Keystone Tractor Museum

_DSC1330_DxO pc (c) 72dpi, originally uploaded by Donnie Fulks.

Through the Richmond Photo Meetup Saturday, I discovered a remarkable collection of old tractors, trucks and memorabilia from the 1930's, 40's and 50's. Upon arrival, I happened to meet the owner for a brief chat. I had no idea that one of the largest antique tractor collections sits a little over an hour away.

For those of you less familiar with tractor manufactures bracketing WWII, this was the era when American agriculture transitioned to mechanization. In contrast to today with 3 or 4 major brands, in that time there were many. Many brands now long forgotten are represented in this gigantic collection. Row after row of them under roof. I spent hours clicking away and ran out of time to make it to the truck section.

The lead image is of a novel, "comfort tractor" made by Minneapolis-Moline, the De Luxe model. Designed with an enclosed cab and a road gear for 40 mph, it was marketed for field work during the week and able to transport two to town on the weekend in style. As you can guess MM's color was yellow. This tractor featured a modern high compression engine running on leaded gasoline capable, according to the ads, of pulling 3 to 4 plow bottoms.