International Farmall H and a fire tender.
I bet the two lads shown here didn't forget their day spent playing on ancient machinery for quite some time. One lad sits behind the wheel of a well-used International Harvester "Farmall" tractor, pretending to drive it, while the other clambers over the roof of a travel-weary fire tender.
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The tractor looks to have been sat in the same spot for some time, judging by how it'd sunk into the soft ground beneath its wheels. A few loose items can be seen scattered on the grass beneath it, while the raised bonnet reveals its engine. I could be wrong but this looks like a Farmall Model "H" to me. Were both vehicles lined up at an auction sale perhaps? Maybe both vehicles had simply been parked up in the corner of a field once their working lives had ended, becoming playthings for the owner's children?
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The vehicle behind the Farmall looks very interesting. The lettering confirms its role as a fire tender, operating with "Point Clear Bay Fire Service" so perhaps this scene was in the Clacton-on-Sea, Essex area, the location of Point Clear Bay. It wasn't unusual for fire tenders to run without doors, or even full cabs, but I'm sure that the gaping hole visible in the roof, just behind child no.2, wasn't there during its service days. While there's a chance that the Farmall survives somewhere to this day, I doubt the fire tender was so fortunate, unless of course it found its way into dry storage shortly after this photo was taken. We can only hope.
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The Model H was introduced in 1939 and continued in production until 1959, costing in the region of $2000 by the early 1950s. Both narrow ("Row Crop") and wide track versions were available, the tractor above being an example of the latter. All Model Hs were powered by a 2.5 litre four-cylinder engine, which could be specified in petrol (gasoline), distillate or kerosene-fuelled configurations.
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Return to Page 16 in the gallery of classic vehicles, or if you have an old tractor, perhaps the free parts classifieds will be of interest.
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