A New Tractor, Le Percheron

The Museum at St Segal has already been discussed here whilst writing about the Lanz 5506.

Just after we had been given the decision that the museum was to wind up, we had a final visit to look around; that is Nicolas, the grandson of the owner of most of the machines, Noël and myself.

We looked at this tractor that I had said "If any tractor must be included in the museum, this one must be it!".

Why?, because it is German tractor made here in France just after the war. It is a Lanz 7506 in size, style and power, many Lanz pieces being used in it's construction, I reckon. Secondly it is a Semi-Diesel and therefore interesting to see, explain and to look at.

Whilst we three spent some time around it, the tractor sitting on chunks of tree stump to hide the flat tyres, on that afternoon sometime in September, Nico, said that he had never seen it run, Noël felt the compression and said, "Not much there Patrick, and what's that banging inside, big-end, piston or what?". I rather jokingly asked how much and an unrealistic price was given, one that could buy a "Le Percheron" in good running order, and indeed there was an ad. just a few weeks ago for one a bit les pricey which ran, so there we are, end of story for me!!.

In private just a few days later I gave Nico my top price that I would be prepared to pay.

A little later, several months on, I heard that another friend from near St Malo was interested so I formally withdrew so that he could go on with out my interferance. His deal involved a swap with another tractor, some cash and lots of telephone calls.
Some 6 or 8 months later I happened to see Nicolas somewhere and I asked him if the "Le Percheron" had gone. "No, in the end the deal was too complicated for me, and as I had to inject some cash into it and although the swap tractor was just what I wanted, it was all too complicated for me, so it has gone cold."

My ears pricked up and I reconfirmed my offer, which was heard but no reaction was made.

This was at the beginning of 2007 some 18 months after the original discussions.

A very sad looking Percheron at the museum.

I'll leave the story there for the moment and come back another day.

Pat

Lanz Tractor 5506 'Le Lanz Femme"

In April 2005 a group of interested people got together to try to save the already closed agricultural museum at Saint Segal, some 10 km from here.

The problem with this project was "Too Many Cooks"!

The majority of the exhibits were owned by Gaby Aven the ex-mayor of the village, the land and buildings were owned by the "Conseil Général du Finistère" (the County Council), the ex-director was not of a mechanical or agricultural bent, but very interested in books and literature, the mayor was all for re-opening but with a view to using the museum for other cultural uses as well. The "Parc Naturel d'Armorique" who finance and help run such projects found that an Agricultural Museum did not really come within their remit, even though they had been involved for a number of years whilst the museum was running.

Last of all we were there, a few restoration enthusiasts, Noel Blin who has a good collection of tractors and agricultural machines himself, Nicolas Yann the grandson of Gaby, the owner of the machines and myself.

So we got around the table several times but somehow there did not seem to be any cohesion betwen the various actors and in July 2005 the whole project was left to die.

We three enthusiasts had seen the writing on the wall.

Noel had said "IF" it folds up could I have 1st refusal on a couple of tractors, especially the "Germinal" made in Austria, 4 wheel drive, single cylinder diesel.

For myself I had for some reason unknown to myself fallen in love with a little Lanz half under an overhanging roof, half outside. The reserves were made, no prices at this stage.

As seen at the museum

Several weeks later Nicolas phoned and said that the Lanz was mine if we could come to a price agreement. I could not wait to get there to organise having this wonderful machine at home!

Next day I went to the museum, climbed over the fence and took some photos, had a real good look and found that the majority of the machine was there, rusty, but there, if I remember rightly, I think it even turned over even though the chimney was open to the elements. After some haggling with Nic, we came to an agreement and after a little time the Lanz 5506 was loaded onto the tipping trailer behind the Landrover Defender on it's way back home.

For a few days it got a severe coat of looking at, prodding probing and searching on the internet for more information. At the time it seemed too much to take in. Such a change from ordinary 4 cylinder upright engines, conventional, easy to work on and understand.

