powerrabbit

Thanks David. I go to all the toy fairs at Westpoint Exeter, don't know if you go as well. I don't mind revealing what I paid for these as it will give everone an idea of what you can get them for and I'm all for sharing. I paid £4.27 + £3 p&p for the cottage one and £7.25 for the 'shoppe' with free p&p. I reckon that between £10 and £12 would be a pretty good price to pay for them but I suppose like everything else, depends on what a seller would be asking but knowing what I paid for these gives you a bit of haggling ammo. I went to a large antiques fair last Saturday, also at Westpoint, loads and loads of pretty wooden boxes and tea caddies there on stalls but only saw 3 musical boxes, one was a bit of tat but I bought the other 2 which were on the same stall, smallish highly polished laquered inlaid 'sorento' ware. Just don't see them about much around nowadays.

The shop arrived today. It's exactly the same type as the cottage and is obviously by the same manufacturer. On this one there is a very feignt stencil on the base, a name and 'handmade in' and that's all I can decipher at the moment, I'll have to study it under a different light. This one plays 'Greensleeves'. I wonder wheather there was a series of these music box buildings made, I'll certainly be on the look out.

A little small for cigars Mandy, compartment is just under "5 long, just under 2"1/2 wide and 3/4" deep and the 'base' that covers the musical movement is brown felt covered. I would say that it's more of a trinket box. I have started a small collection of musical boxes since finding an old Swiss Chalet type one for 50p at a bootsale a couple of weeks ago, how sad am I?! I've always had an interest in them but have never given them any more than a passing thought until now. Some of them have pretty little tunes but when I buy one I always make sure that the comb has all its teeth and that the movement is working as these can be a bit expensive to replace, if they are a little 'sluggish' a very light aplication of clock oil will get them up to speed again. I think that 50 or 60 years ago almost every teenage girl had a musical trinket/jewelry box with a 'dancing' ballerina.

Biscuit and manufacturers of other types of foodstuffs, breakfast cerials are a good example, were very clever as I remember years ago the packaging was sometimes printed with things, like buildings, that you could cut out and assemble. Clever marketing ploy to get mothers to buy certain products aimed at children that had a 'dual purpose'. Several biscuit manufacturers have recently started producing these tins again, nothing like the originals though!

Will have to look out for those Tri-ang buildings, they look good. I know this topic is farm orientated and Britains is in the title but we have all seemed to be posting up our other makes of old buildings as well so I might as well go a step further and share this one with you all. I have no clue as to its maker and would guess that it dates to the first quarter of the 20th Century. Smaller in scale but still a decent size. A rather pretty village or Country thatched cottage that you would of expected to see in a rural setting in the halcyon days of the past. Lift the roof and it plays Brahms' lullaby. Yes, it's a musical box. (Reuge musical movement wound by key under the base) Just purchased a very similar one in the exact same style which is a thatched village shop but waiting for that one to arrive.

Calculate holding capacity by the number of 'sections', uprights on the sideboards, each 'division' is 2 ton. These trailers in real life, if fitted with the wide type tyres, were rated to 4.5 ton and with the normal 750x16 wheel and tyre, as the earlier trailers were fitted with such as the Weeks, Martin Markham and Ferguson they were rated at 3 ton. These 'weights' related to a load of grain with grain sides on, nominal weight of grain being measured in the 'bushel' weight which is 28lb. Having said all that, the trailer could hold a consderable lot more weight but that's how you would reckon out your load.

All the variants of this trailer were based on a 4 ton grain trailer.

The model I have, as I said, was a 1:86 white metal kit with steel wheels. I was not aware that Brown's did one in the 1:32 scale, I know they did the E27N as a kit and also a Field Marshall, I have the E27N which I bought also as a white metal kit, there was a short article in one of the early 'Model Farmer' magazines on Brown's models. Brown's also did a Shire horse with harness kit as well.

Jack, I built one from a 1:86 white metal kit. Forget who the manufacturer was but if I can find the box I'll let you know. A good detailed model for the scale, a bit fiddely to build if you've got fat fingers. A good superglue is adequate to put it all together. Have only ever seen this particular Ferguson Brown, never seen another in any scale.

I must admit that I do rather like these older type farm buildings as they are more 'hand-built', rather rustic and naive in construction and paint finish and when 'dressed' with an appropriate setting of the old lead figures really shows them off well.

We all take risks but if we do then it should be a calculated risk, think first, trouble is, so many people come to greif doing something they have done for years and have become too farmilliar with it that they don't see the danger or just don't think about what they are doing and what the concequenses could be if it all goes wrong. You're a long time dead!

Here's the last one. Not sure what type of farm building it's supposed to represent but it's old, quite rustic and well nailed together.

Here's another pigsty, another unknown to me but looks very similar to the later Britains plastic one minus the pen door and sty door, Notice that opposite the sty 'entrance' those short verticle lines are slits in the wood. This one, same maker as the pigsty, is a stable with a 'linhay' or cart shed. This next one is a lot earlier, probably by the same maker? Notice the similarity with the previous picture, again with an ajoining cart linhay but tis one's a blacksmiths shop. I have a couple more but will have to take and upload pictures of them later.

I have a selection of farm buildings, several that I have not been able to identify. The first one is Triang, it has the decal still on it. This 'farmyard' one on a base I don't know. This pigs house I'm also not certain about. I can add a couple more pictures of this one. I'll post up some more later.

