What a change for this old 1920’s McCormick-Deering tractor! From slogging hard on a farm to a life of leisure, stripped of (some) sharp objects such as the cleats on the steel wheels to make it slightly harder for children to injure themselves. A well-deserved retirement no doubt, and perhaps one that some of CC readers with grandchildren can relate to?
It is always sad to see a piece of old machinery (especially one with an engine) reduced to an art or play object. A large part of me wants to scream “No!”, then drag the thing home so that I can fix it. Which is a pipe dream. The poor thing probably got a cracked block from when Grandpa’s third cousin’s idiot nephew was fooling with it and filled the cooling system with water in late October.
It is kind of sad it is no longer doing what it was born to do, but at least the younger generations get to enjoy a cool tractor in person. Sometimes I’m surprised such things (because of the risk of injury) can still be found in our litigation happy society!
Here’s a picture of one of the tractors at our local park in San Jose, CA.
I was thinking the same thing–yes, it’s sad that it’s an immobile object, but it probably makes a lot of kids happy to get the chance to play on an actual tractor. I have very fond memories of a 1930’s era fire engine that used to be on the playground at a city park in my childhood, as it both played to a universal childhood fascination with firefighters plus it was an actual classic truck (albeit missing a lot of parts) that I could climb onto.
Of course that fire engine is long gone, no doubt a victim of our litigious society (plus as I recall it was getting kind of rusty). So it’s cool to see machinery such as this still a proud playground fixture.
Yes, it is rather sad but I suppose an ignoble retirement beats being scrapped.
As one who played on numerous decommissioned steam locomotives that had been retired to various parks, I can see where there is an equal fun factor but without the safety risk. Little hellion children climbing onto the smoke stack of an old locomotive will bounce pretty good when they fall. There’s less bounce off a tractor such as this – and it’s a lot easier to put there. Plus, there isn’t the asbestos concern the locomotives had.
Sad, perhaps, but as an adult nearing 55 I wouldn’t be above climbing into that tractor’s seat for a few minutes of pretend.
I promise to keep any lyrics from Green Acres under my breath, though! 😉
Grandchildren, or y’know, children ;-). But yeah, an old tractor does improve every playground. Or, even better, a reitred steam locomotive – my favorite playground as a child had one.
That thing still looks like lawyer bait to me. However, if I was a kid I would love to play on it. When I was kindergarten age we lived across from a junkyard. My brother and I and the owner’s son used to sneak in through the fence and play in the cars. That’s still my idea of an ideal playground. Since that was in 1953-54 I often think I would like to find out what interesting cars I actually played in.
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Here is a picture of me on my Dad’s 1929 McCormick-Deering tractor…it was pulled out of a farmer’s field some years ago and he is slowly but surely finding parts here and there for it…but it’s a slow go to find what he needs. He did manage to source a carburetor for it a few weeks ago!
I have no problem at all with an otherwise-to-be-scrapped tractor/car/airplane being repurposed in this way (if you’re ever in St. Louis, plan a whole day at City Museum – google it!). I’d rather see a kid risk a skinned knee playing on something like this for an hour than having his nose buried in a smartphone for the same hour…
Of course, I much rather see them restored and introducing kids to tractors the *right* way!
Beautiful. As a parent and vintage tractor enthusiast, I can assure you this tractor is still at work inspiring kids to take an interest in tractors and vintage machinery. Most people out there have never even sat on a tractor, much less driven one.
If this tractor makes even a few urban kids take interest in where food comes from, its done its job.
BTW my son took many rides on my vintage Massey and Deere. At 10 he is now genuinely concerned about their welfare and gets upset if they don’t get the best parking spot in the barn.
Another good point about being a hands-on example of farming and food production. Many inner-city kids have no concept of this, so maybe we need a few more of these in parks/greenspaces in larger cities.
I remember seeing one just like this powering a saw mill set up in a large woodlot on an Amish farm. We went there to buy oak boards and timbers for a building project. The old McCormick-Dering drove the big saw blade through a belt that seemed a half mile long. I could not conceive of how the belt magically stayed on the flat pulleys.
I asked about this once. Apparently it’s all in the tension, keeping it tight enough that it grips the pulley but loose enough that it doesn’t stretch.
lining up the pulleys is also helpful. My dad had a belt driven grinder (feed) and the pulleys had to be lined up right to work. A Farmall tractor (H?) (International).
Not to ruin the play fun cause it’s all fun and games until a child smacks their skull off that unforgiving, cast iron wheel…I’m surprised that’s allowed. Litigation wise or not. Who wants a ride in an ambulance??or worse..
..like the tractors, but their just not for children to clamber up onto unsupervised.