Cylinder of about three litres on it's side, just one piston, no valves, massive crankshaft like a steam engine, a complicated system to govern the engine's speed, no oil bath, but a total loss system with some of the used oil being recovered and re-introduced into the clean oil to be used again! A cluch that has no disk, but three massive weighted levers with a V covered in Ferodo which engages in a V slot in one of the flywheels. This machine is something that will never catch on!

However little by little I started to become more familiar with the tractor and it's workings, took off the chimney to see the exhaust port (and how much it was chammed up with carbon) to find that there was absolutely no compression at all, half the diesel fittings had been robbed, that the radiator just held water, that is if you had a watercan at the ready to fill up regularly. The stater motor did not work at all. This is a hellishly complicated piece of machinery, it doesn't turn the engine over TDC, it changes rotation using a number of coils and contact breakers when it comes up on compression hence putting a new charge of air in the cylinder for the diesel to explode in and start up.

The exhaust port discovered a bit clogged up, piston and ring just visible

I somehow felt that the motor needed to be turned over again and again to get things moving around and perhaps even loosen the piston rings so we can have some compression. The only tractor that we had at the time with a pulley take-off was the little Cub "Baby" that had been finished restoration that summer and had yet to be shown at Plouigneau with the potato Planter.

A small flat belt not really long enough was all I could come up with but the result was phenominal! The oil had been changed the oil drains on the bottom of the crankcase and the air transfer port had been cleaned out to be sure that there would be no buildup of oil to let the engine run away with itself burning oil till it burst into many pieces.

Yes all was working so with a bit of inginuity, the Cub started turning the Lanz over at about 500RPM. As the engine runs between 350 and 900 revs when working, this seemed to be about right. After a short while oil started splurting out of the exhaust port with the compressed air. I should say here that I didn't have any diesel connected up, it was just turning over light to clear the cobwebs out.

Baby powering the Lanz.

3/4 hour and that was enough, compression had been found, oil was getting round the system so some good had been done. Have some lunch and see what can be done with a bit of diesel?

To start the engine this type of Lanz Bulldog one has two choices. There is a system where one starts on petrol with a sparkplug that is energised with a coil and vibrating contact breaker giving a constant spark, quite efficient. Or one has what is called a "Hot Bulb" a hollow teardrop shaped liece of manganese steel that runs a very dull red all the time and which forms part of the combustion chamber for the injector to spray directly onto the hot metal inside. Until this bulb is hot the diesel will not combust. Do not forget that up till 1952/3 all Lanz engines were SEMI diesel, that is to say low compression, there is not enough compression to heat the air enough to explode the vapourised diesel The hot bulb is ideal. So an external heat source has to be applied. This is in the form of a blowtorch of some sort, originally it was a parafin or petrol torch, but now we find it easier to have a bottle of LPG gas and a blowtorch.

Heated up the bulb to dull red, ensured fuel was getting to the injector, grasped the left hand of the two flywheels which hass a special ridged flange for hand starting.

Never having started a Lanz before the learning curve was almost vertical, which way does one pull, I knew that the engine rotated towards the back of the tractor, that is clockwise on this side, so I tried pulling in that direction, then the other then from one compression to the other, after about 5 minutes I got a pop from the exhaust port (no chimney) so I tried what I thought that I had just done again and YES sparks, oil and exhaust came out and wonders of wonders the Lanz was running! Now it's getting hot don't forget to top the water up, is there enough oil, don't panic!

So half an hour running, I thought, well that's ok, but the thing is designed to more than to stand around spitting oil at me. Gingerly I engaged the clutch and put it in reverse, and it moved under it's own power after 22 years of standing around, I even took it up a little farm track next to the house, which is quite steep, encouragingly it went up in 1st, came back down and as it was nearly the time Noëlle comes back from work, I left it running for her to see, back wheels in a trench as there were no brakes to talk of. NoNo arrived not believing her eyes, so pleased and happy for the tractor, me and us!

That is just the beginning

Pat

Getting into Steam, the 60s and 70s.

