expeatfarmer

I repair worn butterfly spindles by drilling oversize and using a sleeve of silicone pipe over the spindle it gives a good seal and moves freely.

Cool I like the snow plough.

That JAP engine is so similar to the Sturmey Archer derived TB Ransomes engine that it would not surprise me if the barrels and head were interchangeable.

I got dragged off by an orange jacket when I was not expecting to.

can't be Nigel no pinstripes !

HMMMMMM!

Still have your body warmer and oil pan.

When the skimmer conked out on the way down my drive we thought it had run out of petrol so I put a gallon in. Just discovered today that it was a gallon of diesel not petrol!!! No wonder it wont start, best of it is I was sucking on the fuel pipe yesterday to clear the tank outlet and never even noticed. !!! Duhhhhh!

Some kind person left me a very nice red MG6/40 front bumper bar amongst my bits. I have no idea who it was whoever you are thank you very much.

Where would I put it for you to upload?

If anyone is interested in a repeat of Malvern at Newark in November please let me know, hope we can get some machines along that did not make it to Malvern.

Is it worth having the other two to break for spares? Tracks and drive wheels don't look too worn , never seen a yellow one before is it ex local authority?

Tried to upload a phone video of the show on to you tube says it will take 163 minutes to upload a 4 minute video !!!

is that long enough !!!!

Great photos Norman. Glad you don't have any of me at the awards I got all of a fluster and a big lump in my throat ( what a wuss ). I certainly would not have made it without your help. I might have been the front man but there are a number of people who really deserve a thank you for helping to make it happen. Anthony and Laura for helping with inspiration sorting key parts such as MERL and Trevor and a super effort to bring 4 machines to fill the gaps, Rhys and Carlo ( aka Rhys's Dad) helping to set up and take down the backdrops and banners. Trevor Hopkins for the absolutely amazing display of leaflets and literature ditto Joe Paget for the boards on the back display. Neil and Paula for the effort involved in bringing along the spares and Welsh cakes, The staff of the Museum of English Rural Life for the archives and videos,my wife Janet for making up all the name badges, the seat for my ITW and putting up with grumpy me when things went wrong,and suggesting the absent machines photos. Alistair for bringing along that lovely two furrow plough which he forgot to put on my trailer along with the other plough, Anne for baking some lovely 80th cup cakes and the sponges featuring Alistair. Lastly and by no means least I would like to thank every single person who dug out their MG and brought it along some with superb effort Ashley and Ian Dennis were still refurbishing their lovely MG2's the night before they left from Truro I am amazed that the paint was dry. I am so glad that so many people were inspired to dig them out and bring them along to make a superb celebration of these wonderful machines. I do hope that all the overseas owners of machines that sent me photos are pleased with the results it was fantastic to show machines in Australia, New Zealand ., South Africa, U.S.A. Canada, Ireland and distant parts of U.K. A special moment for me was meeting up with David and Jean Gant and their sons Kevin and Barry, they brought along a gorgeous ex BR I.T.W complete with rail man's torch. David and Jean have been Ransome's enthusiasts for many many years and between them they have a superb collection of 13 machines. David went blind some years ago and yet he still gets involved in machine restoration and embarrassingly for me takes great delight in his son's reading out to him my postings about my projects. So enthusiastic are they all as a family that Jean showed me a photo album of a recent event where they had had a family picnic in the shed with all the Ransomes machines up and running round about them. A pleasure and a privilege to meet such lovely people as it has been with everyone who brought along a machine. I have been asked if we could repeat the exercise at Newark Show in November, I am up for it let me know if you are !

Malvern was the first time I had seen this machine in the flesh and I have to say that it is absolutely superb the attention to detail and the effort involved in building it is amazing and to think that Rhys is a lad of 20 years old it is superb positively restores my faith in the youth of today. Well done Rhys you should be very proud of yourself. When are you going to deliver it to me !!!!!

Stuart Cox another Ransomes enthusiast kindly copied an article from an old magazine detailing a collector in Godalming that had a skimmer in complete order along with a dumper, his name was Dave Smith does anyone know him? Skimmer performed well at Malvern engine started very well until I took it off the wagon last night when the fuel pump packed up, my own silly fault as it seemed to work ok I left it alone when I fitted the engine. Stripped it down today to find it was full of crud that must have been disturbed during transport. Sorted it now and just about to refit so that I can start moving stuff around the garage.

Winning the award at Tractor World was the icing on the cake for 137 but the most important thing was that the man who asked me to restore it (Ted Pratt ) was absolutely delighted. When I started unloading today I noticed that the tracks are taking paint off the body sides, before it gets any worse I am going to re set the tracks to wide position and sort the paint so back in the workshop.

Certainly plenty of Bruno smoke over the last few weeks. ITW fired first pull on the handle this morning , instantly ran on the starter with little smoke. I would have persisted with the manual start but knackered my back yesterday so thought I would save it for Malvern. Nice seat fits a treat.

Cinderella is now ready for the ball along with the six others. had to evict a stowaway today when cleaning 137 one of the track frame support tubes was packed solid with peanuts obviously the mouse was going to self cater at Malvern!!

Better fortune today, Whitlock proved to be a pig to start after I fixed the fuel leak and then I remembered that it likes heat to start from freezing but you have to turn the heat off before you turn it over otherwise it wants to run backwards. Fixed up carb on the digger and it now ticks over nicely. 137 fired up after a few goes but it was below freezing. Brought it into garage for some touch up and a clean up. The ITW has been extremely difficult to start from cold and very smokey. I managed to find a brand new injection pump,injector, reed valve and governor all new old stock. Decided to bite the bullet late this afternoon and changed everything, my theory being that if I changed all the influencing parts for new then I was not leaving any unknown's in the set up. Guess what ! it worked runs much better much less smoke and dare I say it I started it on the crank handle not once but twice WOW ! I kept thinking how unpopular I would be at Malvern churning away on the starter and filling the place with smoke so took the gamble.

I hope to leave home around mid day Thursday, 255 miles approx so reckon on 6 hours with stops. Main hold up point is leaving M6 to join M5 make sure you get over to the left in good time as vehicles often stupidly use the hard shoulder to sneak up on the junction.

Three on my trailer and four on a beaver tail plus trailer.

Certainly is !

Digger is sorted just needs to clean up the carb, fuel bowl had water in it. Lovely seat fits a treat.