[AT] Saskatchewan tractor trek

[charlie hill]

Hi Ralph,

My uncle, who died many years ago now, used to tell about the first time he 
saw or drove a tractor.  It was in the early 1900's.  He was a boy and the 
son of a sharecropper.  One of the big land owners in the community bought 
a tractor.  It was the first one in the community.   It was delivered to a 
rail yard several miles away and they had to drive it home.   The landowner 
hired my uncle to drive it.  He took a few minutes learning how to make it 
go and took off.
After a few hours he got to the log bridge across the creek.

The bridge was made with 2 or 3 logs strectched across the creek and smaller 
logs laid side by side across them.  He said when he started over the bridge 
the tractor was jumping up and down as the steel cleats walked over the 
logs.   Just as he got just the middle of the bridge it broke in half just 
behind him.  The bridge dropped down into the creek and turned into a ramp. 
He said he didn't know what to do.  The tractor was now jumping like crazy 
as the cleats tried to climb the logs and then would slide back off of them.
It was all he could do to hang on let alone try to control the tractor.

>From his  discription it had big old wheat land type fenders.  He grabed 
ahold to the fenders with his hands and held on.  The fenders were flexing 
and the cleats were hitting the backs of his hands.   Eventually the tractor 
climbed out and he went on his way with no real damage other than some 
scratches and bruises on his hands.

Now that is a first tractor ride!  Unfortunately I don't think he ever told 
me what brand of tractor it was.  My guess would be a Farmall but I'll never 
know.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ralph Goff" <alfg at sasktel.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 10:34 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Saskatchewan tractor trek


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Indiana Robinson <robinson at svs.net>
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 8:11 AM
> Subject: Re: [AT] Saskatchewan tractor trek
>
>
>> I have driven the Deere 45 combine I used to own as far as 10 miles for
> custom work (at
>> about 9 MPH) and I have driven tractors a little further. I am here to
> tell you that such
>> boredom approaches being terminal for me...   :-)   > Here is a picture 
>> of
> a 1926 Fox:
>> http://www.cityblm.org/library/fire/pic-7ai.jpg
>>
>> --
>> "farmer",
>
> Long drives on machinery are part of life here in the wide open spaces of
> Sask. A neighbour once bought a JD 55 combine and it was way across the
> province. He took along a driver when he went to pick it up and between 
> them
> they drove it home over the space of a couple of days or so. Good thing 
> gas
> was cheap in those days. One of the first jobs I got was driving a tractor
> for a neighbour waaay back in 1970. He had bought a DC4 Case at a farm
> auction sale some 40 odd miles away and needed it driven home. I'd never
> been to that part of the country before and actually found it not a bad
> drive. On paved highway for a good part of the way and the April sun was
> getting powerful enough that it was comfortable riding except for the wind
> and sunburn that I didn't notice til late in the day. As I recall it took
> all of a long afternoon to make that drive with no stops.
> After that I quite often got work driving tractors for neighbours. A
> Cockshutt 50 diesel pulling hopper wagons of grain to town. A good ten 
> mile
> run, well actually twenty round trip. Later I graduated to big power, the
> 930 Case and two wagons. I don't recall ever having trouble staying awake 
> in
> those days on the open tractors. Now in the comfortable cabs and air ride
> seat it can be a battle to keep awake cruising down the gravel roads at 17
> mph.
> BTW, nice picture of the Fox truck. I have seen Ertl replicas of an 
> Aehrens
> Fox fire truck, not sure of the vintage but it was an old one.
>
> Ralph in Sask.
> http://lgoff.sasktelwebsite.net/
>
>
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