Bluegreen archives

[JEP]

As above, brilliant topic and fantastic pictures - thanks for posting,  really captures the golden era of farm machinery in my eyes, keep them coming

[chris.watson]

18 hours ago, smithy said:

Should have been one this year Chris but certain things such as not being able to get the land to hold it on being one ,it was cancelled they had been doing them every other year with the Norfolk machinery club doing one on the in-between years . The Suffolk Farm Machinery Club together with Farmers Guide used to put it on  

Let's hope it makes a return smithy mate, good demos they were.

[bluegreen]

Thanks for the comments chaps......................I took some of the pics at the Otley demos and Normac....................my personal fav was the 7230 magnum with the overum plough and furrow cracker which was taken near Bedford during the 1995 cultivations demo.   That Magnum had the best decals and wasn't spoiled by the daft wing mirrors fitted to the Pro models.......................The 5150 plus was a cracker as well

[CX820Joe]

I like the photo of the 7250 with the Stately home in the background, great shot that Phil.

[bluegreen]

That Magnum 7250 was  a "T" reg  1999 and one of the very last ones before the MX Magnum 270s replaced it.......................I remember thinking the farm were cheapskates for buying it as a cheaper alternative to the 270 which had been announced and was due that summer.    Looking at both the 7250 & the 270 now,  Id go for the 7250 for its no nonsense grunt!!

I don't think I noticed at the time but that 7250 has white wheels??   I think I'm right in saying Steyr sold Magnum 7200s and just changed the CASE decal to Steyr and put white wheels on them.................Perhaps Goodie can shed some light on white wheeled CASE  Magnums?

[bluegreen]

In light of the coming UH Ford releases I thought I would share some blue shots from my archives...…………………...Digital pics of the glossy originals so apologies for some shadows on them.

My favourite shot first of a Ford 6710 2wd  on a chafer sprayer and another one on a beet drill.

I never saw a 7710 2wd locally but their were 4 or 5   6710 2wd...……………………..all 7710s were 4wd.

The bubble cab 4wd 7710 on the drill belonged to Moulton manor farms in 1986, they also had 3 x 7610s at the time and a TW15 which always eluded my camera

[bluegreen]

The farm with the 6710 on the beet drill had lots of nice Fords back in 86/87  incl this 7610 one of a pair.  Also a new 6610 sq2,  new 8210 sq2,  ser.1  TW15 , 2 x TW35 one old one new.

All the above appeared to have R34 rear rims but the guy across the road from my house at the time had a 7610 on R38  16.9s  same as 7810 UH model.

[bluegreen]

In 1987  Stetchworth Estates had a mostly Ford fleet on their 2000 acres which comprised of two FW60s for the heavy work, Two B Reg 1985 Ford 8210s and three newish C Reg 7610s.

The 8210s above were usually doing the same jobs, either both ploughing with 5 furrows or Drilling with a 6 metre accord as seen below.  I often hitched a lift on one of them during busy times to have a chat with the drivers.

[justy 46]

Both the 6700 & 6710 were 2 tractors that I actually have never seen in the flesh . I can briefly recall seeing a 6710 at the Ford & Fordson show in Cork about 6 or 7 years ago , but the 7700 & 7710 were total opposite , they were plentyfull in around Cork & surrounding places . Most were 2wd . I guess the 7600 & 7610 were just more power for money over the 67s. Any 67s that may have landed in Ireland were probably second-hand UK imports . 

[CX820Joe]

1 hour ago, justy 46 said:

Both the 6700 & 6710 were 2 tractors that I actually have never seen in the flesh . I can briefly recall seeing a 6710 at the Ford & Fordson show in Cork about 6 or 7 years ago , but the 7700 & 7710 were total opposite , they were plentyfull in around Cork & surrounding places . Most were 2wd . I guess the 7600 & 7610 were just more power for money over the 67s. Any 67s that may have landed in Ireland were probably second-hand UK imports . 

same here - never seen any 6700/10 but 7700/7710 weren't rare.

6610 and 7610 were most common.

Contractor near here has a 7910 still used on a hedge clipper

[bluegreen]

I only ever saw one 7910 series 1  and one 7910 series2  which must have been very rare as they bit the dust as soon as the 7810 arrived in late 87.

As you can see from my first 6710 picture farmers liked them for spraying duties due to the higher ground clearance when compared to 6610s.

 

[JEP]

Great photos again, absolutely love this era, (especially when there's a few Fords and a few Claas thrown in ) 

thanks very much for posting, never get tired of pictures of this period. 

[bluegreen]

Yes it was a great time for ag tractors for sure,  the Fords were great lookers,  the Deeres were very charismatic and unique with the SG2 cabs and then along came Massey in 87 with the ultra modern looking 3000/ 3600 to make the others look old fashioned!! 

 

Below are a pair of TW35 Bubble cabs, the one in the dealers yard  was a year old at the time.

[JEP]

A beast in its day, lovely old tractor. Such a pity Britain's, UH and even Marge models made a bit of a fudge of the TW's. 

