Early Cast Iron Tractors - Mostly Arcade

Wednesday, May 23, 2013

Early Cast Iron Tractors

(Mostly Arcade)

    There was an article on the weekend in the NYTimes discussing how American Farmers have depleted a huge underground aquifer in the mid-west of the USA. It took hundreds of thousand of years for the aquifer to evolve, and within 100 years, the water is almost depleted. SOme farmers haven;t been able to grow crops because of the cost and lack of water or rain, and have resorted to raising livestock, which do not need as much water compared with raising crops. Of course, that article led me to think about farm machinery, ergo the topic for today. I've written many times about cast iron toys, and even presented tractors, but I've never had a whole post on the topic.

    I started out screen-capturing all tractors,but soon realized that the majority of them (from Dan Morphy) were in fact Arcade, so I changed today's theme to focus in on just mostly Arcade cast iron tractors.  Most of these tractors were produced in the 1920's-1930's give or take +- 5 years either way.

    It's interesting to note that cast iron toys seem to have been more prominent in the USA than in Europe, and one doesn't really see that many cast iron toys elsewhere.

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Dan Morphy's fine website

All the the items with their original boxes came from the same auction, and most likely from the same collector.

The 2 tractors above are similar, but for their wheels and tracks. 

I haven't provided enough details on today's tractors, but I would guess that the earlier manufactured tractor came with the more expensive (to produce) nickel-plated wheels and tracks. 

I would guess that this green Oliver tracor is a more modern design.

 THis one's my favourite. I like the differentiation of this model from the others. I'd say that it's older from the others for 2 reasons:

1. The driver has an older-style design both in terms of the face, clothing, and hat.

2. The engine is exposed on older-model toy tractors (and real tractors)

Absolutely Beautiful with a capital "B". 

The same model as the one above it, but in a different colour scheme.

Again, I'd guess that this model is an older one form the rest, especially from the one below.

Here's  an interesting toy "Ten" modelled after  Caterpillar. 

Notice  how it comes with  chain tracks, rather than the traditional track design.

Have a look at the front and rear wheels of this tractor compared to the one below.

The A.C. Williams (with the green wagon) has almost identical rear larger wheels, but the front smaller ones are different. That would be a good way of identifying the difference between the 2 manufacturers.

The larger-sized tractor is the Arcade,while the smaller tractor and wagon are A.C.Williams.

I found a nice article with lots of information about Arcade tractors.

Unfortunately the article has only 1 photo. Nevertheless the information is useful, when I'll try and find time to add more information to the photos above. 

The link is:

Please click this sentence for the fine article by Mr. Bill Vossler

It was a rainy and cloudy day today, 

hence my posting a day early. 

At least it's good for the farmers.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey