Fordson Major E1ADDN
Many of most interesting Fordson Films were actually made for another purpose but show Fordson Majors in unusual situations. This a selection of 9 DVDS. Your choice if any will be influenced by tour special interest.
66 Simms Units
This film is appears to be compiled from film shot during a visit by a representative from the British Headquarters of Simms Motor Units.
Makers of vehicle electrical and fuel injection components. . Shot in colour but with no sound it appears to date from the early 1960s and was shown to an audience of commercial vehicle enthusiasts in Wiltshire. Also included on DVD 793 Tape 65
Background . Getting and expert order from South Africa was made easier by knowing that after sales service was available for specialised components on purchases . For this reason Simms would have needed servicing dealers in countries where their equipment could be fund in service.
Most of the machinery shown in use would have been factory fitted with Simms equipment. Foden 8 wheeler double tanker outfit and various LAD cabbed vehicles. As concrete mixer wag. Unknown handler .. Leyland on timber haulage with crane fitted elderly Foden? Tipper . Fordson major pulling dump trailer well laden . Out to a primitive airfield to hand spares to the pilot of a light plane for onward delivery ZS-CYZ. Bonneted heavy tractor Aerial view of town newly constructed bridge crossed at speed by Leyland Tipper, View of Cape Town? Table Mountain Batchelor and Son Gardner and Simms agents view of workshop servicing injection equipment. and electrical work including what looks like an early alternator. Other dealer premises shown are Loew& Halverson in the harbour area and LG McCann . Bedford J type with red flag on roadworks Heavily Modified Fordsons used on sugar cane haulage . These are some very drastic modifications . Finishing with a view of bonneted Scammell tractor tanker outfit.
141 The County Fourdrive .
This has always been a rare sight developed by County Tractors from a standard E1A Fordson Major County produced this four wheel drive skid steer tractor around 65 years ago. Had they continued development and fitted a loader it would have preceded the development of the larger Bobcats. Instead most were exported to haul sugar cane hence their rarity in the UK.. Effectively and in specification County had produced a four-wheel drive crawler. This film forms a fascinating what might have been if development had continued. Black and White 10 mins. . Much of this film appears to have been shot while the prototype was on test at the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering at Silsoe Bedfordshire .
158 Ploughing matches
When the “New” Fordson Major was announced the makers put in lot of effort to encourage leading competition ploughmen to use them when competing.
In turn wins meant celebrity endorsements from champion ploughmen like Hugh Barr. Cameras were sent to cover a two major international competitions in Ireland the Word Championship in Dublin and Sweden as well as more local matches. .
Thanks to Fords sponsorship of the film it mainly features competitors using New Majors. As such it forms a unique opportunity to see early examples at work when almost new. Some of the Fordsons were actually the Kent Fordson. Dealers conversion the KFD.
This film was made at a time when match ploughing changed from purely local test of skill and at the highest level became an international competition. Today's ploughmen find it interesting to see what sort of work found favour with judges when international competition started..
Plus 159 Ploughing in Sweden
This is the next years ploughing match in Sweden. Again an international audience so different countries entries featured. Not that Ford ware the leading make of tractor in the over 30hp class which suggests the Ferguson which was under 30hp probably out sold the Major at that time. Hugh Barr was world champion
195 Machines on the Farm
The intention was to demonstrate how Agricultural Engineers were increasing the output of British Farms . Summarised are most of the equipment featured. In most cases it was pictured at work often pulled by a Major and with a sound track.
