CENTRE HALL — At the Nittany Antique Machinery Association’s recent spring show, hundreds of shining examples of restored antique tractors gleamed in John Deere green, Farmall red and Minneapolis-Moline orange.
The event, held at Penn’s Cave, also featured antique tractor pulls, hit-and-miss engines, food vendors, antique vehicles and a building filled with toy tractors, trucks and farm machinery, as well as a flea market showcasing hundreds of vendors.
Some of the tractors on display were still in their “barn-find” state, with faded paint and surface-rust patinas, but running and awaiting their cosmetic makeovers. Thousands of hours of work were represented by these antique workhorses.
Restored farm implements are much rarer than tractors at this show, but one fine example this year was a 1930s vintage McCormick-Deering Little Genius plow, owned by Roger Benner, of Bellefonte. Benner has been involved with tractor restoration for many years, as his father, Fred Benner, restored several Case tractors which were also on display at the show. Benner said his dad bought the plow and planned to restore it and display it at the show, but he passed away last October. Benner decided to finish the restoration, and worked feverishly to get the job done in time for the show.
The results of his efforts were impressive. The plow was completely disassembled and every part was cleaned of rust and repainted. Benner reassembled the plow and made it completely functional. A few hardware items were replaced, but the plow is otherwise completely original. “Dad wanted to show it, so I worked every day for a solid month to get it done,” he said.
Another interesting display was a collection of 27 child-size pedal tractors shown by Bob Lee Sr., of Grampian. Lee’s collection featured beautifully restored pedal-powered replicas of John Deere, Farmall, Allis-Chalmers, Ford and several other brands of tractors, some with scaled-down replicas of a plow, a hay rake, a hay baler and a wagon, complete with scaled-down hay bales.
NAMA was formed in 1975, and held its first show at the Penn’s Cave Farm in September of that year. The fall show, held the weekend of Labor Day, has become one of the largest of its kind east of the Mississippi River. The spring show, held annually on the first weekend after Memorial Day, is a somewhat smaller version of the fall show and features free admission for spectators.
