Leduc West Antique Society
2008 Exposition
Two warm, sunny days made this year's Expo especially pleasurable, as did the great variety of events and displays. Below are just some of the things you might have seen if you had been there. If you did attend the show I hope you will send me your thoughts and your photos to add to this page.
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Oliver and related makes were featured this year.
This beautifully restored 1949 Oliver 77 is owned by Ted and Diane Draeger of Wetaskiwin. It was restored by Ed Kramer and Bob Barnett, and painted by James Woitt.
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Farm equipment manufacturers started up, merged, went broke, bought competitors businesses and were in turn bought out. The Oliver Farm Equipment Company was formed in 1929 with the merger of several companies including the Oliver Chilled Plow Works, the Hart-Parr Tractor Company and Nichols and Shepard.
For several years after the merger some tractors carried both the Hart-Parr and Oliver names. This 1937 Oliver Hart-Parr 28-44 belongs to Duane and Gary Olson, "another piece of Olson farming history" according to the information displayed.
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Based on a picture in the Oliver Hart-Parr book by C. H. Wendel I believe this is an Oliver Super 44 Utility tractor. They were built in 1957 and 1958. The wheels were adjustable, which perhaps explains the unusual position of the steering aparatus in front of the front axles. |
Oliver took over the Cleveland Tractor Company, makers of Cletrac crawler tractors, in 1944. This must surely be one of the largest Cletracs, though I don't have a model number and horsepower rating for it.
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At the other end of the scale is this interesting little Cletrac. According to the parade commentary this type of tractor was used by the military to pull cannons around during World War I. It looks very similar to pictures of the model F Cletrac in Wendel's book. The model F was 43 inches wide and 50 inches high, and manufactured between 1920 and 1924. It had a steering wheel instead of the bar you see on this one. |
In between the two extreemes were a whole range of Cletrac models.
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Track Olivers.
Left, 1952 OC3 owned and restored by Jim McConnell and Les Lehman.
Right, 1952 OC6 owned by Bill Graham.
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Left, 1952 OC3 with Ware loader owned by Ted Draeger.
Right, Oliver HG.
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Olivers were well represented in the tractor pull as well. This is one of a pair of 1960 Oliver 550s owned and restored by Hal and James Lougheed of Sherwood Park. You can see the other in the background lining up with the sled.
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An older Oliver 99 gets a good start.
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An Oliver Super 99 with the Waukesha engine. |
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You might not think this is an Oliver (the 'Massey Ferguson 98' written on the side would seem to indicate otherwise) but it is. According to The Big Book of Massey Tractors by Robert Pripps, "Some 500 Oliver Model Super 99GM standard-tread tractors were purchased from the Oliver Corporation of Chicago in 1959 and 1960. With Massey-Ferguson grilles and paint, they were resold through Massey-Ferguson dealers as the MF 98."
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