The 3 horse team featured in the opening was controlled by a single rein. In the 1960s supermarkets were starting to be seen and refrigerated milk machines in the street. Shops still offered chairs for customers.. Produce went to Covent Garden or Smithfield Market. Potato harvesting, pea swathing hop harvesting, forage blower , and show stands displaying among other items a spading machine and the MF stand. Older tractors featured included an Ivel tractor seen in motion (who owned it?) various old tractors working in old newsreels, Ferguson Brown demonstrated, David Brown, Track Marshall, and an MF65 with reversible plough. Working down soil with discs, spring tine harrows, or a Rotavator, Drilling is shown with a Smyths Non Paraeil, combine drill, all plastic fertiliser spreader with folding box,, or precision seeding with David Brown 2D and seeder units, followed by down the row thinners, International crawler pulling a potato planter, celery being put in with a Smallford planter. Sprayers of different types including Ferguson with banana loader mounted sprayer, orchard spraying, aircraft, and irrigation. Dairy herds need conserved grass, , mounted mower, finger wheel rake Wuffler, baling green hay and drying in tunnels using a Lister MEU fan, silage making, with buckrakes, David Brown Hurricane, blowing into trailer, forage blower, Wilder Silamasta, Pea vining, trailed with Enfield disel engine. Grain harvesting with several 780 Massey Harris combines, loading into a Massey 35 tractor and tipping trailer. For the smaller harvest there was Allis Chalmers Allcrop trailed harvester. Baling was demonstrated with the International B46 baler. Grain was dried with a Gascoigne grain dryer at work, or stored in grain bins. Apples were stored after grading in the packing shed. Root crops were harvested mechanically with a potato harvester or beet harvested with a single row harvester. Dairying needed machinery as well. Hand milking, Jerseys was contrasted with a tandem parlour, feeding a Bulkolder bulk tank, by Gascoigne's. Unusually collection was made by an Bedford S type tanker suggesting it was the original scheme around the Newbury Area. Intensive livestock was represented by pig unit fed from overhead travelling hoppers, feed prepared by a mill and mix unit. The next few scenes can also be seen in another film on Land Reclamation of the same period. Bulldozing hedges, a Cuthbertson Water Buffalo, a Priestman drag line, and lime spreading. Routine jobs could also be mechanised using hedge trimmer, front loader, or dung spreaders, Looking to the future was the prototype Lucas hydrostatic Massey Ferguson, and the radio controlled Fordson Dexta. To emphasise how successful the engineering industry was there were scenes of new tractors leaving the factory for export most makes were featured. It would be fair to say this film was made when British Agricultural Engineering was at its most successful before markets started to be taken by imported machinery and export sales met stronger competition. Anybody who has worked on a farm in the period between 1960 and say 1975 is almost bound to have used at least some of the machines featured in this film.
319 Driverless Tractor
Short but very rare.
For years journalist have forecast driverless tractors operating in Britain's fields. So far this idea has not caught on. Opening with a sequence on of ploughing with oxen. In this newsreel for farmers there is report that starts with Oxen Team ploughing. Prolific farmer inventor William Tompkins from Apthorpe Northamptonshire, the commentary put him wrongly in Worcestershire. had two tractors ploughing separately with the driverless tractor controlled from the other tractor. . One tractor is driven while the second tractor is remotely controlled . Both were ploughing and were early 50s Fordson Majors.
A Breath of the Sea the second report featured Parkston, Dorset sailing club starting with a look at cadet sailing dinghies and the larger X craft sailing boats . Like big motor cruisers they are much more awkward to manoeuvre when ashore. when on their cradles . Extra storage space is gained as they are manoeuvred around using an early New Fordson Major with winch. Most unusually it was operated with the starting handle still in place. 10 minutes colour.
470 Mc Bains, Driverless Rolling and Rabbitting
Another short but very rare.
This Fordson rare tractor “short” covers some of the unusual things Fordson tractors can be used for. McBains a Scottish dealer held a Gymkhana for local tractor drivers. The events shown could make a diverting sideshow at a present day vintage rally.
An effective way of getting a driverless tractor was to set up a pylon in the middle of a field and take a rope from there to a tractor and implement combination. As the rope unwinds the circles described by the tractor get bigger .
Using a Fordson Major to dazzle and scoop up rabbits with a Front end loader sounds like a joke but was seriously advocated as a way of keeping rabbit numbers down.
10 minutes Black and White.
1618 A compilation of three films Fordson Newsreels were very topical films that were destroyed soon after. David Brown in Mexico was so unprofessional that I suspect it my even have been taken by David Brown himself while the Ford Generation II must have been one of the last product launches accompanied be film rather than video.
