Featured Collector

Occasionally the club features a photo of one of its member’s restored or under-restoration implement including a short narrative or statement about the owner. Brands and models featured shall be balanced. Here is this month’s featured equipment and owner's story as well as a way to select those from previous months.

January/February Feature

Jim Ryan has 5 sons and 14 grandchildren, and none of them live on a farm.  But he wants them to have a little taste of what it was like in earlier times and that is why he got involved with old iron and the skills it took to operate it back then.  It is his way of passing something on to them and other young people. 

Jim, who lives in Friend, NE with his wife Sharon, grew up on the farm, but left it to work in agricultural sales, ultimately owning his own business jointly with his brother. Each had a son working along with them and those sons are now carrying on the family firm.  Jim’s dad was a dairy farmer in southeast Minnesota and was a Minneapolis Moline man through and through. Although Jim had experience with many tractor brands through the years, when he started to think of hobby, Moline’s surfaced as his true interest.

He bought a 1952 BF Moline in 1996 and spent the next four years restoring it.  It was very similar to the BF he drove cultivating corn and beans for his father.  Then he added a 3-pt 2-14 Moline plow to go with the BF. Later he was motivated to make a Dodge pickup into a Moline “dealer truck” after seeing a 1/16 scale replica of an early 50’s model Dodge pickup detailed as a dealer truck in a farm magazine.  He found a ’54 Dodge pickup in decent condition and spent 2 years making it into his dealer truck.  Somewhere along the way he acquired a tandem-wheeled trailer and painted it to match.  One of the neat things Jim really enjoys is hooking the truck, trailer and tractor together and taking off to a show or parade.  Each trip is an adventure and he always tries to make lots of stops so people can look over his coordinated equipment.

Jim joined the Elkhorn Valley Antique Power Assn. because it was just getting organized and that made it interesting.  The club had a sawmill that had been moved into place and restored but was not used much.  He thought it would make a good demonstration if the club could get the mill to operate reliably; along with some dedicated fellow club members he has spent untold hours traveling to distant places to learn all he could about the saw mill operation.  In the past few years he and his friends have put on more than 30 demonstrations a year, sawing more than 200 logs while doing daylong demonstrations.

Recently Jim bought a 1934 KTA Minneapolis Moline that will be his next project.  He hopes to find a 2-16 or 3-14 wheel-lift Moline plow to go along with it and hopes to have it ready for plowing events in late 2005.  Jim looks at everything as a great learning experience and has had a lot of fun doing it.  And Jim’s grandchildren have learned a lot and have a great deal more to look forward to!!

November/December Feature

Sometimes when a fellow gets the antique tractor bug, he really gets it bad.  Such is the case with Darrell Oltmanns, a four-year member of the Elkhorn Valley Antique Power Association.  In January 2000, a friend who was collecting old Allis Chalmers took Darrell to a farm auction and the friend ended up buying a good tractor.  That’s when the tractor bug hit Darrell and the hunt was on. 

Darrell started looking for a Farmall B and located one in north central Nebraska.  He was so certain that he was going to buy it that he borrowed a trailer to bring it home.  But much to his disappointment the bidding got too high and he returned home with an empty trailer.  After attending numerous farm sales and auctions with his son, he bought a 1953 Oliver 77 row crop.  When they got home that night his son jokingly told his step-mother that “Dad” had bought her a birthday present, as her birthday was coming up in a very few days.  She didn’t know whether to believe him or not since he didn’t bring anything home from the auction.  But in a few days they drove back to DeWeese, NE and brought the 77 home; the restoration of the Oliver was underway.  Shortly thereafter he purchased the much-wanted Farmall B in southwest Kansas and its refurbishing began. 

The Oliver went from an assembled implement to hundreds of parts all over the garage floor.  With assistance from his faithful helper (wife Gwen) and a four-year old neighbor boy, the 77 started to come back together.  Darrell’s son, Dean, did most of the paintwork and the tractor was ready for its first show appearance at the 2000 EVAPA show.  The 1940 Farmall B is now completely restored, as is a Massey Harris manure spreader, which Darrell uses to haul grandchildren and neighborhood kids in local parades 

Darrell grew up in a small northwest Iowa town with a population of 120.  Though his father was in the livestock buying and trucking business, Darrell was often out at one of his uncle’s farms getting on a tractor seat whenever possible.  At a young age he helped make hay, spread manure and even cultivated crosschecked corn.  It was this work that nurtured his interest in Farmalls and Olivers. 

