolution of its machines over the 16-year period 1967-83.

The Best Job Ever contains many previously unseen archive photographs of County’s best-known tractors – from the four-wheel drive 754 and 1124 models of the late 1960s to the iconic 1884 flagship of the early 80s. There are also chapters on County’s innovative Forward Control tractors, used for a wide range of applications, plus its un-equal four-wheel drives, tractors for industrial applications, specialist vehicles, including the four-wheel drive Transit, and much more.

First published as a monthly series in Classic Tractor magazine, this substantially revised version of John’s memoirs contains a wealth of new stories and pictures.

edited broken links only

Yes, I saw that too. What a shame they didn't publish the picture that AGCO's photographer showed me when I went to Stoneleigh recently, the one of you spread-eagled bollock naked on a straw bale with only a 1/16-scale UH MF35X Industrial to protect your modesty?

On second thoughts, I'm sure it was actually a 1/64-scale model.....

R Day

MF 186 combine brochure (French?) looks very interesting, want, want, as they say!

I am hoping to go down and collect the MF annual reports sometime this week, see you on Sunday!

Regards

R Day

Dear IH785Lcabman,

Thanks....glad you liked the story. What a great pair of 634 tractors. I just knew when someone showed me a picture of them that we had to do a feature. They are just such a great pair, and, as you rightly say, it's so nice to see one of the original safety cabs, even if it was a bit of a noise box to drive.

Regards

R Day

Dear Powerrabbit,

That's actually a really good find, especially at a bookshop. Harvest Triumphant is an early history of Massey-Harris. Copies do occasionally appear - I have two (one would be for sale if anyone wants one) - but it's a nice factual account of the company. In terms of value, on eBay I suspect one would be worth £15, but I wouldn't be surprised if a specialist bookshop was offering one for £20-£30.

You mention collecting old farming books. This is one of my father's great passions (as well as mine to some extent). He works on the theory 'the older, the better', so he's got quite a collection of farming books from the 1800s. We've developed a taste for bound volumes of the 'Agricultural Gazette', which began in the 1840s and continued through until the mid-1920s. He's also very interested in old farming bills, letterheads, etc.

He's renting a property at the moment, so a lot of his paperwork is in storage. To give you some idea of the scale, we have an 8-tonne AS Marston trailer that's full to the top of farming magazines, etc. Hopefully one day we'll be able to have some form of joint library with our respective collections displayed. One day.....

Regards

R Day

Lord F,

Lovely MF Brazil brochures there, plus that last and oldest MF range Deniere with the MF 165 MkIII on the cover. I don't have any of these, although I think I maybe have an MF 8 baler.

Just bought a collection on eBay....will send you a pic and perhaps you can do the honours on here, mainly old stuff and nothing MF of any note.

Regards

R Day

Dear An Interest Spectator,

Thanks for your kind comments and sorry about the typos and the mistake with the baler. I did query that Lely statement at the time, but should have checked it out.

Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, especially when working on 'big' issues like the current October magazine, some things just slip by, such as the typos.

That's no excuse though and rest assured it's something I really don't like to see.

I'm glad you liked the issue and appreciated the comments.

Regards

R Day

Classic Tractor

Deere-est & BD Contracts,

Absolutely agree with you 100%. There are magazines for virtually every taste out there, veteran, vintage, classic, modern, even single marques. The only point I was making is that Classic Tractor isn't really about 'restorations'. This is a word that we try to avoid and rarely appears in the magazine, since our 'overhaul' pieces are often on classics that go back to work. In fact, the general theme and focus tends to be working classics as opposed to too much show-field stuff.

Regards

R Day

Andrew

Good point reference restorations in Classic Tractor. However, if you check out the next issue, cover dated October and published end of August, I think you'll find lots of working tractors in farming environments....from MF 3000 Series up to the very latest Quadtracs.

Might be worth a look if that's what you are looking for.

R Day