powerrabbit

Dash pod is a pale grey and the floor and side trim is black. Seat can be either grey or black with black arm rests and the back of the sat behind the squab is black.

Bill, here's the other greyhound race game. You thread a cord through a hole in the flywheel shaft, turn it towards the front to wind the cord around the shaft and pull. Behind the dogs there is randomly positioned cams on the shaft that strike a small steel ball to drive each doc up the track. The dog that reaches the end and raises the post is the winner. each dogs 'coat' and it's post at the end are a different colour and the coloured circles on the base is where you lay your coins to place your bet. I've seen others on eBay from the USA but they are plastic and made by the same Company but this one is all tin-plate and made in the UK, they must have sold out to America later. Never seen anothe of these either.

Wo-ho! Think I may have bagged a bargain there then Bill. Same game same condition so £40 doesn't seem so bad now but seeing that I had never seen one before I just had to have it and seeing the description of 'v v rare' in the link makes me smile now. I think that what really persuaded me to buy it was that I picked up a similar item at the last toyfair in Exeter, also a greyhound race game, I'll post up some pictures of it here later for you to see.

Here are pictures to follow on from my last post. Firstly the grehound race box. ''' Second, all set up. Hope you can see it all ok. Capet section it's on is 27" square so it will give you an idea of the area it takes up. Next up, traction engine box. Next 2 are the engine itself.

I'm afraid Bill I did spend a little bit more than just the entry fee!!!!!!, but I hope that what I did spend was wll spent, more about that in a mo. There were a few different stalls and dealers there that I have not seen before and think they may have come from a more affluent part of the Country by their price tags! There were quite a few of the Westpoint stalwarts there with their stalls, about ten I would say but there were a lot more of the regulars that were not. My purchases? Well, a mint 1967 Britains catalogue, a very nice Greyhound 'race' tinplate game by the name of 'The Trapper', a rather large game when all set out on the floor with a round tin like middle with slots around the outside top where you slot in a long thin grooved 'track' in which a numbered dog 'runs' by means of a box on the bottom end with a cranked winding handle that operates a sort of auger screw in the track that moves the dog along to the end, there are 6 of these. On the top of the central round 'tin' there is a little steel spike that you sit a metal disc on which has a brass sort of bearing in the middle underside, on the top of this disc on a flat rotating slightly weighted and flat tin 'arm' on one end of which is a hare, you spin the arm from the centre by finger and thumb twisting a plastic knob to get the hare rotating. The idea is to get up to 6 people winding the handle for the dogs like hell and the first one to reach the end of the track and stop the hare is the winner. There is no makers name on the box but it is British made and states that 'patents are pending' so must be an early one, probably 1930's, I'll put up a couple of pictures of it later as it is very interesting and probably quite rare. My final purchase was a 'Scalecraft' plastic traction engine kit, although built it was with it's original box and instructions and is a battery powered model, same as the MF165 from the same Company, never been connected up for power and I'll leave it as is. I'll put up a picture of this one as well later as it is interesting, smallish scale, smidgin over 1:32 I'd say by the size of the driver.

The toy fair at Haldon racecourse was quite a sucsess due to the number of stallholders in attendance but it was very cramped and stallholders were restricted as to how much of their stuff they could spread out and display on the limited number of rather flimsy folding tressle tables that were provided for them so they were rather unhappy, nay, disgruntled at the lack of available space. This was bourne out by the number of punters having little room to browse the tables in the narrow isles between them, people looking on the tables each side only gave room enough for another single file of people to pass between them and you can imagine the conjestion of people wanting to pass both ways not to mention those in wheelchairs, on sticks and mums and dads with little kiddies in pushchairs, talk about gridlock! It was difficult to estimate how many punters there were there but certainly only a fraction of what would have normally attended had it been at Westpoint but it was only £2.50 to get in. Stalls were both upstairs and downstairs, around the corners, tucked in alcoves and in the corridors. Whilst there was some decently priced items available the majority had quite high price tags, concequently not a lot of people were buying much and there were not that many carrying bags containing purchases. Speaking to the stall holders and quite a few of the attending public all were very dissapointed with the venue and those that were there that had anything to do with the organisation of the fair were told in no uncertain terms by the stallholders and public alike that if they did not go back to Westpoint then they would not attend again! I think they got the message, loud and clear. There were no flyers available for 2012 dates.

