Two Cylinder Club Expo In Waterloo, IA ending 2015

My copy of the bi-monthly magazine arrived yesterday, was surprised to see the annual Expo in 2015 will be the last one. The reasons given were high transportation costs for Exhibitors, several Regional Clubs have drawn away from the Waterloo Expo. I have been going for the last 6-8 years and seen a trend from Two Cylinder to new Generation tractors. But it really has become a regional show with tractors from Iowa and surrounding states. John Deere is also opening a museum in Waterloo sometime mid-year. The number of vendors declines every year. Even the quality of information in the bi-monthly magazine has declined since the passing of J.R. Hobbs. They are even talking about making the magazine quarterly rather than bi-monthly. Hate to see this club die but they did not change with the times. They would not have any part of a Facebook page, there has to be other writers available to replace the late J.R. Hobbs.
 
As a long time subscriber some is a change in the hobby and some is self inflicted. Many other events will face the same fate for the same reasons.
 
I was a member for years and am president of a local John Deere club,The national Two Cylinder deside that everone in these clubs had to [PAY]belong to the national club to use the Two Cylinder name and logo.so I let my sub.run out,changed the name of the club to protect the innocent and life goes on.The corect police are so dumb if you had a brand new two cylinder it would not meet what they THINK is correct If you want to go to a good show and be treated great go to Springfield Ohio even years or the New York expo odd years.they are as proud to have Grandpa's old orginal as they are a completly restored one and none of the club members will try to tell you whats right and wrong with your tractor.Springfield is June this year.
 
A sign of the times and simple demographics. I see it as an aging dying hobby. Many current collectors either owned one of those tractors years ago or dad or grandpa had one but as all of them age those days have to come to an end. Sure, there will always be collectors but once the days of dad or grandpas tractor having sentimental value are over, the hobby has to shrink in my opinion.

Some years ago I gave several Workshop Seminars at the Two Cylinder Expo in Iowa and that was more the prime time. Some (Two Cylinder Club) were sort of stuck up and snooty lol with the big rich collectors who hired thousand dollar paint jobs on their tractors seeming to have the attitude my tractor is rare and perfect but yours is a piece crap lol

However, the rest of the world will somehow still survive regardless if the Expo goes on or not, times change, people age, interests change, it doesnt affect my life one way or another, my priorities are God Family and Country NOT tractors or hobbies or worldly posessions, I'm a happy satisfied and content man in my old age.

Old Christian Conservative Fuddy Duddy John T
 
I agree with all of you. I dropped my subcription a while back because of the atitude of those people.
 
The magazine at some times has good info but i guess i did not need to read 6 pages of farmers letters of how good there tractors were from 70 years ago,,,,,,,the research request price for a serial number is ridiculous,,,everyone is intitled to their opinion as this is still america last time i checked but things have gone down hill with the expos , the magazine etc.....i quit going to expos for some of the same reasons others have. my 2 cents
 
I'm surprised it has lasted this long.
The attitude of the Cherry crowd to me is sicking.
After they took it away from Gene Klien from Minot North Dakota, who started the club, I seen that it vas in the hands of a bunch of snoby people.
 
Other venues across the country seem to be doing fine with John Deere feature shows. It's not as much the change in interest as it is the mangement. A guy cant get away with being an A-hole to all but a select few favorites and still expect respect or credibility among peers.

I am of the opionion that the fall of the magazine will soon follow unless a different form of management is somehow able to redeem the club's reputation among the masses. The first order of business would be to toss all the legal crap out the window along with an admisson of how stupid and inappropriate it all has been. Second order of business is to turn the SN research back over to Deere unless it is offered to members at a reasonable fee.
 
Really doesn’t surprise me a bit. The snobby management failed to see who really signed their paycheck! Got my belly full of their program back in 1994 when one of their snobs made the mistake to mouth off to me. Dropped my subscription, never showed or attended another show again, never looked back and never missed it either. As the old saying goes: “What comes around goes around.”
 
Marketing 101..most customers are lost not due to product or pricing but due to attitude. I've attended several expos and there is air of elitism and entitlement there. They think they are the main force in the JD Two Cylinder world. Many of the normal vendors there went to the New York show last year and received negative treatment from the Two Cylinder staff as a result. If they go away they will not be missed.
 
been to the last two expos and had a really good time. I'm just into the two cylinder tractors and could care less about new gen. there are less two cylinder tractors every year. Some models where not even at the last show. I still plan on going to the next two. I'm just hoping to see some old gems like there was at the expos in amana colonies.
 
