powerrabbit

It's the way they were constructed Sue and the quality and thickness of the materials. Funny how 'temporary' buildings of that age have become 'permanent' and stood the test of time and over the years have been added to, developed and changed beyond all recognition but in the core and fabric remain the same, just see how many old railway carriages have turned into bungalows and even houses. A village hall near to me is, to look at from the outside a regular building, but once inside, it's a nissanhut.

I actually found this World cow Sue on a stall at Westpoint Exeter a couple of years ago on one of the regular stalls where the sellers items are normally way over priced and well out of our pockets down here but in this instance I don't think he knew what sort of cow it actually was as there was very little paint left on it so it was not immediately recognisable without a really close look so I got it cheap, think I paid a fiver for it!. There are I believe three colour variants, black and white, light brown and white and dark brown and white.

Nissenhuts began life made for the military and after the 2nd World War were sold off to farmers, landowners and even the building industry. Many were used for domestic accommodation and yes, they were cosy, being very well insulated. We had one here on the farm, it was only one of two buildings we had when my Father bought the farm and was used as a chicken battery house, a grain/feed store and in 1962/3 winter we housed the milking cows in it. It eventually became so rusty that we had a new bigger barn built on the site and the new barn was built over the top of it and the nissenhut was dismantled from within the new barn. When we dismantled it we could then see how it was constructed. The steel 'hoops' were two fairly thin U channels riveted back-to Back and concreted into the ground, the galvanised sheets were nailed on with the nails being hammered between the riveted 'joint' of the hoops. Under the galvanised sheets between the hoops there was insulation that was like rock wool but was I think hemp 'wool' which was sandwiched between sheets of tarred thick crinkly paper stitched right through and this was placed between the ribs and then completeley covered with a lining of hardboard again nailed into the joint of the two haves of the ribs. Ventilation was a series of equall spaced large holes along the length of the top right along the centre line with a cone capping on 3 'legs' over the top of the holes. There were originally windows in the sides but these had been blanked off years before. Problem was the rats getting between the lining and the insulation, dark nights you could hear them shreiking and rattling around. Many a village hall used to be a nissanhut. There are some good pictures of variants and their uses on Google>images.

The three examples on the left in your last post David were also I believe known as the 'thin vicar'. Has anyone got one of these?

How far this is true I don't know but I was told that the best way to tell the difference between the Timpo and Benbros lead figures and animals etc is that although they look the same, as David says, Timpo invariably marked theirs, Benbros not always did and also Benbros figures retained the seam of the two halves of the mould and were not finished quite as well as Timpo figures, in fact they were quite rough castings under a little magnification. Has anyone got an example of the very rare large scale Timpo cart horse?

That Cropmaster brochure Lee dates to 1947. The tractor was released in October of that year and the brochure would have been sent to the dealers and outlets a few months before the release of the tractor. This dating can also be applied to all the other brochures as well, at about the time the tractors and machinery was on the production line. The Royal Smithfield Show was the showcase for David Brown agricultural products held every December when all their stuff was officially released. When the 90 series tractors were released in 1980 they were then showcased at Monaco. The Implematic and Selectamatic era brochures are mostly all date coded, just have to know how to read it, later brochures just had a publication number.

You're right there Niels, quite a value tied up in these brochures/leaflets. I don't see why as the majority of other make brochures and leaflets generally make reasonable or little money but when it comes to the David Brown stuff then big money changes hands, Interest in collecting the brochures seem to be a lot greater than in the actual tractors.

I have some of the early single sheet brochures and Cropmaster ones but only very few as yet of the 25 and 30 series tractors, the bulk of mine cover the 900 onwards right up to the end of tractor production.

Having quite a vast collection of David Brown printed ephemora myself I can imagine what the project is going to be like. The early single page leaflets are quite straight forward as they are in A4 format and easily scanned whereas the later ones are just a smidgin larger and more difficult unless you have access to an A3 or larger scanner. Then there are the bi-fold, tri-fold, quatra-fold and multi page brochures not to mention the 3 foot wall charts and posters that were produced. I wish you good luck Lee in creating a web based archive which I will look forward to, as I'm sure many others will as there is a very large following for D.B. related stuff, not only here in the UK but, seeing that 95% of all D.B. agricultural and indutrial manufactured products were exported to 92 different Countries, the rest of the World too.

Upgraded my mobile phone Wednesday, I'm now in the 21st Century getting a Huawei Ascend G300 smartphone. The phone was free, same monthly tarriff as my old Nokia but with increased 'plan', 300 minutes free calls, 500 texts and 500MB of internet per month, that's a bonus. Was a no-brainer decision really, Set it up to connect to WiFi and use the 'net for free, import your email account to it and loads more. The instructions that come with it are very vague so Googling the phone and looking at the reviews and the PDF instructions on the 'net you get all the info you need. Anyone looking to upgrade to their first smartphone I'd recommend you to take a look at this one if you're wanting to keep to a tight budget. Comes in a very small box with a mains charger and a USB cable, the cable USB end plugs into the charger, the other end into the phone, the cable plugged into your PC and phone also charges it whilst your PC is on, they don't tell you that in the instructions.

