Hello from Bedfordshire

[camwader]

Hello all,

 

My name’s Jon; I’m a fifty something kid who’s been modelling for a very long time. I always loved toy tractors as a young boy, but until recently my modelling, although quite varied, hasn’t touched on tractors. I have a small collection of 1/12^th scale diecast cars, and while browsing on Ebay looking for cars spotted a Franklin Mint steel wheel Farmall H at a reasonable price, which somehow ended up at my house. Since then I’ve acquired a few more 1/12^th FM tractors and started ‘improving’ them a little. 

I realise that 1/12^th scale tractors are a bit of a limited speciality, due to size, cost and limited subject range, but have been surprised that there is so little about them on the internet. I thought I’d join this forum to see what other folk do with their models, and show a few of mine on the off chance that they may be of interest to others.

 

Regards,

Jon

 

 

 

 

[Tractorman810]

hi jon and welcome to ftf , some intresting stuff you have there ,from memory there was a guy at the malvern show that built his own 12th scale stuff, not sure if hes a member on here, as the names ellude me right now, but it was some impressive stuff i must say

[robbo]

Hi Jon, welcome to the forum. Whereabouts in Bedfordshire are you? I worked in Wyboston the last time I was farming.

[Deere-est]

Hello Jon, welcome aboard. You're in very (un)safe hands here when it comes to getting your wallet drained and your ear bent in the bame of our hobby!!

Bedfordshire, beautiful part of the world. Are you involved on the land at all or is it a childhood passion that never left like the rest of us?

[camwader]

Thanks for the welcome, gentlemen.

 

Mike, I live a few miles south of Bedford, not far from the Cardington airship sheds.

 

Tris,  I don’t have anything to do with working on the land, my job is aerospace related.

 

I’ve lived most of my live in or close to the countryside, so I’ve seen a lot of farm machinery. It interested me as a youngster, and has continued to do so.  I had two uncles who had smallholdings which I visited as a child. One had a Ransomes MG6 which I drove as a teenager, the other a small Fergie which I drove occasionaly up until a few years ago. I later became custodian of the MG6 when I lived somewhere that had the space for it to be useful and usable. Unfortunately I had to dispose of it as a consequence of my wife disposing of me - it wasn’t practicable to bring it to my current home.

 

My Lister Start-O-Matic generator went the same way, but fortunately to a friend who lives locally, so I can see it being used and cared for. Ironically, my ex-wife acquired more land and ended up with a full size Renault tractor of some sort.

[Leakeyvale]

Hi Jon

 

We are ALL big kids regardless of age!  Welcome to the oh-so-friendly forum!

[david_scrivener]

Thanks for the welcome, gentlemen.

 

Mike, I live a few miles south of Bedford, not far from the Cardington airship sheds.

 

Tris,  I don’t have anything to do with working on the land, my job is aerospace related.

 

I’ve lived most of my live in or close to the countryside, so I’ve seen a lot of farm machinery. It interested me as a youngster, and has continued to do so.  I had two uncles who had smallholdings which I visited as a child. One had a Ransomes MG6 which I drove as a teenager, the other a small Fergie which I drove occasionaly up until a few years ago. I later became custodian of the MG6 when I lived somewhere that had the space for it to be useful and usable. Unfortunately I had to dispose of it as a consequence of my wife disposing of me - it wasn’t practicable to bring it to my current home.

 

My Lister Start-O-Matic generator went the same way, but fortunately to a friend who lives locally, so I can see it being used and cared for. Ironically, my ex-wife acquired more land and ended up with a full size Renault tractor of some sort.

Hi from me.

 

I live in Somerset now, but am originally from Bedfordshire, and between 25 and 13 years ago lived at Kempston Hardwick (in one of the old Railway Cottages by the bridge), where i could see the airship hangers from my bedroom window.

 

I learnt some interesting info about the hangers:  

At the start of World War Two it was used to make barrage balloons, intended to hinder the Luftwaffe during the Blitz, which they continued to tell everyone around they were still doing for 'the duration'. However, they secretly changed over to making the now famous inflatable dummy tanks, trucks, guns, etc., to deceive Luftwaffe reccie planes, initially in the north African desert, later in Kent, pre D-Day.

Now, I'm told, the rather run down factory buildings near the hangers are kept looking rather run down as a cunning disguise, and all sorts of very high tech secret stuff is going on in and under them.   What kind of secret stuff? I couldn't possibly say, just I'm very pleased I now live over 100 miles away.

[camwader]

David, I don’t know what went on in the peripheral buildings, but I believe a lot of them have gone now as there has been a considerable amount of house building around the old RAF buildings at the top of the hill in Short’s Town. They called the development “New Cardingtonâ€, probably because Short’s Town has a bit of a reputation locally for being a bit rough and run-down.

The two hangars are still well used though. Shed 2, the southern one, was fully restored a few years ago and has been used for a lot a cinematic film production. Shed 1 was used for building the Goodyear Lightship a couple of years ago, and for fire research. The hangar is large enough to build and burn down multi-storey buildings indoors without affecting the hangar itself. It is now also being restored, so it won’t look like the poor relative of Shed 2.