I saw after the first two years that it wasn"t for me . I restored a couple tractors for others that made the show. The so called correct police turned me off very quickly . Some tractors should never have been there with their thousand dollar paint jobs and cast iron polished like a new car. Never looked like that when they were new .An old tractor of any color painted with "RUST OLIUM" and grease in their work clothes look just as good too me . My 2 cents.
 
I made the 10 hour trip to the Expo back in 2011. I did enjoy seeing all the Deeres there, but I got the same vibe of the exhibitors as most of you. To say it politely, they were sure proud of their tractor and they wanted you to know it. Sad part was mine at home looked just as good, but I didn't have to tell them all about it or what it cost. The highlight of my experience there was getting to meet Travis Jorde and his wife. Super nice folks! I had just finished my JD at the time and had several phone conversations with him. It was great to put a face with a name.
 
I have a theory, and it's only a theory, that Cherry tried the legal maneuver to make his trademark worth more so he could sell it to Deere for more money. However, in doing so he pretty much "peed in the well". I believe Deere will eventually absorb the assets of the TCC but time is on their side. And as for the trademark legal threat: Six years ago at the Expo I talked to Mr. Cherry. I have witnesses that heard him tell me we could use the TCC logo on our TCC hats as long as the "R" was put on the logo. We all had that on the hats we were wearing and he looked at them and said "no problem". Mike
 
I have attended many Expos and always enjoyed them very much as long as JR was around. After JR was gone it was never the same. We went as a vendor and even though we never got our costs back we enjoyed seeing the great tractors and wonderful people. After JR, the show became all head (big head) and no heart. We were treated so rudely that we quit going. That being said, I think that the explanation in the magazine was very good and contained a lot of truth. Things change and life goes on.
 
Hobbs wasn't such a great writer!! Lots of mistakes and mis-information. Check the combine articles he did. They were full of conflicting info. A proof reader was needed.
 
Hey John T,

You have to put John Deere in there right after God,Family & Country!

I applaud your priorities and values, but fear we are a declining minority.

Stay content,
Danny Boy
 
We noticed a few comments regarding MR J R HOBBS,,,we are making no statements about his work here but just want those of you who mite be interested in the book he did on 2 cylinder hi crop tractors(waterloo built) 1950-1960 there is a mistake regarding the model 60 high crops on page 28 we brought this to his attention and he confirmed the error and we have a letter from him dated April 8/1996 addressing the corection.It involves the two gasoline tractors sent to Marysville california 6/02/55 the correct numbers should be 6052628 and 6052629.
 
I too dropped them years ago. I am a died in the wool two banger guy and I want my two bangers to be exactly factory, but I will never look down on a farmerized tractor, ever. John, I like your statement. A tractor is mere cold heartless steel, unlike god. Jim
 
I never did understand what was so wrong with improving a tractor to meet MY needs. If I want to add a thing or two here and there, I will!
 
I can appreciate the time and skill that goes into restoring a tractor to expo quality. always thought it was odd that the whole expo quality thing is basically a modern construction since the machines were never that nice even new 70 years ago. I restore my machines to 100% historical accuracy but I also restore them to work, not be part of an exhibit. they never had deep reflective paint from the factory, these people are being elitist about something that isn't even real.
 
Don't be mad at Hobbs for the 2 banger high crop numbers being wrong, Be mad at me, As my friend and I looked all of these numbers up in the early 80's And after a week of looking up numbers they all Start to look the same, Remember that the archives was open to the public until, Jack messed that up too
 
To 9560T.

I respect you opinion. However I'd like to say that I enjoyed those stories. I am a 30 year old collector and I wasn't alive anywhere close to those times, so it was interesting to me.
 
"A tractor is mere cold heartless steel,"

From my point of view, I simply cannot concur with that statement.

When I look at mine, I see the heart and soul of many men embodied in that piece of green machinery. I see the engineers and the many choices and decisions they made. I see the designer and how he mixed aesthetics with function. I see the mechanics and the efforts they made to keep it working. I see my father and I see my sons, all taking pride in operating the machine.

Cold heartless steel? I think not. Once you have steel and man has made his mark upon it, a piece of him continues to reside in it along with all the others who have done so as well.

My 2 cents.
 

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