Just thought that this might be a bit of fun and see what your tastes are in the world of art. Art covers a wide subject and media variety but here I'm talking painters, past or present so, if you had money to burn and have a nice space on your living room wall to fill, what subject would you go for and who is your favourite artist? My choice of subject is anything to do with the farming scene and local landscape. My favourite artist, if ever I had the oportunity and the funds to purchase one (or more) of his works, would be Rolf Harris. 'Can you guess what it is yet?'

Same here Bill, wal to wall sunshine, outside temperature reading 18.1C and the Swallows are happier as they are well twittering and diving about. Had to go into Exeter late this morning and with the amount of water running on the roads, wheels picking it up and following other vehicles, had to have the windscreen wipers going most of the time. Another 10.8mm of rain fell here before midnight last night. Just totalled up the rainfall here for April = 107.6mm

4WD 995/6 production numbers were not that great but there were several hundred, I don't think there were any numbers specifically recorded, they were all included in the total of 995/6 production figures.

Have not tooted up the rainfall here for the month yet, the month is not quite over yet. It has not been too bad here today, it stopped raining around 8 am this morning but is now raining very heavy again. It rained heavily with very strong winds from around midnight Saturday night and all through yesterday and my guage at 7.30 this morning was reading 45.4mm. Not worried about flooding here as I'm right on top of the hill but the roads that are lower than the fields are turning into streams.

Get the cab off the 995 4WD and preserve it! That cab, the VQ2 with the wide doors were only made for one year, 1978/79 and are very rare to find now. Also the 1290 4WD is a rare tractor, I can't tell you how many were actually produced but it was very few.

Well Oliver, I reckon it's the same as anyone who has used and maintained any one make of tractor continuously over 50 years, you get to know them pretty well, you collect all the books, brochures and other literature and if the dealers and mechanics are worth their salt they teach you over the years how to maintain and repair them yourself when things go wrong, saves time and money, it's just that I happened to have farmed and played with David Brown Tractors for many many years.

The front axle on the 1210 in that brochure Lee is the Kramer MK11, a very good, strong and reliable axle, if you looked after and maintained it well, particularly the UJ's on the ends of the wheel driveshafts, to replace these they are £1000 EACH SIDE. The Italian made Selene axle mentioned earlier was available as an option on the 1200, 990 and the 880, I've seen several 1200's and 990's with this axle but never any 880's. I might have mentioned it before but the brochures were date coded up until the end of the chocolate and white models in 1971/72, after that the code was just a publication number. Notice the two different types of front wheel centres in the above brochure.

David Brown were the first tractor manufacturer to offer a safetey cab, way before any legislation on safetey cabs and roll bars came in, early ones were 'Victor Sta-Dri' and were offered as metal clad or canvas, the canvas could be rolled up and over from the back to the top of the windscreen specifically for tractors that were used with a rear end loader or the David Brown ditcher digger.

Just had to nip next door to take a little wild rabbit away from the cat that brought it in through the catflap before he started tearing it apart on the kitchen floor, my Sister-in law asked me what was the best thing to do with it? It was already dead and not big enough to fry so I said 'put it in the re-cycling bin', my 9 year old Niece said , with a big wide smile and in a dry tone, 'it will then come back as a new bunny!' Roaring with laughter.

Sitting on your PC Mandy probably hurts your bum as well, try sitting on the chair, will be better for both your bum and your neck.

Wrong way round Bob, used to take the tractor off the sump plug!

I'm not certain what it would have been used for Bill but my guess would be on the railway back in the days of steam. It measures 8"3/4 in height, small end is 3"14 across and the big end is 3"7/8. the thickness of the metal is 1/4". It's heavy. I've also got a big ajustable as well, jaw opens to 3"1/2 and is 2 foot long.

Couldn't agree more Sue, all these rules and regulations, designed I'm sure to make us pay over the odds requiring us all to have things done by 'professional trades' when in fact there is no need, what's happened to 'self help' and 'do it yourself', I agree that certain jobs need to be carried out by the trade like gas and electricity for safetey purposes but when it comes to things that the normaly reasonably competent person can do themselves we're told we can't because of 'regulations' and most of these so-called professionals are cowboys themselves and unless you stand over them whilst they are doing a job you don't know wheather it's done properly or no. The insurance Companies this year have added to their domestic house insurance policies loads of 'must do' items, inspection of electrical wiring every 10 years, sweep your chimneys a minimum of once a year, gas inspection as well, all which you have to have a certificate to prove it's been done and now you have to have a smoke detector in each room and one in your roofspace, 2 fire extinguishers and if your roof is thatched it has to be fireproofed and certified as well. You are prevented from helping yourself nowadays and paying lots of money for these 'services' which over charge because they know that you have to have these things done. Most annoying.

Biggest one I have is this box spanner which I use in the kitchen, to keep the door open.

Better not carry that spanner in the car Gav otherwise youll be done for carrying an offensive weapon! It will certainly tighten your nuts!