Fiordland Vintage Machinery Museum Inc, Te Anau, Southland, NZ
I have been checking my calendar and receiving emails about upcoming tractor events in my future! The future looks bright……and busy! Two meetings in the next week, 2 big shows to attend in June and the list goes one.
Also I have been doing another of my favorite events…watching my grandchildren! We make a daily trip to the garage to work on toy tractors or work on the 1951 G John Deere that is parked in there. Fun, Fun, FUN! Sometimes we just play with toys on the open garage floor. What a good time!
The reason for the great opportunity to watch Callan (4) and Lola (2) is the fact their mother and father traveled to New Zealand for vacation. In our day of modern technology we can send texts or snapchats and keep up with kids and mom and dad everyday!
Recently I received a text message including a few pictures and videos from….The Fiordland Vintage Machinery Museum! I have gotten several pictures and videos of beautiful scenery and waterfalls and even more, but these were my favorite pictures yet! Exhibits at the museum include over 60 working tractors.
They also have a selection of early road graders and motorbikes, and a massive collection of early machinery. The museum has a fully operational Blacksmith Shop, displays of Te Anau's early history. This includes the first telephone exchange and other memorabilia and Te Anau's first school building.
One of the tractors at the Fiordland Museum was a Field Marshall Diesel. I have seen them in videos and may have seen one in person though I don’t remember it. They are a unique machine.
The Field-Marshall was distinct because of the use of a single- cylinder two-stroke diesel engine attached to a very large flywheel. Many tractors used multi cylinder engines but the single-cylinder design was quite common in Europe at the time. Another tractor with similar design was the Lanz Bulldog, which was manufactured in Germany.
To start the Marshall a smouldering piece of special paper, containing saltpetre, is inserted into the cylinder head by means of the special screw-in holder in the cylinder head. This smouldering paper acts as a modern day glow plug would act. The engine is then turned over with a crank on the flywheel. This is aided by the decompression valve, which decompresses the engine and makes it easier to turn over to allow the flywheel to gain speed and momentum. It can sometimes take considerable physical exertion to start a Field Marshall tractor!
Some Field Marshall tractors are equipped with a shotgun type blank cartridge loaded into the engine's intake system. The smouldering paper is placed in the cylinder head, and the cartridge is fired by tapping the base of the protruding firing pin with a hammer. This puts a charge into the bore, sending the piston through its stroke, bursting into life! The drawback of this starting method is that it can deposit carbon which often causes jamming of the decompression valve. I have seen this starting method used and it is quite interesting!
Whenever we travel to a different town I love to take in their local museum if they have one. It is kind of fun to think of traveling half-way around the world and seeing their “tractor” museum. I am sure the trip to New Zealand was great, but grandpa is happy they stumbled across the Fiordland Vintage Machinery Museum, in Te Anau, Southland, New Zealand!
