A look at the industrial Fergusons and Massey Fergusons in the Coldridge Collection along with some of the special industrial equipment and agricultural implements that have found their way into industrial application.
I was spurred into writing this article by Alan Dunderdale’s plea for more material for the next Journal, although I had been considering it for some time. Being a Ferguson and Massey Ferguson enthusiast for many years now, as well as having a business involved in construction, it is this that perhaps pushed me to take a particular interest in the industrial range of tractors and implements. That is not to say I don’t collect and restore agricultural examples of Ferguson tractors and implements, I do, and in the Coldridge Collection we have 30 different examples of tractors alone.
It seems that Harry Ferguson was keen to develop the industrial market because we find in the 1937 sales catalogue a mention of 2 versions of the Ferguson Brown available for industrial application – one with and one without hydraulic 3 point linkage. Having never seen one of these models, I cannot comment of what the differences were, apart from the fact that I think the tyre size on industrial models was increased from 900 x 22 to 900 x 24 (I believe a collection in the North of England has one).
It appears that there were in fact several versions of the 9N produced in America, some fitted with Ferguson hydraulics and others without, like the aircraft tug tractor BN025 fitted with heavy plate steel bumper and integral front fixings and attached rear fenders, again in substantial plate steel. The tractors were made without 3 part linkage and were usually fitted with truck type tyres and a single brake pedal. Another version the BN040 had twin rear wheels and developed 4000lbs draw bar pull, the 25 developed 2500lbs of pull at the drawbar. It is quite possible that additional wheel/ballast was added to the tractors to attain this sort of performance. Latter industrial variants of the 8N were produced, some with V6 petrol engine and some specials which featured the full Mercury V8 engine producing 100HP – so they say! A bit tough on the clutch and transmission that was designed for about 30HP – gentle with the clutch … !
TET20 (Coldridge Collection No.65)
With this sketchy background we come to the first industrial tractor to follow this line in the Coldridge Collection. A TET 20, possibly at one time operated by Surrey County Council. This tractor has been restored and is painted grey to engine and transmission and Massey ferguson yellow to the sheet metal work. It is fitted with lights, horn and a Ferguson tractor meter running off the dynamo pulley.
It is fitted with the usual highway braking system of hydraulic, foot brake operation simultaneously both the rear wheels and a mechanical system for independent brakes and parking handbrake.
As I like to set up the tractors in the collection with an appropriate piece of equipment, this one is often attached to a Ferguson industrial 3 ton tipping trailer. This trailer, unlike the agricultural version, has overrun brakes, mudflaps, reversing overdrive on the braking system, as well as good road springs to the axle and lights. The trailer came from Somerset County Council as a rather rotten salt eaten wreck.
FE35 Industrial with MHF Forklift (Coldridge Collection No.66)
Next in the line up we have a fairly recent restoration project, an FE35 diesel complete with Massey Ferguson forklift attachment and front wheel weight and front weight frame.
I know very little about the working life of this tractor, suffice to say I collected it from a field near High Wycombe, Bucks and was told that it had been used by a local school to pull a gang mower. It just about ran given a full blast of easy start and jump leads from my LandRover FC2B and it had very good front and rear fenders but was missing the hydraulic master cylinder for the brakes and all the gauges were smashed. This tractor certainly has taken some restoring. Total rebuild to the engine and full overhaul of the braking system. Ian Halstead found me the forklift attachment which was a wonderful find, and although the mounting brackets and tilt ram were missing, we were able to fabricate the brackets and our local hydraulic workshop made a ram to exact dimensions of the original. A local friend also remanufactured for me all the brass instruction plates that are fitted to the forklift – a great help. The tractor is fitted with the original electric horn and industrial rear tyres.
MF35 3 cylinder industrial with driver awaiting restoration! (Coldridge Collection No.58)
Next to mention is an MF35 tractor which was purchased about 18 months ago. As you can see from the photograph it is without front axle wheel and radius arms and very rotted tin work. So we have a major restoration project here.