319 Fordson Newsreel
For years journalist have forecast driverless tractors operating in Britain's fields. So far this idea has not caught on. Opening with a sequence on of ploughing with oxen. In this newsreel for farmers there is report that starts with Oxen Team ploughing. Prolific farmer inventor William Tompkins from Apthorpe Northamptonshire, the commentary put him wrongly in Worcestershire. had two tractors ploughing separately with the driverless tractor controlled from the other tractor. . One tractor is driven while the second tractor is remotely controlled . Both were ploughing and were early 50s Fordson Majors.
A Breath of the Sea the second report featured Parkston, Dorset sailing club starting with a look at cadet sailing dinghies and the larger X craft sailing boats . Like big motor cruisers they are much more awkward to manoeuvre when ashore. when on their cradles . Extra storage space is gained as they are manoeuvred around using an early New Fordson Major with winch. Most unusually it was operated with the starting handle still in place. 10 minutes colour.
179 David Brown Tractors in Mexico Summary of Contents
This was a strange film being partly a travelogue and partly a sales films for David Drown. Opens with typical travelogue of buildings in the cities, fountains, and parks. Then on through the country side and spectacular waterfalls. Aerial shots of open countryside. Mau have been the actual film as taken as there are many joins in the film. Being a sales film there are plenty of shots of delegates eating together and being entertained. TUSA Tractors Universal are the main importers for the area. All the tractors shown are in the red livery with yellow exhausts, While the tractors are familiar many of the implements are distinctly local.
The local tractor drivers are mostly handling their tractors fairly steadily. Takes in an agricultural show as well as fishing. For some reakable fish.. Bull fighting and some more country.. Back to tractors including what seems to be a high clearance model . An ox cart and ox teams . Rainbow and red sky to finish. Colour but Silent
New Series 10 and TW range Series II Also on 422
423 Ford Force 2
In 1985 Ford introduced their new Super Q Cab with flat floor layout to improve the TW and 10 series range of agricultural tractors . This hard driving sales film puts across the numerous improvements introduced . Plenty of comparison shots with previous models to demonstrate the changes.. Plenty of shots of the new models in use. Also included is an interview with Geoff Tiplady “Mr Ford Tractor” commending the new models
The date must make this one of the last instances when 16 mm film was used to introduce new capital machinery. Compared with a colour glossy leaflet there are far more pictures far more movement and a far better chance to appreciate the benefits for both driver and user.
25 minutes of Colour .
In the Simms film they record several Fordson Majors hauling massive Sugar Cane trailers in which the tractor are taking punishment from their drivers
The mixed tape gives some idea of the sort of films rescues by the Dustbin Film Collection. If we had not rescued the they would have gone into a dustbin long ago.
Summary of Contents
R A Lister were a well established manufacturing Agricultural Engineers when this film was made in the 1930s. About 1937 I suspect. They enjoyed an international reputation for their engines and dairy equipment in particular. This film offered an insight into this proud and successful company when it was at its independent prime over 80 years ago.
View flying over and inside the RA Lister Engine Works at Dursley Gloucestershire . View of assembled engines before views of engines at work including driving a pulper with various D series and bigger engines up to 40hp . View of pumping sets demonstrated and at work . Cream separators and dairy work using Lister utensils finishing with demonstration of making wooden butter churns .
Royal Welsh Show 1954.
Sheep shearing and sheep dog trials Welsh Ponies stands for everybody, axmen, gymnastics display, Young farmers, tug of war , bale handling , motor cycle displays, horse driving events, parade of cattle , all on the then new site at Llanelwed.
This film is appears to be compiled from film shot during a visit by a representative from the British Headquarters of Simms Motor Units maskers of vehicle electrical and fuel injection components. . Shot in colour but with no sound it appears to date from the early 1960s and was shown to an audience of commercial vehicle enthusiasts in Wiltshire.
Background . Getting and expert order from South Africa was made easier by knowing that after sales service was available for specialised components on purchases . For this reason Simms would have needed servicing dealers in countries where their equipment could be fund in service.