[bluegreen]

Your right, only the Gen 3  UH 7810, 7610 and 6810s have been really accurate, all the rest to a lesser or greater degree have fallen short.

[bluegreen]

My photographic hobby really began of the back of these two pictures...………………..I had just bought myself an Olympus OM10 camera In October 86 and was looking for things to take pictures of,  so I went for a drive in the country on a foggy Saturday and came across three Ford tractors parked up in sugar beet field.  As a kid I had really liked tractors but then my teenage years came along with other more interesting things to pursue...….mostly in skirts...…………..but by 21 I was courting and had time for a new hobby.

The tractors were an 7610 with AP cab,  a brutish looking TW35 bubble cab version and a brand spanking new "C" reg   Gen 2   Ford 8210...………...I was hooked!! 

[bluegreen]

Snapped the TW10 in a dealers yard near Cambs in 1986 and the 7610 2wd on the carrot run in the days before Bartletts controlled everything...…………………..As I recall this carrot company had several Fords mostly 7610s like the one below and then changed a couple to 7810 2wds briefly before selling up.

 

[bluegreen]

These two pictures were taken in late 86 and featured a pair of Pre production Fords from the Tuddenham testing centre which is still operating today, and now includes CASE models.  What I found interesting and the "big giveaway" to their identity was the registration plates.  The 7610 was ploughing in a field in Moulton with a 4 furrow Ransomes and furrow press and was a "B" 1984 registered machine and then the following week in the same field with the same plough was the 7710 which was an August 85 "C" registration.  Ford officially launched the Force 2  range at Smithfield Show 1985 in December, well after these two had begun their work life.  

The 7710 still looks terrific

Edited September 14, 2018 by bluegreen

[bluegreen]

In 1987 Moulton Manor Farms replaced their TW15 and one of their 7610s with brand new  TW25 and 7710 Fords

I caught up with them when they were Hauling Beet next to the farm...………...These were the good old days when all the farmers tractors did the haulage and not just a two man band with giant harvester and beet cart like we have today...……..Yawn!!

I quite sure the new TW25 pictured in DOEs Fulbourn depot was Moulton Manor farms new tractor.

Incidentally the Farm still has the yellow Gull trailer that looked so big behind the 7710s and I saw it behind one of their CASE Pumas (Velcourt farm nowadays, All CASE) recently and it looked tiny

[bluegreen]

In April 1988 Moulton Manor farms changed their last two 7610s for a pair of the very last 7710s...….. These were delivered in April on the "E" registration...………...Im guessing they had either completed the deal prior to the launch of the 7810 at Smithfield December 87 or were offered the 7710s at a much lower price than the new 6 cylinder 100hp 7810s.…………….I was well pleased they did as I preferred the 7710s and still do today.

Anyways I can remember driving past their yard just after the tractors had been delivered and spying all three series 2  7710s lined up in one of their big sheds...…...Yayyyy!!!   Happy days

In the first picture they had the new tractors carting corn from their two Claas 108sl machines...…………..notice the nicer front hub design on the 88 year machines.   The second picture was beet drilling in March 89 using a Stanhay Webb 18 row drill plus Granyl applicators!!   I was working for Stanhay back in those days as a storeman...…...hated it with a passion!!

By 1990 the four 7710s were all gone and replaced by 4 of the 6 cylinder 7810s,  and the TW went for a 8730.

Edited September 16, 2018 by bluegreen

[AndyB]

This is such a good thread.  Thank you for your time and please keep them coming!

[JEP]

Agree totally with AndyB, excellent thread, loving the recollections/dates and background details. Such a great period in agriculture in my opinion. Thanks for posting bluegreen, and keep them coming 

[bluegreen]

Im afraid I lost a few pictures along the way and one of them was a picture of the 7810 prototype working near Tuddenham in early 1987,  basically looked like a cut and shut job on a 7610...…...you could see where an extra section of panelling had been added and had lengthened the tractor which indeed was decalled 7610.

[bluegreen]

Back in 1987 the neighbouring farm to Moulton Manor was and still is Dalham Hall Estates,  and like most farms in this area they were all Ford. They farmed a bigger area than the neighbours with some 2500 acres I recall.  At the time of the pictures below they had just bought a new August 87 "E"  reg.   Ford TW15 to do the ploughing and this relegated their older Ford 8210 "X" reg  to lesser duties.   They also ran 2 or 3 Ford 7610s one of which had the AP cab  and was on the MF drill in the pic below...………..I should mention they had an FW60 for the really heavy jobs as did Moulton Manor farms.

These days like Moulton manor they have gone all CASE IH with DOE Power.  This was after a dalliance with a couple of John Deeres and the abject failure of a New Holland TM190 which wrecked their relationship with the blue half of DOEs.

To my knowledge none of the farms photographed here still run blue tractors, their either CASE (same make really) or JD or Fendt.

[bluegreen]

No problem at all Nick,  I think the 70/80/90s Fords hold a special place in most tractor enthusiasts hearts...…………...They just ooze charisma from the Ford 2000 of the early 70s up until the 30 series final models of the early 90s...…………………..The more pictures of them uploaded to FTF the better I say