The little grey fergie from Oxford, part 1.
Entry posted by Firecracker
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This is one of those things that doesn’t fit anywhere, so it might as well go here. The grey fergie (or to give it its proper title ‘Tractor, England, 20hp’) and breathing on the oxford offering.
A bit of history, the fergie came out of the fertile mind of Harry Ferguson (aka. ‘The mad mechanic of Belfast’). Ferguson was an inventor and developer, his tractors were first built by David Brown, then Ford, then the Standard Motor Co. The fundamental idea of the Ferguson system was to make the implement (eg a plough) part of the tractor, rather than have it trailing behind. This meant the down force exerted by the ploughshares in the soil could increase the traction of the tractor, thus the tractor can be lighter. Also if the plough hits an obstruction, the system releases the load, so the tractor spins it’s wheels rather than rear up and land on the driver (as was the wont of the Fordson).
The TE-20 grew out of the Ford 9N, following the dissolution of the infamous ‘handshake agreement’ (and resultant lawsuits) between Ferguson and Henry Ford. Following the refusal of Ford UK to build his tractors at Dagenham, Ferguson approached the Standard Motor Co, whose shadow factory at Banner Lane was empty following the end of WW2. The rest is history, leading to (imho) a tractor that would finish the revolution of mechanisation in agriculture the Fordson F started.
Anyway, onto the model. I’ve encoutered three models in OO, Springside (bit of a curates egg, good in parts), the Langley kit (the dearest and currently in the ‘to do’ pile, so unable to comment further at this moment in time) and Oxford’s offering (cheapest, some crude detail and missing link arms (which was the major selling point of the fergie)).. I’m after 4, to pose on a warflat as per these (and as I’ve said elsewhere, that date is wrong, I think it’s 1948)
So, the Oxford fergie. There’s a bit of crude detail, mainly in the front axle and side arms (being fair, this is mainly due to the manufacturing process). On the other hand, the engine detail is spot on, the model is definitely a TE-A (starter motor and toolbox on LHS of engine, no TVO vaporiser shield around the exhaust manifold) The track of the wheels is too wide and there’s a bright silver front axle that shouldn’t be there. Oh, and the link arms of the Ferguson system are missing completely.
So, wheels. The rear is easy, remove the wheels form the axle, file off the hub from the inside, shorten the axle by about 1-2mm and refit.
Next, the front. I first cut the axle with a pair of snips and removed the two halves. The axle is trimmed back to a 2mm (ish) stub. Remove the inner hub until it’s flush with the back of the wheels, and refit with superglue. File the stubs flush on the inside of the stub axle arms.
Next up (ie I haven’t worked it out yet) the missing link (arms)
Owain
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