AAs a young lad, 11 to 15, 65-69 I grew up working on the farm of Mr Joss Holland of Edingale in Staffordshire (Master of Edingale). Famous for his breeding of shire horses, a simple Google will back up my claim, we used tractors in the winter months when the fields were wet and boggy and horses as power during the summer months. Our farm boasted three tractors, two Aliss Chalmers type B and one Type A (a three wheeler) that all ran on TVO (Tractor Vapourising Oil), in later years the smell of burning AVTUR supplied flashbacks to those tractors, at the end of the day, paraffin smells the same, however it is burnt. The tractors had been shipped over the Atlantic during the war years, at great risk so would have far more value in reality than the price paid by "Joss"
As an aside I offer an amusing, to me anyway, incident, that occurred whilst employed on the farm as a 12 year old youngster. We (there were about three of my age) were sent to a field one day to disperse a large cowcrap pile across the local landscape, muck spreading we called it and it required that us, the lads, loaded muck into the bed of a trailer with a built in conveyor belt and spinning paddles (designed to disperse the manure) all driven by the wheels through a gearbox. Mushie Hallam, yep, that was Mr Hallams nomenclature, was to drive the type A tractor that day, and off we went. By lunchtime we were well down the "muck pile", and, having no washing facilities took "pot luck" on hygiene whilst shoving our jam butties down our faces. As the afternoon drew on, we reached the bottom of the year old pile, which had been underpinned with rubble to help drainage. Somewhere in our frantic forking, one of us managed half a house brick amongst the load. Resting, and watching Mushie drive his line we were amazed to see the brick, flipped by the paddles on the back of the muck spreader, hit him smack bang on the back of the head. The Allis type A, a very light on its one front wheel tractor, and having a hand throttle, continued on its merry way. Mushie by this time was completely non compus mentis. Hitting the hedge at the end of its line, the tractor reared up on its back wheels, as the front one was busy trying to demolish the hedge, the engine, powered by TVO continued to dig two large ruts in the field. As 12 year olds I think we responded well, by one of us going the 2 miles back to the farm to obtain a conscious, responsible adult to deal with it. The responsible adult duly turned up and shut the tractor down, which was now down on its axles, and needed the larger type B to drag it out of its hole. Mushie was fine after he was given a cup of tea by Mrs Holland, and allowed a second rich tea biscuit to accompany. 50 years later I have no problem ever recalling that event.
The three Allis Chalmers we had all ran on TVO (Tractor Vapourising Oil) and were hand cranked. There was a switch, and two fuel tanks. A small petrol tank and a much larger TVO tank. Crank it up on petrol, get the engine warm then switch it over to TVO. I did my driving course at 13 years old (on the farm) and remember well the starting sequence. As an aside, and many years later I was told by a fellow American C130 ground pounder that in emergency the "Herk" could run on whisky. I eventually went to sleep in my hammock, crossing the pond, trying to work out how many double Glenmorangies that would waste
I apologise to our mods for any diversion I might be responsible for, I claim mercy on the grounds that the three tractors concerned, like Danny, arrived in Britain to do their duty during the war years. The abuse of Scottish Whisky is a thing only an American serviceman could contemplate.
Smudge
