27a and 300 Massey-Harris Tractor (1948-66)

Hi Ron. In your very interesting and valuable contribution number #1 you are talking about: 'There are some variations with the base finish, but this is not the subject here'. Because I am collecting variations of this tractor, I am very curious about the variations with the base finish that you mean. Can you explain and show pictures of it? I used the reply button under your contribution # 1 but it fails every time and my reply becomes number # 13, so I do not know if you have received a notification of my reply.Jan Oldenhuis, 22-3-2018.

Hello Jan, Boy this topic has gained a life of it's own. I will have to check on what I meant by the comment about the base finish. It was three years ago that the original post was made. Cheers, Ron Ford

Jan O. Many thanks for all the information that you gave us about all the variations.

A lot of information accumulated here in the course of some years! Perhaps appropriate to show in this thread: a photo I took over twenty years ago of a loose body part of the Massey (Harris) Ferguson tractor. It was found by a collector friend in the remains of the Binns Road factory, not very long after closure. Kind regards, Jan

Last week I visited an agricultural museum on the island Tiengemeten. Tiengemeten is a small natural island of approx. 1000 hectares in the Haringvliet in the province of South Holland in the neighbourhood of Rotterdam. In the past, the agricultural area on the island was managed by farmers, but now it is managed by a nature conservation organization (Natuurmonumenten) and can only be reached on foot or by bike with a ferry. In that museum all sorts of agricultural tools from the past have been exhibited, including a Massey Harris 44 tractor from 1948 that has been beautifully restored. This tractor was part of the American Marshall Plan as support for the European economic reconstruction after WWII. This is the real Massey Harris 44, which was used by Meccano Liverpool as a prototype for the reproduction of Dinky Toys 27a, which is one of my favourites The tractors from the past were completely open and had not any protection against cold, wind and rain in comparison with the tractors today which have a closed cab, much more power, possibilities, electronic features and comfort. I show a part of the text from Meccano Magazine of June 1948, in which the reproduction of model 27a from Massey Harris 44 is explained. Meccano Magazine June 1948 about the reproduction of Dinky Toys 27a Massey Harris tractor Below I show the catalogue card of the museum with the description of the Tractor in Dutch Museum catalogue card Massey Harris 44 with description in Dutch. This tractor is equipped with a benzine / petroleum engine. The engine must first be started on gasoline (benzine) and when the engine is warm, must be switched to petroleum - (The English translation gives me problems). - Petroleum was cheaper than benzine. I will show you pictures of this real Massey Harris 44 from 1948 and the latest produced real Massey Ferguson 8740S from 2018. The Massey Harris brand name changed to Massey Ferguson in 1958 and is the most widely sold brand of agricultural machinery in the world. Kind Regards, Jan Oldenhuis, 10 September 2018

JanA most interesting writeup on our Dinky Toys tractor, with wonderful photos and history. A question.....the Dinky model shows those side panels on each side of the engine, while every photo I have seen of the real tractor always shows those open. Did Meccano simply leave those in place so as not to have to replicate the engine, which would have complicated things? Best regards, Terry

Terry, indeed it is striking that Meccano Liverpool has closed the engine compartment of the Massey Harris 27a (1948-1966). You simply miss the contours of the engine in the model. By the 301 Field-Marshall Tractor (1953-1966) they also closed the engine compartment, while by the later 305 David Brown Tractor (1965-1967) the engine was reproduced in the model. See pictures. If you turn the 305 model around you clearly see the 2 halves of the mold, but then there is already a lot of plastic added to the models. I think that they have closed the engine compartment of the early 27a en 27n from cost savings, but perhaps also have developed a different process over the years? Maybe Jacques can say something about that.Kind Regards, Jan O

Jan, Meccano has also closed the engine compartment of the Blaw-Knox bulldozer until they produced the plastic version.When the Massey Harris and the Blaw-Knox were issued in 1948 and 1949 respectively, the competition against Corgi and others had not started and Dinkys were considered more like toys than accurate replicas of the prototypes. At that time Dinkys were simple and nobody cared about the accuracy.Later, when the competition was runing Meccano improved the Bulldozer in 1963 (plastic version) and replaced the Massey-Harris by the David Brown 305 and Leyland 308 tractors in 1965 and 1971. All these models had now open engines.

Jacques, you may recognize this photo detail, taken early September 2006, somewhere in France. Those were the days ... What happened to it? Kind regards, Jan W

Dear Jan, Yes, those were the days. I have had to sel it. All the best Jacques

Jan O, The plastic driver's rear end spigot is not a plug, it is flatened by hyper frequencies (micro waves) this process allows to heat an accurate part of a plastic piece to soften it. When soft the spigot is flatened with a hand tool.I do not know how this third variation of the yellow metal driver has been made. QUESTION : do any of these Massey bear the 24a reference number on the base plate, if so is it embossed or engraved ? Kind regards Jacques Two photos bu courtesy of yourself.

Jacques. Thank you for your very interesting and instructive technical explanation.The Massey Harris base plate has never bear a sales number 27a or 300 as there was no room for it. This statement can be found in the attached Meccano memo No. 17656 on page 218 GBofDT: Classification of embossed Dinky Toy bases, dated 15-11-51. It is stated in the column Base Job No. under 12926: Base for Massey-Harris Farm Tractor: C - Ass: Job No. 12924.At the top of the memo it is stated that classification C means: Bases with lettering limited in size by the space available. So there was apparently no room for the model number. The base plate for the later 300 Massey-Ferguson did not change this either and remained the same base plate. It even kept the Massey-Harris name on the base plate, while carrying Massey-Ferguson transfers.The Field Marshall Tractor 27n / 301 did have enough space in the base plate for a sales number 301, because the base is wider, as you can see in the attached photo. As you can see my 301 is a rare one, as the number 301 is not completely pressed into the base plate. I have not seen an identical example of this yet.Kind regards, Jan Oldenhuis 28 September 2020.