Most of the machinery shown in use would have been factory fitted with Simms equipment. Foden 8 wheeler double tanker outfit and various LAD cabbed vehicles as concrete mixer waggons. .. Leyland on timber haulage with crane fitted elderly Foden? Tipper . Fordson major pulling dump trailer well laden . Out to a primitive airfield to hand spares to the pilot of a light plane for onward delivery ZS-CYZ. Bonneted heavy tractor Aerial view of town newly constructed bridge crossed at speed by Leyland Tipper, View of Cape Town? Table Mountain Batchelor and Son Gardner and Simms agents view of workshop servicing injection equipment. and electrical work including what looks like an early alternator. Other dealer premises shown are Loew & Halverson in the harbour area and LG McCann . Bedford J type with red flag on roadwork's Heavily Modified Fordsons used on sugar cane haulage . Finishing with a view of bonneted Scammell tractor tanker outfit
Nation Milk Publicity Council The story of the Council is to give the position of the and to spend the publicity amount. By having one central body they can get the maximum publicity for the money. This film was intended to encourage the various organisation to keep the cash coming. At a cynical level this cash provided was the income which financed the advertising agents. Despite this it gives a good picture on how milk is publicised. It does finis rather abruptly as the original was damaged..
Between them they represent 1hour and 30 minutes of fascinating film not obtainable anywhere else.
1015 GEGB films Foden and Flask Cash with flask Hover truck Steam.
The only Fordson interest is the one with a Boughton Winch which was used to haul an experimental hovertruck in difficult conditions.
Four films by the CEGB demonstrating aspects of the power scene. The sponsors were the Central Electricity Generating Board who at that time generated virtually all power sold
Foden and Flask
Main theme is the safety of nuclear flasks when being transported . Advocates nuclear power by trying to reassure the audience that nuclear waste can be reprocessed safely.
The nature of nuclear flasks require a special transporter . The example featured used a specialist Foden heavy haulage tractor for transport. Of course the a flak weighs 50 tonnes but the contents inside are relatively light .The flask is pretty robust as demonstrated in the next film.
Train hit flask at 100 mph
This is demonstrated in this film where a specially rigged train in which engine 46009 and 3 coaches crashed into a flask at 100 mph to see what would happen. “Sir Walter Marshall summed it up as If this doesn't convince the doubters nothing will”. There is 8 miles of track at Dalton in Nottingham where the driverless train could work up the necessary speed before hitting the flask. With 32 cameras the film shows the crash from many different angles and incidentally probably forms the best photographed train crash ever.
Hover truck for muddy conditions
The next film is a silent film of a hover transporter that they built to try and get heavy objects like transformer to places that were otherwise inaccessible. It was designed with ramps so that a lorry could if necessary be driven on to serve as a bridge for difficult stretches.
While is could move under its own power , once conditions worsened in difficult going the engine drove the hover and the traction was provided by one crawler and as conditions deteriorated a Fordson Major with a Winch probably a Broughton and eventually a County crawler again with a Broughton winch. In contrast even a four-wheel drive Bedford R type needed pulling out. By this time the conditions had so badly deteriorated it was even difficult to walk. The idea did not catch on so I should imagine this remained a one off prototype. From the air cleaners it was pretty big engine and there was a very long travel on the suspension.
Steam Generating 1960 style,
Production of steam in generating stations is to generate electricity by burring coal, moved by loads Merry Go Round system non stop includes unloading and storage of coal. Up to 2 million tons stored on 16 acres. At a typical station Delivery at 3000 tons per hour.. Coal is pulverised before burning in boilers to produce high pressure steam which is then superheated to 2000 psi after use it is condensed and recalculated. Waste gases are also used to heat water before the fuel ash is separated out and collected..
This PFA is shipped out by trains to for example Peterborough as a slurry lagoon and used to reclaim land . Alternatively burnt coal is handled as clinker.
Some stations are oil fired with fuel delivered by shipping.
The latest types are nuclear powered. Uranium comes in by forklift . The intention was to emphasise the similarities between the various types rather than that nuclear is different Made in the 1960s Much of the technology would probably be familiar today .
If that is not enough of a choice here are some other items we have listed that may be of interest
Oil sample reveals much about any sort of engine. Test it BEFORE you buy it Provides vital information if you are buying a tractor of any age and nearly all models
Sectioned Line Drawing of vintage tractors, choice of makes, how they work. Shows what is going on under the casings out of sight.
Wide choice of old industrial film transferred on a DVD for private study Gives you some idea of the range of films offered through eBay