Honnor's Farm Museum.

At present in Taranaki it is the Garden Festival which runs from the 26th October until the 4th November. Today we all had different ideas of what we wanted to do so we split up.

I went to Honnor's Farm Museum on Waitara Road, where there is a large collection of over 40 tractors, hay bailers, ploughs, water pumps and stationary engines. Some were fully restored, and some were on the "to do up" list.

This is the Honnor Doe Tractor. Built by three generations of the Honnor family combined.

During the 1950s farmers in the UK in need of high-power tractors had few options. Essex farmer George Pryor developed an ingenious solution to the problem by creating his own tractor. He did this by purchasing two Fordson tractors, removing the front wheels and axles and linking the two by means of a turntable which provided the steering action powered by hydraulic rams. This left him with a double-engined four-wheel-drive tractor capable of producing more power and outperforming any of the conventional tractors on the UK market at the time.

Here is my sketch:

Model Engineers

Alf's Burrell Traction Engine

Getting up steam

New Plymouth Society of Model and Experimental Engines.

Today was a lovely sunny day just right for sketching Model Engines. The New Plymouth Society for Model and Experimental Engines were celebrating their 60th Birthday this weekend. They are open all of Labour Weekend, so you can go and have a look, or have a ride on a miniature train for $1.00.

 Traction Engines.

From big to little to inbetween.

And Miniature Trains. This one is a DSA New Zealand Railways shunting engine.