Some more photos of Malcolm's Stand. Alan

And some more Alan

Try again Alan

Hi Alan, John and Malcolm,

Thanks for sharing the pics of the Carrington Rally.  Hopefully Malcolm has returned home with all his goodies and is getting back to normal but it is probably at least a two day event just getting things home! 

What is a show without a little rain? It looks like all were well protected with tarps! 

Great job on planning and a great effort on exhibiting Malcolm. You did us all very proud! 

Thanks for keeping Massey in the forefront even if Agco has forgotten how to spell Massey Harris and Ferguson!

Gary

Well the show at which we were to exhibit one of our No 2s finally came round for this last Sunday and Monday.  It was the Bala Transport Festival held at Llanuwchlyn on the end of Bala Lake - the biggest lake in Wales.  It was staged by the National Vintage Tractor and Engine Club's Meirionnydd group.  This group is one of the most active in the Club.

It was a 50 mile journey there with the trailer nearly up to its legal limits.  Half way there going through the Snowdonia mountains a massive thunderstorm struck.  The rain was so heavy that many cars just parked up but we carried on slowly eventually arriving at the site where the heavy rain continued for another hour or so.  Finally we got out of the cab and rolled the tractor off.  This is my son's No 2 ex the Reichert family in Canada and which was paraded at the 150th MF anniversary event at Milton.

First problem it wouldn't start - the magneto and plugs were soaked as the rain had driven under the bonnet (hood!!).  I got a tow from another exhibitor and it started within two yards.  Fine - off we went across the showground to the tractor section when I heard a bit of a grating noise.  Anyway got parked up and the fan belt had snapped so we were forced to be just a static exhibit for the two day show and not go round the ring.  We had about 5 hours rain free and nice and sunny then in came the thunder and lightening again and we spent the next 2-3 hrs in the beer tent sheltering.  It turns out that we had 2.5 inches of rain in less than 12 hours - the heaviest recorded for Wales in this thunderstorm mini season.  But the next day Monday was great - hot and sunny and a good crowd turn out many showing considerable interest in the beast of the past.

Time to go home and I got a tow back to the trailer and started it up just to load it.  All ended well with a sunny drive home through the mountains and a picnic in a lay by.

My son had come over for the day on Sunday from his home in Rugby.  It poured with rain for him all the way back and there were severe floods in the Birmingham area which he had to negotiate in the course of which he got a puncture.  The recovery people, inundated with calls took 2 hrs to reach him and he finally got home at 11 pm.  Anyway all's well that ends well and here are some pics of him with HIS tractor!  Such were our efforts for the 100th anniversary.

Now to unlaod this Tuesday morning and fix the fan belt.

John

Thank you Alan for all the photo's you have posted, great to see you yesterday and pleased you got around with your camera, I have seen parts of the show on your photo's which I never got to see all weekend.

I must say in the end the event turned out to be a huge success and possibly one of our best rallies in the 59 years it's been going, all helped by mostly the beautiful sunny weather over the weekend, plus all the efforts put in by the various section organisers.

I must congratulate all the 14 local Club stands, they put together some real variety and interesting exhibits for the public to experience and again the Ferguson and M-F flag was flying high as the trophy for the Best Club Stand was awarded to The Ferguson Club, set up by the Lincolnshire branch under the guidance of John Sharpe and Nigel Harness they put together a superb display of narrow Orchard and Vineyard Fergusons to fit into one of our feature themes, they attracted exhibitors from as far away as Cheshire into that section with Jullie Browning and Peter Smith with their narrow grey and gold.

Well done The Ferguson Club, for helping to show AGCO what they have missed, I know there are photographs from this weekends activities heading to AGCO, not sure it will have any effect in acknowledging their Heritage.

It was 11.00pm last night Gary as the last load came into the yard at home, it was all back home safe and sound in seven hours with a little help from one or two tractor drivers..

Malcolm.

Well done John and Trystan,

Sounds like you both had some horrendous circumstances to deal with as the weather was not so co-operative over in the West.

Great achievement here in the UK this weekend for the 100th Anniversary of Massey Tractor Production.

Now we look forward to more photo's and discussion from the North American Massey events this year.

Malcolm

Home again to green pastures and just awaiting a length of flat fan belt material

John

Here are a few random photo's in the build up of the 100 years of Massey Tractor Stand last Wednesday.
How different the photo's of the open field look before other things start to arrive.

The No 2 was the first of over 300 tractors to arrive on the Rally field.

Malcolm.

All too quickly the show is over, it's amazing how fast it all disperses from the field in a few hours where it takes days to build up.

Malcolm