At the time of writing, I have found a nice pair of wide front mudguards and had a pair of rear ones made up. Also been able to find a decent bonnet, radius arms and front axle.
These tractors seem to be pretty rare. I know of one in the Coventry Motor Museum and one owned by a chap in the Midlands. Do any club members know of any others.
This tractor was supplied possibly to St Austell District Council by someone in Parr, Cornwall. As mentioned earlier, I like to fit my tractors with appropriate pieces of equipment and this will be set up with an MHF mid mounted mower 736. This was found for me by Club member Harold Beer. This mower is commonly known as the Dyna Balance left hand mower, being designed and made in Manchester by MF in the 60s for cutting grass, banks, highways and verges.
Bearing in mind the rule of the road – left hand cut for left hand traffic!
The special features of this mower are that it can cut from vertical to 37° below horizontal, has 2 separate rams – one controls the angle of the cutter and the other controls the operation height of the head end of the cutter bar – i.e. so that the tractor can drive along the road and the cutter bar travels above the kerb. The 3rd control is manual and this sets the angle of tilt on the cutter bar and gives a range of 20° again both hydraulic rams were missing but Derek Lane & Co of Exeter came to the rescue and copied both exactly lent to me by Harold.
MF65R minus its front loader and Bristol compressor movement, (Coldridge Collection No.54)
Next in chronological order is a restored MF MKII 65R Type that is one fitted with 4 speed shuttle transmission and Borg & Beck 11 and a half inch torque converter as well as a twin mechanical braking system to comply with UK highway use requirements.
The equipment fitted to this tractor when finally finished off will be 702 Front Loader and on the rear a Bristol Compressor type. The tractor came from a fencing contractor in Hereford and he found it very useful for driving in a post hole borer – the feature of this model is that the PTO drive can be reversed – a hazard for most applications but very useful if the auger gets jammed in a rock – just reverse the drive and it winds itself out!
MF20 obvious! (Coldridge Collection No.79)
The last industrial tractor to feature is a MF20 which was purchased from a local dealer John Lake about 3 years ago. As an ex-army machine with only 1570 hours on the clock and 2600 miles on the odometer (admittedly the drive was broken), being such low hours, very little mechanical work was needed, just a nice paintwork of Massey Ferguson industrial yellow all over – repairs to the twin mechanical braking system, some new oil seals here and there and a complete rewiring to get all the lights and direction indicators, horn and trailer socket functional. No implements fitted to this tractor.
1957 MHF prototype with Ford/Perkins F3 engine (Coldridge Collection No.72)
Simms In-Line Injection Pump on F3 Engine
To round off I would like to mention a prototype MF35 I have just acquired. This was once owned by Massey Ferguson who, in 1958, converted a pair of MHF 35 with 4 cylinder Standard 23 engines that were poor starters (as we all know) and fitted one with a Perkins P3 (TA) and the other Coldridge Collection No. 82 fitted with a Ford/Perkins F3 engine, i.e. the Dexta engine with Simms in-line pump, this was done for evaluation purposes.
The net result of this was the adoption by MF in 1959 of the Perkins A3 152 engine in production MF35. This particular tractor is a cross between agricutural and industrial in that it has been painted yellow, although the engine has an under layer of Fordson Empire Blue and the rear axle housing has an under layer of Stoneleigh Grey (I think). The wheels have always been white and the throttle lever has a serrated quadrant to help hold it in place as do later MF35 industrial tractors. This tractor is at the moment in an unrestored state.
To round off this article I would like to welcome any comments from members on what I have written – yes I may have got it wrong and this is not gospel.
If you would like to visit the Coldridge Collection just give me a ring:-
01363 83418 daytime
01769540233 evenings
and I will be pleased to show you around.
There are about 30 different Ferguson/Massey Ferguson plus about 10 other mostly oddball tractors in the collection. (Correct as at Spring 1999)
The other side of the TET20 (Coldridge Collection No.65)
© Copyright M. Thorne, Published in Journal No.31 Spring 1999
More recent photographs in the Gallery, scroll down to Coldridge Collection.
