British fail to break Cooley

Cooley record retained despite Chepstow challenge

The British challenge to the Cooley record of 1,832 working vintage tractors, set last August, failed over the weekend, when just 771 tractors took part in the event under the auspices of the Chepstow & District Vintage Club. The challenge to the world vintage tractor record set in Ireland, goes on to Australia in April of 2004 as countries try to break the Cooley record.

The British organisers had over 1,000 working tractors on the giant field and their expectation was to reach a magical figure of 2003 tractors. Lynda Collingborn, on whose land the attempt at breaking the record was staged, was disappointed with the fact that not all of the tractors booked for the event had in fact turned up. She said that the vintage world still envies the Cooley record for the highest number of vintage/veteran tractors at work together in one field.

Third year for Fingal Rally

Fingal Vintage Society is holding its third Annual Vintage Show and Steam Rally at the end of September at Rathmooney, Lusk, in North County Dublin. The site is now more accessible from the M1 motorway. The Rathmoony showgrounds will be open to exhibitors from 12 o'clock on Saturday, 27 September, in advance of the big day on Sunday, 28 September.

The event will be a weekend affair as it kicks off with a four-mile road run on the Saturday for diehard enthusiasts. This will be followed by a harvest dance to be staged nearby, on Saturday night.

The organising committee has made arrangement to have facilities on the site for those who want to camp overnight and be ready for the 10 o'clock opening of the show on Sunday morning.

Bob Mullen, chairman of the Fingal Vintage Society, said the show will include vintage ploughing, harvesting and steam threshing. Bob can be contacted for booking machines into the event on 087-252-1435.

Marshalls provide Ballymena highlight

Good weather, good friendship and good fun were very much the order of the day around Ballymena for the 36th Traction Engine Club of Ulster Steam and Vintage Rally, which was held in July.

Torrential rain during the set-up on Thursday night left the organising committee not knowing what sort of weather to expect over the weekend. As it turned out, they were blessed with two days of glorious sunshine.

Exhibitors converged on the showgrounds from near and far, from all over the UK, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The sense of friendship among participants, many of whom do not see one another from one year to the next, was evident to spectators. Their common bond of vintage restoration allows them to pick up one year where they left off the previous year.

This year's show attracted a huge turnout of machines. The line-up included 26 full-size steam engines and rollers and eight model steamers. Stationary engines and classic and vintage tractors were also well represented, with many new restoration projects appearing at Ballymena for the first time.

The Ballymena Show is now rated among vintage rally enthusiasts as being as good a rally as the Great Dorset Steam Fair - strong praise considering that fair takes place on a 500-acre site!

For a number of years, the Ballmena Show has had a special section to highlight pre-1930s tractors. This section has grown each year, and this year there were almost 40 very rare and unusual machines on display.

Among the "star'' attractions was the Hornsby tractor, owned by Robert H Crawford, Boston, Lincs. This tractor is rated as the oldest in the world; it was built in 1897. It looks like a cross between a steam engine and a vintage tractor and it certainly was a sight to behold.

The show also had two massive Marshall Colonial tractors on display. These were mainly used on the American prairies and in Australia. These two big tractors formed a key part of the special display of Marshall machines, a special attraction at this year's rally.

The display of these Marshall giants kept many spectators mesmerised as they paraded around the arena, accompanied by a commentary given by Peter Love of Tractor and Machinery magazine.

There were no fewer than seven Marshall steam engines at the show. Among these was one of the oldest working engines in Ireland, built in 1889 and owned by Rochford brothers, Co Wexford.

Seamus Kelly of Ardee showed another fine example of a portable Marshall with his 1919-built version. This machine powered its way through the weekend, driving a massive horizontal saw-bench.

The whole Marshall experience was topped off by a superb show of Marshall tractors and crawlers, including a 1930's 15-30, series I, II and III models, as well as models M and MP6 and VFA. These, along with a number of Fowler Field Marshall crawlers, made an impressive sight as they paraded around the arena. The success of the Marshall event was due to the hard work of the organising committee, which sourced machinery for this display from as far afield as Dorset in Southern England, Fife in Scotland and Co Wexford.

In the vintage commercials area, the ERF range was the focus this year. The trucks on view ranged from the 1933 ERF, owned by the ERF club, to the newer models, which had been used to transport vintage machinery to the rally. In total there were 19 ERF lorries on display, alongside many other spectacular machines - amassing a total of over 40 commercials.

