I just recently re-kindled my interest in old tractors after finding your website. Here's my story of antique tractor addiction!!! My wife was talking with one of her co-workers and told her about my interest in antique tractors. This lady and her husband live in the country and had 2 old rusty tractors sitting in their yard. Someone noticed them (my wife thought it had been just recently) and arranged to haul them away. I don't know the details, but I assume that this person wanted them for parts or restoration project (LETS HOPE SO). So I start thinking about if I had known about the tractors would I have been able to get them running in their current condition? What make are they? How rare are they? How many parts are missing off of them? Could they be restored? I think you get the drift, the same questions every antique tractor fanatic thinks of !! But now I'm curious about every rusty tractor I come across. The bug bit me so bad that I took a day off from work this fall and scouted some prime midwest (Central Illinois) tractor habitat. The farmers were in the middle of harvest, so I wasn't about to approach them for permission to photo or get serial numbers, so I just made notes on the models, and where I found them. Believe me, in Central Illinois, it doesn't take much driving to find weed patch tractors! So my list should grow quickly. One tractor that really sparked my curiosity was a row-crop model that appeared to be a Farmall or JD. Couldn't tell if it had a wide front or distinguish any color as the tractor was parked in a weed patch some distance off the road and the sun was in my eyes. I do know that it is on rubber. Another tractor in a weed patch appeared to be a 50's or 60's narrow front, row-crop model JD with no fenders, on rubber. Most of the front end (fuel tank, grill, etc. ) was removed so the only feature that I could distinguish was the seat and sheet metal directly ahead of the steering wheel. The seat appeared to be slightly oversized and designed without any padding (it might just be missing), but had short arm rests and back. I noticed that the sheet metal arched slightly upward just ahead of the steering wheel. The steering wheel didn't run on a horizontal plane parallel to the motor, as I've seen on other row crop tractors, but angled upward and appeared to made of steel without any molded plastic/rubber attached. Now can any certified antique tractor novice pass up a learning opportunity like this? I got to wondering if this was one of those 1950, 51, 52, 53. . . . (That Johnny Cash song where he smuggled the car parts out of the factory to build his own car) hybrids. Anyone got a clue? Brian Browning, entered 2000-02-16
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