Bought a W4 International the other day

[ALLFARMER]

First tractor I ever drove & always wanted one. Took it home to catch hell from wife, brother-in-law, & father-in-law. Am I the only one who likes old tractors? What was your first tractor?

[calenso]

Buy more! After awhile, the count stays at "a few", no one notices so much. We have a JD D, 1942, restored by my father and shipped out from Ontario in 1990. We drive it around the yard every year, otherwise it just occupies space.

[edbaker]

Dad operated about the largest farm for a few miles around, 250 acres, 185 working after allowing for gravel pit, pasture and woodlot, near Lambeth, just outside of London, Ontario.

He had an old Fordson that he traded in mid '30s on a John Deere D when it was rated at 15 - 27, with the exhaust coming out of a pot with holes just back of the rad and ahead of the flywheel that one had to pull to start it.

He traded that in late '30s on a J D "D" rated at 20 - 40 (20 H.P. on drawbar, 40 H.P. on belt) with steel wheels and the twin stacks for air and exhaust.

He kept me out of school in the spring of 1940 when I was 11 to drive it to put the crop in, while he drove the horse-drawn seed-drill. The hired men had all gone to war.

Dad had breathing problems, moved to share-crop farm near Regina in 1946, selling the old John Deere and a 6 foot Massey Clipper combine. He bought a nearly new Oliver 99 (that had been bought to use on a threshing machine, as former engine a bit too small, but it was just when threshing was going out) to take with him to the West, and later bought another J - D "D".

Not sure whether brother still has that "D", or whether he got another, to fix up, in recent years.

When they went from 1,500 bu. bins to 5,000 bu., something like 20 years ago, brother developed a tractor-mounted grain auger that had the top end mounted on a pole sticking up from front-end loader, so was easily manipulated.

When Dad was 85, he drove alone in his Marquis from Regina, north of Lake Superior, crossing on the ferry from Manitoulin Island, to London (where I now live) to visit his friends of 40 years before - in 3 days.

We said that he was crazy - but when they're 85 and independent you don't tell them what to do.

When I told that story to a lady a few months ago, her response was, "Try (age) 16"! Yes, teens can be a bit difficult to manage.

I find that I like to spend some time around the old Hart-Parrs, Rumelys, etc. when the classic guys get together.

When I was a kid one of our neighbours had a steam engine come to run the threshing machine, and I used to like to go to watch it work.