Tractor pulling was the new attraction at Ballymena this year. This side of the show was organised by the Irish Tractor Pulling Organisation, and the machines in action ranged from specially-modified tractors to golden oldies, in the shape of the traction engines of James Patterson and Robert Coles.

The traction engines showed the others how to do it, achieving very successful pulls, with the professional tractor pullers just standing back and watching in amazement!

The Traction Engine Club of Ulster has done it again and brought off a great result at Ballymena.

You can get more information and see additional photos of the rally on the club's website http://www.ulstersteam.co.uk/ at any time.

Kildinan takes to the Bothar Fada

Kildinan Vintage Club has completed an epic vintage roadrun from its north Cork base at Glenville, via Mizen Head, to Ireland's most northerly tip of Malin Head and back, as part of a major Bothar fundraising effort. The charity drive, which took 16 days to complete, covered over 950 miles in five vintage tractors.

The original aim was to secure sponsorship to the tune of €50,000 as well as 20 in-calf heifers, for Bothar, the third-world charity - and that figure has now been well surpassed. Dan Martin, secretary to the project, said they have received almost €97,000 in donations so far and they are now aiming for the €100,000 mark. They have also received pledges to provide 23 in-calf heifers to the next Bothar airlift to Malawi.

The mammoth journey left Kildinan on Friday, 18 July, and reached Malin Head on Sunday, 27 July. The drivers included Pat Casey, who works in the computer industry, Michael O'Driscoll, a mechanic, and retired farmers Dave Fenton, Tom O'Driscoll and Eamon Walsh. They were backed up by a small support group and lead into each town and village by the pipe-playing of John Madden of Innishannon and the Irish Vintage Society.

The group drove five vintage tractors, which included Allis Chalmers and Ferguson 20 models, the full length of the country without a hitch. They drove an average of 70 miles per day at a steady pace of about 12 miles per hour. The only technical pitstops were for two punctures and the only "technical modification" on the tractors was comfort seats, all of which were sponsored.

The huge fundraising event was organised by Dan Martin and Denis O'Keeffe of the Carraig na BhFear, Glenville and Watergrasshill Bothar Support Group. They made all of the travel arrangements before the tractor drivers set off. This included accommodation and meals, all of which were sponsored by bed and breakfast owners and restaurants up and down the country.

"The support and generosity for the project was unbelievable," said Dan Martin. "The goodwill that the drivers received was fantastic, especially as this was high season for the bed and breakfast owners."

Dan Martin is now preparing a book to celebrate the event. "We are still on target to collect €100,000 and I'm determined that we can achieve it," said Dan.

You can help Dan to achieve the sponsorship figure by ringing him on 021-4880240.

Great Dorset calls steam enthusiasts

If you're a steam enthusiast then from Wednesday, 27 August, to Sunday, 31 August, the biggest steam event on these islands, The Great Dorset Steam Fair, is a must for you.

This is one of Europe's leading vintage and steam events and it is held on a mammoth 500-acre site at Tarrant Hinton, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, England. The giant event is regularly attended by over 200,000 visitors and 2003 sees the show in its 34th year.

The aim of the Great Dorset Steam Fair is to give the public an insight into what the English way of life looked like in the country at the turn of the century, when steam power was in its heyday.

To achieve this, each year the voluntary committee assembles the largest collection of steam and vintage equipment to be seen anywhere in the world and takes visitors on a giant trip of nostalgia into the days of yesteryear.

All of the machines are shown in the way in which they were originally worked and functioned all those years ago. This working theme is the real attraction of the event. Overall, there will be 200 working steam engines and 100 fairground organs at the show, along with around 2000 other working exhibits.

Rare Scottish tractor collection goes on sale

An untimely death all too often means that a rare tractor collection that has been carefully gathered and restored must be sold on. That is the story of the collection of rare Cockshutt tractors that were assembled by the late Scottish collector, Bob Pettigrew of West Kilbride, Ayrshire. The sale will take place on Saturday, 20 September 2003, at 10.30am at his home.

The sale includes one of the finest collections of Cockshutt tractors in the world. It includes an almost-complete range of 500 series Cockshutt tractors, including the 540, 550, 560 and a 570.

Bob had other rare models, including an original International W4, a restored Ford 4000, an Oliver 440 as well as an unusual International German-built DGD, Cat D2 and a rare Waterloo Bronco tractor. The final catalogue is being assembled by auctioneers Cheffins and they can be contacted on their website http://www.chefins.co.uk/ or phone Bill King on 0044-1223-213-777.