Hi, I'm trying to find out whether a Trusty Tractor has survived.
The Trusty in question was a Douglas-engined machine, bought new sometime in the 40's, I believe, by Bill Howard of Salts Rd, Walton Highway, and just to make the connection clear I'm his grandson. Until the early 80's, when Bill passed away from cancer, the tractor was used on a regular basis, often (if weekends or school holidays) being driven by me. In the winter/spring it was used for ploughing, in the summer it was used for hauling loaded crates of apples, on a trailer, from his orchard to the sorting shed at the end of his yard, where they would be sorted, boxed and subsequently collected. Upon offloading the filled crates at the shed, the trailer would then be filled with empty crates, these taken back down the orchard, cat trotting alongside, empty boxes offloaded, full ones loaded, and so the process would be repeated.
At the end of the season, the fuel would be drained, an apple crate upturned and placed over the engine / fuel tank, the whole tractor tarpaulinned over and there it would sit until after Christmas. At some point after Christmas, the covers and the crate would then come off, new fuel tipped in, the greasegun would come out to grease the relevant nipples (crankcase/inside PTO pulley/top of one axle one side of the gearbox from memory - or have I missed one ?), spark plug extracted and cleaned (the best one was a three-electrode KLG), back in, lead on, fuel on, flood the (Amal) carb and let's see how co-operative she fancied being. In truth, she was normally quite good, and would start up within 6 attempts with the handle.
After Bill passed away, my Grandmother sold the house, moved, with the tractor staying with the house. I believe the purchaser realised what the tractor was, and may have used it for a while, but I think the house was sold again and a trip down the Salts a few months ago, visiting the area from Shropshire where I now live, was a sad experience - the house deteriorating badly, the orchard gone, and memories therefore destined to stay just that.
The big question then - does the tractor survive ? Douglas engine, ran on metal-lugged wheels (with steel bands attached for orchard work), and had the distinction of one of the four bolts holding the right (I believe) wheel on having snapped off and the hole filled with araldite. If anyone knows, it would be nice to find out, and even better should it have received some TLC and still be in working condition.
Incidentally, my Grandmother's brother was also a smallholder in West Walton and also owned a Trusty , JAP or Anzani engine, can't remember which. I only saw it once - when it was in a decrepit state with, I was told, a seized engine.
Topic: To Find a Trusty Tractor ? (Read 1569 times)