It would be the 'Blue Box' one as it's the same as the orange and silver one in the box in your second picture but there's no box with mine. There were two variants of the Corgi Massey combine as well, early one had yellow metal wheel hubs, metal header tines and the reel was operated by a rubber band on two un-painted 'pulley wheels', bottom one had a large inner flange that contacted the surface, like the carpet, and a smaller one fixed to the end of the reel. Second type, last of the production, had red plastic wheels, again from the MF165, and the header reel had plastic yellow tines and operated by the same 'pulley' on the reel but driven this time by a rubber tyred wheel that contacted both the floor surface and the reel pulley. There are several variants of the Massey Ferguson 65 also. Pink skid unit and wheels with pale red bonnet and mudguards, silver seat and silver metal steering wheel, bonnet decals with black lettering. Second type, pale fawn skid unit and wheels, darker red with either silver, red or copper seat and either black or silver plastic steering wheel. (copper seat is the rarest). The one that came with the front loader had either the bonnet decals on the tractor or, more uncommonly, on the loader arms and nothing on the bonnet. The loaders were either silver or fawn in colour. I think there was a bit of silver in the decals. All these loaders had the scoop fitted, it was not until the 165 and loader came out that they were fitted with the dung fork.

I'll make a point of picking up the calendar, they must have got them printed by now for 2012.

The Fordson Major with the paler orange, if you can call it orange, was the early first production model, second came the darker or more proper orange wheels, the third and last production model had the plastic rear wheels and the exhaust moved from the manifold outside 'peg' to the hole in the bonnet. I can't remember which was wich in timeline but the steering changed from the centre rod steer direct from the steering wheel with the flat bar type likage on the axle to the wire link type to the skinnier type axle, the latter being the later model I tink. This model also had a 'top-link' that resembled the pull tag of a zip fastener. Interesting about the Clifford copy, there is also, an example of one that I have, of the Corgi Fordson Major made of plastic in Hong Kong, this one has a front loader and muck fork, the 'tin-work' is orange and the rest of the tractor is silver, I've only ever seen one of these. Keep your eyes out for the Corgi Fordson Major that has red plastic wheels, as on the MF165, these are very rare as they were using up left over parts from the MF right at the end of production around 1967.

All toy fairs previously held at Westpoint are now to be held at The Devon and Exeter Racecourse, Haldon. The first will be this next Sunday 13th November. It could be a rather small affair regarding public attendance as there seems to have been little or no publicity or local advertising.

I have quite an extensive range of the Corgi agricultural models but alas none of the multi 'gift sets'. The Fordson Power Major models are of particular interest as there are many variations, wheel hub types and colour, steering, exhaust position, hydraulic lift and steering wheel and of course, the half-track. There are 2 different ploughs, the red one with yellow bodies was supplied only with the Major and plough set, Gift Set 18, Another was the Major and 'beast carrier' set, the trailer being the same body as fitted to the Dodge Kew Fargo lorry. The blue and silver plough was issued on its own and in a set with the Ford 5000. Variants of this latter model also came with a Fleming? rear ditcher/digger and also a side mounted version and there was another with a rubber belted operating crop elevator/conveyor. All the Corgi farm stuff I have is boxed but the boxes, or the majority of, are replicas, I was fortunate to aquire a couple of CD discs on which are about 500 Corgy box templates which are good quality scans of the originals, opened and flattened out, all correctly sized although some of the larger boxes need to be printed on two or more sheets of box card in order to make up the complete box. I know that a lot of collectors hate and shun 'replica' boxes but at least they house the models safeley and you can store them better. I've even got templates for Dinky stuff as well. Going back to the Corgi Fordson Major, it states on the box in a list of other models available at that time, a Fordson Major with front-end loader, the loader would have been the same one as on the MF165, with manure fork. None of these have ever been found and it's believed that none were actually produced.

These pair were produced by a chap in France called Christian Gouel, think that's how you spell his name. Limited to 125 p roduced of each model, now sold out and no longer available. They are both 770 Selectamatic tractors and are more European spec than UK but extremely accurate models. If you look on Christians website you will see better pictures of these two models and other tractors and machinery that he also produces amongst other things. I'm sure that not many knew about these models, I was put on to them by a mate from Holland, it was about 2 years ago now. Link here for his site. http://www.cg-models.com/english.html

Just be a little cautious buying these farm models from any Hongkong sellers, especially the smaller UH stuff. As said, it's suspected that they work in the factory, probably on the 'quality control' line. Any that don't come up to muster and are rejected end up, guess where! There may only be a very slight defect that to most would be hard to see and they would of course have no official packaging or box. What you may call 'perks' of the job.

Very good picture and by the look of it the start of something good also. One thing, the rear tyre(s) are facing the wrong way!

I'ts always good to hear from the person who this topic actually applies to, like everything else reported in the media, it can get a little distorted along the way. I'm sure that all of us on here are not any better than each other when it comes to our collections, no matter how large or small, the important thing is that we all share the same interest in farming toy and model collecting. Like the actress said to the Bishop, size isn't important.