STAR at Wopleston with the living van and water cart after a long day's steaming in the hot summer of 74.

When I was at school at Frensham Heights in Surrey UK, I became friends with a certain Chris Edmonds. Chris lived in Buckinghamshire and owned a Singe Crank Compound Traction Engine, a Burrell called MAJESTIC.

As our friendship blossomed, I was eventually invited to his home for the weekend to have a couple of days steaming. It was cold winter, but we got things working and I learn't the basics of lighting raising steam and driving a steam road locomotive.

I was hooked!

From that moment on my whole life revolved around things steam. I had always been a practical person, quite good at making things work and the challenge of the combination of boiler, steam, water and mechanical bits that fly round was just so great for me.

Let's move on a bit, I left school and got married, had a house and garden of my own. What was missing, a steam engine!

I had had Land Rovers, since I had my driving licence along with sundry other vehicles and stationery engines, Even a Foden Timber Tug like this one.

Things came and went. I remember a David Brown 25D farm tractor and plough that I resurected, burn't nearly as much oil as diesel, but it was great fun; I even won a couple of ploughing matches with it. I was the organiser of a number of steam engine rallies in our area for the Three Counties Steam Preservation Society, Liphook along with the Liphook Fire Station organisers, Frensham Steam Festival and Syon Park's two Ages of Steam.

One evening a neaighbour Alex Bicknell came in and asked me about my hobby, we got discussing steam engines and the fact that recently I had managed to buy a Wallis and Steevens 1904 single cylinder 10 ton roller from Charlie Russell at Bordon in Hants and that with a friend Roland we were gradually taking it apart ready for boiler works at Charlie's sandpit.

This is how I bought Star, when she was in a Chichester Scrap Yard, now covered over with the by-pass.

Of course Alex got caught by the bug. It wasn't too long that he had bought a Wallis Advance roller and we had both of them in his garden getting on with the renovation. The single cylinder Wallis that eventually got called "STAR" was in a very bad way when we worked on it. The front tube plate, tubes and smokebox had to be remade and replaced, the top of the firebox needed building up around the fusible plug, All the motionwork was cleaned and polished to gleeming steel, a couple of firebox stays needed replacing. We did this all in Alex's back garden, both engines went for their first run around haslemere for a local fête, After that we spent a couple of years on the road at weekends going from one rally to another, we both had living vans, mine an Eddison, Alex' a bedford van chassis on which he had built a wooden living van.

Also at Frensham Heights I met Stephen Hubbuck who caught steam from Chris. He managed to buy a lovely Wallis from Passfield from the local mill owner. He did this up and eventually when he moved down to near Blandford Forum he suggested that I and Roland should take his engine and my living van from Blandford to Battersea where he had booked the engine in to a very large steam rally in the middle of the capital, London, but that is another story!

Pat

Fahr Tractor Starting Dismantling

A little aside from the real starting of our Blog, I would just like to share a bit about a tractor that is at present being dismantled.

It is a Fahr D15. It was built in Germany in 1953 weighs about 3/4 of a ton has a water cooled two cylinder engine made by Gueldner again from Germany and has spent it's life in a chicken farm at Loperec a little village not far from us here.

When I say spent it's life, that is true but it has only worked about 18 of those years, it had a problem in the engine and was left where it was in a shed, this was in the late 60's early 70's.

Last autumn we were at Sizun for their annual local produce fête with our Société Française 201 single cylinder semi diesel tractor just for show. A gentleman started talking with me and said he had a little tractor like that in a shed on his old farm, and if I would like to come over one day I could have a look, he doesn't want it any more. He gave me his address and I said I would pop in one day when I was in the area.

Of Course I forgot all about it till the piece of paper came to light. I Phoned and went to see him. The tractor was indeed in a shed and clearly had not been used for a long time, battery still on it, diesel still in the tank, water still in the rad, but the engine was stuck.

