A farmer and his toys

Minia­ture trac­tors a reminder of the past

By GARY BROCK

gbrock@recordherald.com

Exam­ples from Jer­rold Fields’ col­lec­tion (Pho­tos by Gary Brock)

When Jer­rold Fields takes his col­lec­tion of trac­tors on the road, they are a sight to behold.

But his trac­tors are not real trac­tors, they are minia­tures; a part of his life-long col­lec­tion of toy farm equip­ment and machinery.

The Ori­ent, Ohio, res­i­dent recent made avail­able more than 30 of his col­lec­tion of small scale trac­tors, trucks, com­bines and other equip­ment for a show at the Fayette County His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety Museum in Wash­ing­ton Court House.

“I don’t take them on the road very often,” Fields said in a recent inter­view. He has more than a hun­dred in his col­lec­tion. “My cousin, Bar­bara Vance (with the Fayette County His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety) asked me to bring them to the museum for a display.”

A life-long farmer, Fields, 59, started col­lect­ing farm toys when he was a boy. But his “hobby” as a col­lec­tor really started when he was in high school. All of the minia­tures are either die cast or cast iron in the case of the really old ones.

“I have about 100 trac­tors, plus com­bines, trucks and other farm equip­ment,” he said. The old­est in his col­lec­tion are from the 1910s, ‘20s and ‘30s. He said these cast iron ones have less detail and are more “rough” than the die cast ones from the 1950s and more recent.

Col­lect­ing toy and minia­ture trac­tors and farm equip­ment is a grow­ing hobby in the United States. Over Labor Day, there was a major toy tractor/farm toy show in Hills­boro. Such farm toy shows take place almost every week­end across the coun­try. There are also a num­ber of orga­ni­za­tions and clubs for col­lec­tors to gather and show off their collections.

Above, Jer­rold Fields poses with a cou­ple pieces on dis­play at the recent show at the Fayette County His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety Museum.

Fields says he used to attend many of these shows, but doesn’t go to many of the shows these days, and is not active in any of the clubs. “With the Inter­net now, I mostly look online,” he said.

Why col­lect toy tractors?

Fields says it is a con­nec­tion to his past.

“I like to have mod­els rep­re­sent­ing the same trac­tors we had on our farm over the years,” he said. “I started with col­lect­ing those, and just branched off from there.”

Fields says he doesn’t have any imme­di­ate plans to take his toy trac­tor col­lec­tion on the road again, but expects he will some time soon.

He enjoys see­ing peo­ple enjoy the crafts­man­ship and fine work of the die cast trac­tors. It is a trea­sure he likes to share.

(Gary Brock is Editor-in-Chief of Acres.)

Posted by Tina Murdock on Oct 3 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.