EDMONTON – Everybody likes it when vacationing parents return with presents.
Sid Lyle hopes her father brings back a Porsche tractor from his trip to Denmark.
“It has a distinct front end,” Lyle said as she sat behind the Strathcona Vintage Tractor Association display at the Northlands Farm and Ranch Show in Edmonton, held March 26 – 29.
“I told him, ‘if you can find one of those, I want one of those.’ “
Lyle’s father is searching around Denmark for old farm equipment he can fit into a shipping container and bring back to Canada. He grew up in Denmark driving Porsche and Buhk tractors and that’s what he wants to collect.
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When club members begin restoring and collecting pieces of old farm equipment, they’re attracted to the brands of their childhood, said Lyle, one of the few women involved in the club.
Al Northrup brought a Minneapolis Moline 1952 U Model to the show, a model he drove on the farm as a child.
Northrup has 15 pieces of equipment in his collection in various stages of restoration.
“I’m a variety man,” said Northrup of Sherwood Park, Alta.
“I’ve always been interested in antiques.”
A combination of history and camaraderie brought the group of antique equipment buffs together.
Members such as Northrup want to keep history alive by restoring old equipment but they also enjoy the camaraderie of others with similar interests.
Restoring old equipment is not a cheap hobby, especially if the machine is more skeletal than a shiny new toy. Restoring some tractors is akin to putting together a jigsaw puzzle, always searching for the right piece.
“The majority likes to work from scratch. You’re never done. There always seem to be odds and ends that need to improve upon,” he said.
“Paint does wonders. It camouflages a lot.”
Club president Ellis Kumpula of Ardrossan, Alta., specializes in restoring the 30 series of John Deere tractors.
“That’s what I grew up on,” he said.
In 1976, he restored and sold two tractors. In 1998 he became serious about collecting and restoring the John Deere tractors of his youth. He has about 25 of the 30 series John Deere tractors, which were the last of the two cylinder models.
To the untrained eye, the row of green tractors looks more or less the same. To a collector, the differences are important.
Only a few were made with a GM diesel engine, many of which went south to Georgia. Other John Deere tractors were made in different factories for different kinds of crops. Models from 1950-60 that were designed for high crops have sold for up to $100,000.
Kumpula spends three to four hours every evening restoring the equipment. His oldest son has also become interested in the hobby.
While Lyle never grew up on a farm around the equipment, she enjoys learning from the older people in the club.
“I’m hoping with time I’ll be able to understand what they’re talking about,” she said.
“Now, I’m just a sponge.”
