powerrabbit

Yes, he does a catalogue but very often he carries more bits than what is listed and is a great chap to deal with. Give him a ring, 01646 661645 and he will send you a catalogue.

I thought about him, thanks for that SL. All the convos of this one I've seen have used the 7710 as a base as they have the black grille and wider wheels/tyres, like you say, beefier. I used the 5610 as a base because the real jubilee was a four cylinder I believe, the 7710 was a six, am I right?

That Crescent Dexta of yours Andy is an unusual colour, I've looked in the Ramsey's guide and all it says about these is 'various colours'. I have certainly never seen an orange one. Apparently this Norscot 1/16th Claas Challenger is very rare now although it was released only about 4 years ago, my nephew who works in a local Claas dealership as a fitter got this one from Claas U.K when he went up on a training course, very useful chap. There was a Cat liveried one as well, Claas did theirs under liscense. This one came in a Cat box.

Would'nt like to be invited to one of his 'willy' tail parties then, dont know how your sausages would be presented. ;D. Better leave it now and get back on topic. ;)

That's it, long rod to stop 'arms' splaying and add strength and two little ones in front. Made these from those wooden sausage sticks, better known as c-cktail sticks but you can't type c-ck on here because it gets changed to willy.

Looking good even in the early form. Are you going to put a tine 'scraper' on it like the Twose ones? You say you've got to work out the tractor mount points, easy peasy. This is how I mounted this spike I made, 'borrowed' Britain's design. I can post you a better pic of the mount detail if you wish.

Looked at that one but he do'nt do the cab glazing or the correct decals. I'll give Brian Norman a bell tomorrow he usually carries a lot more bits than what is listed on his catalogue. Thanks for that anyway.

Been playing about with this one over the weekend. Can't quite finish it, need the correct decals and the cab glazing, Can anyone help? Mirrors and possibly a roof beacon might help finish it off as well.

If my memory serves me right the regulations stated that a tractor safety cab should comply to a certain standard having an 'approved for use with' plate fixed to the frame of the cab. This plate is like a 'VIN' plate that has the date of manufacture, cab serial number and the tractor make and model(s) that it is approved for. (Some 'common-rail cabs were fitted to several different tractors in a model range and also on different makes of tractors with just the mudguard/floorpan differences). The approval mark is a large triangle with a crown inside it. A lot of people now take this for granted as of course all tractors have cabs and they have never noticed this plate, look around the cab and it will be found on it somewhere. This plate, especially on early cabbed tractors also have the name of the manufacturers on it, Secura, Duncan, etc. All tractors made after 21st April 1972 were required by law to be fitted with these cabs and further legislation stated that the in-cab noise level should not exceed 98db (decabels). I think you can access this information on the relevant web-site, I will try and find it.

The reason for single cab doors was a safety issue. When safety cabs were required to be fitted (To all tractors manufactured after 1st April 1972) a few tractor cab makers tried to build in more safety features, one being these single door entry and exit cabs (Duncan for one). The door was usually on the opposite side from the brake controls (hand and foot) but was not mandatory and made these cabs cheaper to produce. Did you know that the NAIE and ROSPA purchased some early saftey cabbed tractors recently to carry out tests on the cabs to see if they would now stand the test conditions that was initially carried out on them when they were new. Out of all these the worst was the MF 200, 300 & 500 series cabs failing from rusted weld joints. The NIAE and ROSPA suggested to the Health And Safety Inspectorate that legislation should be considered for all second-hand safety cabbed tractors sold by dealers and the private sector to carry a certificate of inspection . Nothing has come of it as yet.

Here are a couple more of what I consider are rarer tractors from my collection. This first one is interesting, although it is not very appealing at first sight being an odd colour and made entirely from plastic but on a more concidered second thinking there is a bit more to it. Made in Hong kong, as it says underneath, it represents a Fordson Power Major with front-end loader and fork. This tractor in actual fact is a copy of a Corgi model that supposedly was never produced. I have a boxed Corgi set of the Power Fordson Major & (blue) 4 furrow plough (gift set 13. 1964 to 1966) and on the back of the box gives details of the other gift sets of agricultural toys in this series and on the list is, 'No 39, Fordson Power Major & Fork'. I have tried but have found no other reference to this one. If I had not spotted this reference on the Corgi box I would have never gave this one a second glance. This second one is a Licoln Toys Massey Harris and is around 1/18th in scale and is quite a good detailed model with working loader and scoop. It is in the same condition as I found it at the last Toytrac event but was minus the exhaust and air cleaner so I duly made replacements for it. Made I think around 1958 to 1962.

The programme was made by the Bristol TV people, 'Available Light Productions' it was not screened this far down as we can't get HTV but they gave me a master tape so I've got a record of it. If you look in Chris Chapmans book 'Wild Goose To Riddon' you will see all the photos and pick up the story there. Loads of these tractors about locally, very popular like you say and very powerful for their size and did you know that less of these 780's were made than the so-called 'rare' red 770?

