Some of my photos.

[Scooby]

I have been made very welcome on joining this Forum and have been asked to post a few photos.

Plenty more if you're not bored already.

[RichardJW~]

Nice one David!

What's the story with the 155, what do you plan to do with it?

I've seen a few advertised but been a bit shy of them after what I heard with the trans/diff.

[Scooby]

The trans/diff. problem was with TM135s. They had most of them back in and modified them, including re-badging them as 155s !!!

There is a scrapper on eBay at the moment but it is a 135 really but the seller says that it's had the moddo. done. I don't understand this, if the moddo was done then why has the diff. gone in his machine ? I asked for the serial no. and it was definitely a 135.

I don't really have a plan for my 155. I just have a strange sort of passion for British engineering, and in particular for those items that will never be made again. Hence my very late David Brown, and now the 155. I think this passion came about because I used to be very close to Banner Lane and I saw what happened to a once vibrant British manufacturing facility.

I also have a Massey binder that has only done 6 acres and of course the obligatory MF135. But I really want a DP1 to go with the crawler. I knew Roger Dowdeswell, being only about 10 miles form the Blue Lias Works, and he was one hell of a bloke. A born engineer. He took the plough world and gave it a good shaking when Ransomes were content to rest on their laurels. I still have a DP8 that I bought the year they came out (that's it in my piccies) and when you went to Stockton if Roger was around the yard he would stop and have a chat. Top man. I know that there are more modern ploughs for my crawler but the DP1 was of the same era and I really want to create a tribute to both companies.

Best wishes - David.

[RichardJW~]

Yes, I noted that one on e-bay is been up on offer for a while, the area its for sale isn't really noted as being ag. crawler country. He seems to have a variety of crawlers & bits down there.
Out of interest what actually was wrong with the diff. on those machines?

To be honest I really couldn't get in to the David Browns, in my younger days ('70s) around us it was either MF, Ford, DB or IH on the majority of farms. I recall helping my old man combining some weedy spring barley for a neighbour years ago and having to use his 990 to shift the corn.......and the whine in 5th gear is what I remember most

Good luck with the search for the DP1, will be good to see the pics of it action!

[Scooby]

Good morning Richard. You're up early. The crawler on eBay is what I call a "sea-side" tractor I think. They like them for pulling boats out of the water. Problem is the salt air. I wouldn't buy one but this would be O.K. at the right price for spares but he has it far too high. Robert Crawford would soon snap it up at the right price.

I can understand your reticence re: DBs. It's just that when I got around to be able to buy my first new tractor the 990 was £200 cheaper than an MF165. The latter was what I was used to when I was a tractor driver on an arable estate so I would have liked one really. But DBs did me well over the years, bought quite a few new ones and a couple of s/h ones for contracting and then eventually farming. Of course if I had gone for an MF or a Ford I supppose things would have worked out the same but there you go.

Hence my involvement with the Club, in a strange kind of way I'm trying to give something back. And, after all, they were a great British Engineering business. DB was really a gear company to start with and they still make gearboxes for the Challenger tanks and made gearboxes for the Williams F1 cars. They still also make gearbox components for high horsepower US tractors. All in part of the old Meltham works.

Regards - David.

[d4c24a]

i sold the remains of a 55 and some spare chains and sprockets ,he deals in tractors and crawlers when the lowload arrived it had a tidy looking 55 on it he had done a deal with brocks with a muir hill that had been in the sea pulling boats in and out ,i still have the boughton 24/12 winch and pto shaft from the 55 i cut up
here is a picture of it when it worked

[Scooby]

It looks as if that old girl did a bit of work in her time. Brocks have a tidy 135 in at the moment but I wanted a 155.