The Selectamatic range, or at least the 'name' was dropped from the bonnet decals in 1971/72 which was when the 'bottle-opener' type decals were introduced and these were produced only for about 12 months after which, in late 1972 the livery changed from chocolate to 'power red' when the decals changed to black with the small 'case' at the bonnet rear, the tractors were then known as 'Syncromatic', this was the time when syncromesh was fitted on the second and third gears although the Selectamatic hydraulic system was the same system on all models from 1965 when the white tractors were introduced (October of that year) right up to the end of production at Meltham in 1988 and continued up to the end of the Doncaster built 90 and 94 Series tractors until the first Maxxum which had a different system. Another point that may be of interest also was that when the bottle-opener decals were introduced, a very few had a 'flat' roses plastic emblem badge in the nose instead of the old 'cabbage' rose one, the flat rose badge is rare as it only lasted for 12 months or so as it was deleted, along with the hole for it in the nose and replaced with the decal badge and the gold louvre was deleted also as the headlamps (sealed beam units) were installed in the nose, all the Selectamatics had the sealed beam lamp holes in the nose as these lamps were fitted as standard on export tractors and the UK tractors had a black decal stuck on behind the gold louvre covering these holes.

No problem Nick. Always willing to help and having quite an extensive archive of all things David Brown, have studied this Company over the many years of farming with the tractors, I also run the Devon branch of the Club. Anyone interested in David Brown, wheather it be just in passing or more serious, when you look into this Company, which was founded in 1860, it gives a very interesting insight into British farming and how David Brown helped it develop, especially from just before the WW11 period. Tractors were not their only manufacturing interest, many other Companies were under their ownership. The War years are of particular interest, they kept this country going in many respects, not only in farming but in the War machine itself manufacturing and supplying parts and components for all the armed forces. Many modern industrial and even domestic technowledgy would not be where it is now without the David Brown Companies.

I meant to say Lone Star Jack, my mistake, thanks for the correction.

Sorry Sean, I thought you wanted us to guess what make you wear. The best Timex I ever had was the black dial military type with the luminous dots and hands with a red sweephand, I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere uless my Mother threw it out many years ago without me knowing. Timex made this watch from 1967 to the late 1970's and also made a variant with a larger squarer case for the French market and had the name Kelton on the dial, this one is the rarest of the military style ones apparently. One had a date window with the numbers in red on a white backgroung, the other did not have the date. You can date most timex watches very accurately, below the 6 there are some numbers, the ones to the left of the 6 is the catalogue number, the ones on the right of the 6 is the month and the last two of these numbers is the year of manufacture. Timex also make watches with the name Carriage.

'Fossil' by any chance Sean?

No Mark, no windup. My favourite make would be the good old British Timex watches, so many styles and variants and they still produce them, although battery driven, but even now they are very stylish, retro and very cheap to very expensive but on the whole pretty bombproof and reliable. It is very surprising what you can learn about something when you start collecting it and I'm fast learning the types and names to look out for, but of course, Rolex and certain Omega types require a mortgague facility so we won't go there quite yet!

It's the one made by Ros from the 'Little Farmer' range from the mid 1970's. They were available on their own or included within a set, can't remember what was in the set but all the implements they made at that time in the 1:32 scale were all compatable with Britains as they had near the exact same mounting fitting.

I shall take this opportunity to admit that I have just started a collection of vintage wristwatches, the analogue manual winding types. They must however be in fully working order and clean with the minimal amount of wear. I have been able to pick up some really nice cheap mens ones, mostly dating from the early 1960's through the 1970's and most have come on new leather straps. Most are sourced on the internet but car boot sales are a good source as well. Old watches in good working condition are becoming very collectable now and some are commanding quite high prices. Easy to store as they don't take up much room, just a lot of winding.

If you have fulfilled your tractor collection and intend to collect no more, then you have already started another, money!

Nothing to go wrong, basically just a good de-coke, no real skill needed all you have to do to make sure it works as it should is to make sure that the burner is set on its mounting plate dead level front to back and side to side so that the oil runs evenly in the wick grooves to give an even flame all round, seat the baffle rings properly, seat the barrell which is like a bell which incorporates the hotplate level and square, you have to get on top the stove, remove the centre ring/bung and put your hands inside the lip, inverted, and lift out the barrell, it's cast iron and weighs a good 50kg. You must make sure that the oil pipe unions don't weep or leak as well, tighten them just enough as these are brass. Once you've re-lit it, keep it turned up to 6 on the regulator until you're back up to temperature on the mercury thermometer guage on the front of the stove and then just regulate it to maintain the temperature you want by turning back the regulator between number 1 to 6, you regulate the temperature this way for cooking. I've serviced it myself now for over 15 years and as long as it keeps going, until it's obvious it's starting to carbon up, then I leave it alone. Replace the wick every second or third service as it gets hard and brittle.