Darrell has a lifetime of experiences in the truck parts business and for the last eight years has been the Purchasing Manager for Nebraska-Iowa Industrial Fasteners in Omaha.  He has brought his organizational skill to the Elkhorn Valley Antique Power Assn. as well, chairing the 2001 EVAPA raffle and organizing the inaugural EVAPA “Tractor Ride for Charity,” which now has become an annual club event and charity fundraiser. 

Gwen and Darrell participate in a great number of local shows and parades; they attended the 2004 national Oliver/Hart Parr show in Madison, SD. this past summer and took the 77 along.  Darrell says it sure makes you feel good when someone gives you a compliment about your nice-looking tractor.  And he always remembers to thank his helpers, wife Gwen, son Dean and neighbor boy, Justin.  Their assistance has made this antique tractor hobby something very special!!

October Feature

What does a fellow who oversees 1.3 billion gallons of fuel consumption for the Union Pacific Railroad find fulfilling in tractor restoration?  Plenty says Dwight Anderson, a 31-year employee who worked for Chicago & NorthWestern before its consolidation with UP.

Dwight grew up north of Boone, IA on a farm that was generally partial to red-painted farm machinery.  He was really excited when he inherited his father's 1946 Farmall H, as it was the first tractor he had operated at age11.  Living and working in Omaha, he'd drive 175 miles to Boone and on each visit he would fire up the H and perform whatever maintenance he could.  Later he became interested in other Farmalls and purchased a 1954 Super MTA.  The tractors were a good way to relax and his hobby took off.  Now he's trying to have a collection of row crop Supers from the early 50's.

Between his home in Omaha and the farm in Boone, he has quite a collection of Farmalls, including a 53 Super H, 52 Super C, the 46 H, the 54 Super MTA and a couple of 39 F-20's, one of which is restored and he says the other is a doorstop. He also has 3 IHC plows, an IHC sickle mower and an IHC barge wagon.

More recently Dwight has developed an interest in plowing.  He finds that plowing is a good way to work the tractor.  He's also enjoyed learning how to set up a plow but feels that he still has a lot to learn.  Though he enjoys tractor pulling, he finds that the pull only works the tractor for a short period of time while plowing is more constant and longer.

It is his involvement in the Elkhorn Valley Antique Tractor Club (EVAPA), (where he has served as President) that has wetted his appetite to find and restore more tractors.  He believes that one of his best experiences was when a couple of EVAPA members helped him overhaul his Super C.  It was the first  motor that he rebuilt and the fellow club members were very patient and made the project a great learning experience.  Though professing that he is not much of a mechanic, he really enjoys learning about each tractor as it is restored.  He says the smell of fresh paint, the quiet purr of the motor and the success of seeing a project completed real gives him great enjoyment.

September Feature

Larry Kruse sees a distinct similarity between restoring an old tractor and hunting pheasants.  Larry says he gets both the thrill of the hunt and the prize it provides. The hunter walks through the field and weeds looking for game (parts), only you use your checkbook rather than a gun to bring home the bounty. Then you have to clean and prepare your game (parts) and finally you feast on the reward. 

Early on, Larry, who was raised on a farm near Carroll, IA, decided that an engineering career would be more rewarding than working on a family farm.  However, his farming work ethic carried over into his career as a safety engineer. His employer decided that Larry should work out of his home. He ended up working at his company computer way past dark, just like a farmer. It was then that his wife, Dahna, suggested he get a hobby and get away from the desk. An advertisement about the Elkhorn Valley Antique Power Assn. caught his interest since he liked to make things work like they did when they were new. After a little investigation he became a member.

A fellow club member helped him find an Oliver Super 55 Diesel. He started by replacing a broken axle and inspecting the transmission and rear end.  It was obvious that tractor needed engine and PTO clutches and new seals in the engine and rear end. The front axle and steering box also had to be completely overhauled. He learned to do body work as the project progressed. Learning to paint was an experience; he says he probably used twice as much paint as most professionals would.

As a youth Larry spent many hours on his family's 1947 Oliver 70 with a 2 -16” plow, 4-row cultivator or a mounted 2-row corn picker.  Now he restoring a 48 Oliver 70 Row Crop that is just like the first tractor he drove.  He is also working on an Oliver ladder lift plow.  A couple of years ago he restored a Case VAI for his father.

