Tractor group visits museum for weekend of mechanic work

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com
A group of antique tractor enthusiasts spent the weekend in Charles City volunteering their time and expertise to work on the tractors at the Floyd County Museum.
Coming in on Friday, eight members of the Central States Hart-Parr Oliver Collectors Association gathered to perform maintenance on the museum’s collection of antique tractors.
“If you’ve got a spark and fuel, these old engines will run,” said John Schoenauer.
Schoenauer is a regular visitor at the museum, frequently driving in from his home in Nebraska to volunteer his time to the antique Olivers. On this visit though, he organized group members from Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska to join him in giving the museum’s inventory of 11 tractors more comprehensive attention.
“The guys are doing very well working on the tractors,” said museum Director Mckenna Lloyd. “They’ve got a lot of them running.”
Some of the museum’s tractors haven’t been started in years, making them difficult or impossible to move around the exhibit floor. Getting them running will make it much easier for the museum to rearrange its display.
“You’ve got people trying to push something big like that, it takes a lot of people,” said Schoenauer.
Along with making it easier to move the machines around the exhibit floor, regularly turning over the engines helps keep them in better working condition than just letting them sit.
“It’s healthier for preserving the tractors to get them running once in a while,” said Lloyd.
Enjoying the opportunity to apply their mechanical knowledge, the group checked the batteries and fuel systems of the tractors to see which ones would start right up and which ones needed some extra attention. A testament to the reliability of the locally built tractors, the group faced few difficulties in getting the museum’s collection running and by Friday afternoon had already worked their way through many of the machines.
“We got way more done than I expected,” said Schoenauer on Friday afternoon. “We had all but three of them at least turning over.”
With a mix of experienced tractor mechanics and collectors interested in learning, the group members said they enjoyed their shared interest and a unique opportunity to work on the rare machines.
“They’ve pretty much got every part on hand that you can imagine, which is kind of cool,” said Rod Miller, who said he learned a lot from the visit. “I think it’s very enjoyable.”
After a long day of working on the museum’s tractors, the group took some time to enjoy other local sights, such as visiting Dean Tjaden’s farm to look at his tractor collection.
“It’s been fun,” said Schoenauer. “We all like old tractors and enjoy working on them.”


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