The following three images, all of Fordson E27N Major tractors, are scans of old family photographs that recall a time when distant relatives on my mother's side were involved with the supply and maintenance of tractors following WW2. A great uncle of mine lived in a small village called Beguildy in Radnorshire, and worked for Tractors (Hereford) Limited. The company was an authorised dealer for Ferguson tractors and implements, and it would seem also did a lot of work with Fordsons, hence the existence of the following photographs.
The first shows a relatively clean Fordson E27N (registration FO 5204) coupled up to a plough in a mid-Wales field. Whether my great uncle actually owned the tractor, or was just demonstrating it (perhaps to a potential customer), I'm not sure, but I think the latter is the more likely scenario as he wasn't a farmer himself. The E27N Major was first introduced in March 1945, utilising the petrol/TVO engine and gearbox previously seen in the Fordson Standard (Model N), albeit with a re-designed clutch, final drive, and brakes. In 1947 the option of a Perkins diesel engine was offered, endowing the tractor with a useful increase in grunt, at a time when diesel was becoming increasingly popular.
(Please click the thumbnail to view the full-size image.)
The second photo again features FO 5204 in an unidentified Welsh field, this time with a different implement attached to it.
Photo number three in this trio is of a different E27N Major, registration FO 5442, shown towing a sturdy trailer which has a very appealing 1940s/1950s crawler loaded on it (reg. FO 4055). Typically this era of Fordson Major was painted in a dark blue colour, with orange wheels. The following example (allowing for the vagaries of old black & white photographs) would appear to be finished in a lighter colour, with matching wheels. The tractor at the head of this page has the "Fordson" lettering picked out in a lighter colour, whereas in the photo below the lettering is darker than the rest.
Although there was a crawler version of the E27N Major tractor offered, this isn't one of them. Can anyone identify it?
Regrettably none of the registrations shown above appears to be live on DVLA any more, so presumably neither of the tractors - nor the crawler - have survived into preservation, despite a decent number of E27Ns still being around.