So we came to a price vaguely agreeable to both of us and in a couple of days I want up with the Landrover and trailer and got it out. I had to clear a large amount of junk away before I could get to the tractor and blow up one front tyre ready to attach the Landrover to tow it out. Finally I got it out and onto the trailer and got it home where it stood under a tarpaulin for a couple of months. Decided to find out why it wouldn't turn. Took the cylinder head off, drained the glutenous oil and found that there is not a sump pan, but a large inspection hole in the side of the engine, where one can get access to all the bits that gor round.

One piston was lightly stuck in it's cylinder linber which was quickly freed, but the worst news was in the lower half of the engine. On the rear big end the bolts had come undone and the bearing shells had started rotating in the cup. Fortunately it was not used too long like this till it was abandoned where I found it.

I left the tractor where it was well covered up for the winter and just this last weekend decided to drag it down to the tractor shed to dismanle the engine to have the crank ground and the shells replaced.

Got to the flywheel to find that it id fixed with an insertable cone to the crankshaft. This cone is held in place with a very fine threaded large nut. The cone itself is split and is also threaded. I can't get the flywheel off. It seems that one needs an internal threaded nut to thread onto the cone and a puller to pull that off.

I bought a chunk of 10cm thick walled tube yesterday and when I have a few hours spare I will see what I can do to make the "NUT" by turning an internal thread onto it in the lathe. I should be able to pull the cone out of the flywheel with that as the threads are quite fine.

Mr Fahr from germany.

The company Fahr combined with Gueldner and in the end was taken into Deutz the large German Tractor and Agricultural builder

The joys of restoring old tractors!

Pat

Who are we?

Noëlle and I are getting on for retiring age, she younger than I.

There she is in our living room.

We both have children, she has a boy and a girl who have taken their place in the world and I have two boys and a girl all grown up.

I think joy is the way we would describe our relationship, very happy with our lives together.

Our aim with this Blog is to talk and show pictures of our collection, "The Goastalan Collection". We have been collecting for some time, I really started when I was living in England with Steam Road Vehicles, buying a steam roller from a scrap-yard and completely renovating it rivet and bolt by bolt, including major boiler work undertaken at home.

This engine was sold to buy a house and collecting became a small hobby with the occasional tractor or stationery engine as a passtime. Life was stretching out in front of us with work as a major part of my life. Noëlle was here in France building and tending her smallholding with all sorts of farm animals and a self sufficiency regime

Five years ago, not really thinking anything about collecting and machines again I came across, purely by chance a bloke called Colin who was looking for a house. A young friend had one for sale and I was showing Colin around.

He went out of the front door to see a large barn and just casually, off the cuff, said "Cor couldn't you get a lot of tractors in that!"

Pat's ears pricked up asking "Do you have tractors then?"

It turned out that he was a collector and shows tractors in the east of England. My curiosity and his seemed to run on the same paralel and we got chatting, I saying that the first tractor I drove at 7 or 8 was a Fordson E27N in the fields around Ripley Surrey.

As often happens things came to a head when Colin phoned me and said he had found me a Fordson, and if I liked to find transport over the water it was mine!

Six weeks later it was delivered, I will tell you a bit more about it next post, it is not an easy story unfortunately.

Pat

Just to start off!

Hi I'm Pat, Patbretagne. I live with Noëlle in a little village in the west of France in the county of Finistère.

We both adore our life, our families, house, garden (big) and of course Ancient Agriculture.

Tractors and their ancillary machines are a lifeline to sanity in our world of rushing and haste. We collect interesting old tractors, at present the count is 14.
French, Le Percheron, Renault D30, Renault YL Vigneron of 1936, Société Française 201 semi diesel and a French built Super Farmall Cub.
American, Farmall Cub, Allis Chalmers B.
German, Lanz John-Deere 2816, Lanz 2416, Lanz 5506, Fendt F25 and Fahr D15.
English, Fordson E27N (High Major), Nuffield U60.

We have numerous other machines, engines etc. but we will go into that as this blog builds itself.

Look forward to meeting some of you as time gets on,

Pat