This is a pic of the 780 just after I bought it loaded on the trailer ready to come home. You can see that it was in pretty good order just needed a bit of tidying up. From the first pic of this one I posted you notice it has a black enamelled exhaust, not the original red but this is a genuine one and still gives that distinctive D.B 3 cylinder 'whistle'. The red exhausts were discontinued in the early 70's and the ones that are available now don't whiste. I'll post a better closer pic of it as it is now later on.

No, blue is too Tory for me, let's have a few more white ones. This tractor is my best tractor. 1968 D.B. 780 bought at a retirement sale August 1998. One previous owner from new, never spent a night outside, serviced regularly by the book, done 12,276 hours and has never been touched mechanicly, still on it's original clutch. This tractor is totally original apart from a little paint here and there. It's a long story but this tractor featured in a TV documentry programme called 'Last Days At Truelove Farm' screened by HTV. Those of you in the Plymouth area around Shaugh Prior will know this one. The tractor is pictured here at a local show last year with the original owner at the controls.

Here are three Matchbox Kingsize FordsonMajors that I have recently completed. Nothing special, just a bit different. Made exhausts and pre-cleaners, drilled holes in bonnets to fit them and used Corgi 'Power Major' transfers and a paint job. just need one more to do a grey wings and wheels one to complete the set. I could do a 'Roadless' and a 'Super Six' some time and if I was feeling adventurous could do a 'Doe'. Perhaps some future projects.

A few pics of a Fraser slurry tanker. This one was built using the Britain's Bayer tanker as a base I think, My mate Scamp is responsible for this one, he will give you all the details.

Another aspect of farm collecting are the animals. No farm is complete without animals weather it is in the flesh as it were or in miniature. There are lots of animals to collect and I like the lead hollow-cast early ones, they interest me because of their delicate nature and because of this it's the challenge of finding them in good condition. Many toy and model companies have produced these over the last 80 odd years or so for the model farm but probably William Britain's being the most prolific and popular using their standard 1/32nd scale for these, introduced as the 'Home Farm' series in 1921. By this time Britain's were proficient in the hollow-cast process having been producing their toy soldiers since 1893. When plastic was more widely used in moulding, which gave more detail I think myself that a lot of the earlier character of the lead models was lost as the character was in the skilled way in which they were painted to bring them to life, the features, stance of the animal etc. We must also not forget the humans either. This could go on forever. Let's share some of these with each other as I am sure that this is a most interesting subject. All types, animals and people. All makes, Britain's, Timpo, John hill, Cherilea etc etc. What's in your toybox? Lets start with a few cows and calves. I think these are pretty ealy ones as cows with head up have 'London England B & C' underneath, cows with head down and calves, 'Made In England'.

A darn site more than the hammer. :'( :'( :'(

Funny thing that. I've got one of them. Trailed or hydraulic.

No, you are right. It could be Benbros. In Ramsey's catalogue I have found a reference that says 'former Timpo horse-drawn roller plus drawbar, yellow'. Benbros 'Qualitoys', (larger scale) introduced about 1955. How is it that with these subjects we always seem to stir up a real hornets nest.

I'm not 100% sure myself but I doubt it is Crescent as this roller is 1/32nd and exactly the same as the Britain's one all bar the front end. Have to keep an eye out for one in a box to verify manufacturer.

Good to see the solid roller 1972Farming. I presume the roller is a 'split' roller. This one pictured here is not strictly horse drawn but seems to be a 'transition' model from horse to tractor. I am not 100% sure that it is definitely a Britain's one as there are no markings or lettering on it but everything about it reeks of Britain's. You will notice that the frame has been cast to attach to a tractor by bringing the shafts together and casting in a ring, this is definitely not a conversion as the frame is a single casting, notice the crescent shape in the front centre of the frame representing a seat. Difficult to catagorise, is it horse drawn or tractor? Be nice to hear your comments and oppinions on this one.

A mate of mine is bringing me the 'Farm & Site' mag with the article on Britain's trailers later on, I will see if I can scan or photograph the page with all the production dates and types on and post it here. Watch this space.

Tractorman810. If you can see where the original peg for the cow was, you can use a small drill and drill out a hole, not all the way and insert a peg the same colour and size as the original and fix it with a minute amount of superglue, any other glue will melt the plastic. You will find some grey plastic 'rod' for this somewhere I'm pretty sure.

The horse that's supposed to pull the small cart is, like you say, a smaller thinner brown horse, more like a 'thouroughbred. Yes, the draught horses all look very simmilar, again, as you point out, the Charbens and Timpo ones are slightly different but are not always recognisable as most lead hollow cast ones never had a manufacturers name under their belly, earlier Britain's ones that were marked usually just had I believe 'London England' on them and of course there were 'Hill & Co' or 'Johillco' ones as well, must not forget 'Timpo'. Could go on forever, It's quite a wide and varied subject.