Working as a safety engineer has its stresses.  Larry, who has been both vice president and secretary/treasurer of this club, finds that working on old tractors and machinery is a good way to relieve the tensions. And he likes the diversity of knowledge and experience that the Elkhorn Valley Antique Power Assn. provides.  The members all have different skills and perspectives that are valuable as resources when you are trying to restore your equipment.  The club’s antique tractor show gives Larry an opportunity to show off the results of his labors. Larry says, “I know many of the people who look at these old tractors do not understand how much time, effort and resources are required to resurrect and restore a piece of equipment.”   Maybe this saying is true: The true test of an artist is the ability to do it so well that it looks easy.

August Feature

           Even though Denny Baehr’s red truck bears a sticker that says, “Trucks are Red and Tractors are Green,” he sincerely likes and appreciates all brands of tractors.  It’s just that he grew up loving green.  In one of the first pictures taken of him, when he was about 9 months old, he’s sitting on his dad’s brand new 1944 A John Deere.  His first recollection of driving a tractor was the new John Deere G his dad bought in 1952.  He got to pull his grandpa’s Case hand-tie baler powered with a Wisconsin engine. 

Growing up on a farm northwest of Adams, NE, inspired him to have an interest in tractors.  He attended several shows at Camp Creek near Waverly, NE, and during one visit saw a miniature unstyled A John Deere tractor and right then and there decided to build one. 

His half-scale A started from a mini-bike that he bought for $25; that’s where the first parts (wheels and engine) came from.  Then he acquired an old lawn mower transmission at a flea market.  Two 4’ pieces of angle iron became the frame.  An old evaporator grill from the furnace humidifier became the radiator.  Denny says, “I asked my dad what he used for the differential on the tractor that he had built and he said it was a Model A Ford car rear end. He had a spare one and I installed a sprocket in place of the ring gear and had a buddy machine the axles.”  In his brother’s junk pile he found a 1930 Chevy steering gear.  This was the steering gear that really gave the tractor the right look.  The rear tires are 16” JD 290 corn planter spoke wheels.  He made a to-scale drawing of the tractor before he ever started building it: this made the assembly job much easier.  He figured out the gear ratio a head of time so the tractor would not run faster than he could walk because he didn’t want a runaway.  It took Denny over two years to gather all the parts, working on it in his spare time. 

The half scale Model D started life as a Dynamark lawn mower that was bought for $50.  Denny says that’s the best way to start because you have most of the parts you need to begin. Denny suggests that you just have to rearrange things, do a little tin work, put bigger tires (15”) on the rear and raise the front end so it sits level.  The fenders are trailer fenders and the seat is way back behind the rear wheels so he installed a 75-100 lb counter weight where the radiator would be to keep the front wheels on the ground. 

The Model G came from a fellow in Wilber, NE. who had at least 30 old Deere’s, including 7 or 8 JD G’s, in a huge shed.  With guidance from his nephew, Denny picked out the 4 that he thought were the best.  The Wilber man had to move a dozen tractors out of the way so Denny could test-drive the 4 G’s that he picked out.  He then selected the one that seemed to run and sound the best as far as gear noise.  This was in January, 2001; by the end of May that year he and his nephew had it disassembled and sand blasted; his nephew had also primed and painted it.  The wiring was all replaced and new gauges were installed.  No work was done mechanically other than replacing some gaskets. 

Denny has worked for the NE Dept of Roads, 42 years, all in highway construction. The past 16 years he has been a Highway Project Manager, mostly on the interstate system around Omaha, overseeing construction at the I-680 and West Dodge interchange for the last 3 years. He is responsible for evaluating the contractor’s work, seeing that it complies with the contract, plans and specifications.  On the average, he processes payment of approximately a half a million dollars every month. 

Denny thinks his strongest interest is the building of the miniature tractors. The challenge of scrounging junk piles to figuring out what piece of junk will work to get the desired results and putting it all together is great fun. He built these tractors to be used by kids and not just to be looked at.  Denny says, “The look on a little ones’ face when he gets to drive a tractor just his size gives you the greatest feeling in the world.”  That feeling and also the camaraderie and friendship of the EVAPA club members gives Denny Baehr great enjoyment.

For features of previous months, click on Collector Archives button.