The loader was close to the ground with the bale just off the ground. The field is steeper than it looks and there had been a shower of rain just before. It was the rear lower wheel digging in the ground that sent the whole lot over, you may just be able to make out the semi-circular 'dig' in the ground between the camera and tractor in the first picture. Apparently the whole lot slid sideways down the field nearly 100 yards before turning over. Someone said that it was the trailer staying attached that stopped the tractor turning completely over on its roof, the ring on the drawbar was at right-angles bent downwards.

Accidents involving farm tractors are still happening and probably will keep happening. I thought that starting a new thread on the subject would give all a reminder of what can happen and keep the awareness of this in everyones mind. This happened not far from me, no blame on the driver, just one of those unfortunate circumstances that happen. Fortunateley the driver escaped with just a few bruises and a dented pride. I can't say too much about this but the driver lost his Brother in a tractor accident 2 years ago so as you can imagine, he's not in the best place at the moment. The tractor slid sideways down accross the field with the load of silage bales until one wheel dug in and flipped it all over. For those of you that are a little squeamish, look away now.

There is also a distance restriction on agricultural tractors, the distance you can drive on the public highway both ways, to and from 'the job'.

Take note, if there was a spacer plate between the fan and the pulley, put it back on with the new fan. Not all the plastic fans had the spacer plate fitted as the hub of the fan was thicker, it was mostly fitted to the ones with the metal fan, single bladed ones but not the double blade ones. All the double blade fans were basically 2 singles positioned at right-angles to each other. If you have difficulty finding a plastic fan then you have an alternative to be able to fit the earlier double metal one. The fan from a 770, 780, 880 and 885 will fit or from a 1190 and the 3 cylinder 880 Implematic also but as I say, measure the diameter of the cowl to make sure you get the right one.

You will need to get the right size fan blade, about 1/2 an inch smaller all the way round the cowling, meaning to say that the overall diameter of the fan is an inch smaller than the inside diameter of the cowling. All the D.B. radiators had this cowling on the radiator, it was a safetey feature but more importantly aided better flow of air to the engine for efficient cooling.

The early plastic figures from Britains were moulded from blue polyurathene plastic and then over painted with the detail, later ones were made from white PVC plastic and overpainted and the even later ones from a buff/pale brown plastic, the more modern 80's and 90's figures were and still are I think moulded in a dark brown plastic. The Britains 'Herald' figures show the logo of a figure blowing a horn moulded under the base. The Britains Herald and plastic figures from 1955 to 1969 book is really worth having for identification purposes.

Mike will give you a definitive answer but until then, as I understand the Law, if you have passed your tractor road test and you will be hauling on the public highway, being in posession of a 'provisional' license you are restricted to 3 tonnes. It always used to be the case that this weight could not be exceeded until you had a 'full' license and have attained your 21st birthday. Hauling trailers and loads with modern equipment is very much subject and open to interpretation.

Saw this one Bill in the latest newsletter they sent me, seems like the rear tyres are undersize, looks like 10x28 and should be either 13x28 or 12x32 to 'fill up' the gap under the mudguards. I see also that several of their earlier tractor peices have been price cut.

If you do a Google search and type in 'David Brown Sta-Dri cab' and click on 'images' you will find several pictures that will give you more of an idea.

The cab is a 'Sta-dri', the first safetey cab to be fitted to a tractor before the legislation came into force, again a telling of how far advanced David Brown were. Your cab, having the steel roof, would originally be fitted with tin side cladding with sliding glass windows and a black canvas roll-up rear curtain with a clear scetate/plastic square window in the middle, all the doors on these cabs were standard exept for the length of them for different models. As for your hydraulics, pull the quadrant lever back and make the pump 'scream'and shift the little lever behind it on the half-rounded housing to the middle position, your arms will or should operate on normal lift and lower then. The serial number dates its manufacture to early 1969 and the last 2 letters of the registration, WF, tells me that it was registered in the East Riding of Yorkshire Council area. The year of registration, 'G' suffix ran from August 1st 1968 to September 30th 1969.

Pictures of what you are describing would be worth a thousand words. Hydraulics:- curved lever on the rear left of back axle below lift cross-shaft should be in the upward position and out, this is the locking latch that locks up the arms, to lock and unlock, engine running, hydraulic lever held in the 'Select' or fully rearward position until you hear the pump strain. Front of rear axle, left hand side, 3-way-valve, handle should be in the second position to the left. Right hand side, behind quadrant, little lever on a ronnded sloping housing, this is your dial pointer, this poiter should be in the middle, move by again holding the hydraulic lever in fully rearward positiion, see what happens with the hydraulic arms then. Dial pointer positions:- fully right, TCU and External. (Traction control unit, for ploughing and ground engaging equipment to prevent wheel-slip, external for tipping trailer and other like implements that need an external oil supply, both services combined in this position.) Middle position:- Height, for lift arm operation, linkbox, hay turner etc. Left position:- Depth, for controling the dpth of ground engaging implements, plough, cultivator etc. With the dial pointer in the 'depth' position you would find that the middle position of the lever on the quadrant would be about the optimum position. Play around with these positions and see what happens and let me know. It's a normal 6 speed gearbox. If you can find and tell me the serial number I can tell you the year of manufacture, registration letter would suggest 1968/9 but serial number would be more accurate as it could have been registered a lot later than actual manufacture date.