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Estella Stickney with the Allis Chalmers G
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
SCOTTVILLE — One of the many featured tractors that will be on display at the 50th Western Michigan Old Engine Club’s Old Engine & Tractor Show this weekend will be a 1953 Allis Chalmers G.
The tractor was originally owned by Ruby Creek farmer Jasper Fuller (1912-2001). It later went to Jasper’s daughter, Estella, and her husband Don Stickney (1931-2004). Don and Estella joined the Western Michigan Old Engine Club in 1986.
The tractor is now in the collection of Don’s friend, Dick Alway. It is the only non-John Deere tractor in Dick’s 30-plus antique tractor collection; the irony being that Don was such an Allis Chalmers fan that he famously once wore a bag over his head while driving a John Deere tractor.
The Allis Chalmers G, known as a tool carrier tractor, was designed for small farms and gardens. The small, rear-engine machine was more like the motor cultivators of the 1920s than a tractor. It featured a full line of custom implements that mounted under the belly. The rear engine allows the driver to see the entire ground in front and look straight down. The style has recently seen a resurgence among small farms.
The G was manufactured from 1948-1955 at the Allis Chalmers factory in Gadsen, Alabama. There were 29,976 built with an original price of $970. It has four cylinders with drawbar horsepower of 9.04 and belt horsepower of 10.33.
The Old Engine & Tractor Show begins Thursday, Aug. 1.
The schedule is:
- Thursday, Aug. 1, 9 am. to 5 p.m.
- Friday, Aug. 2, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Saturday, Aug. 3, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Daily admission is $7 for ages 13 and over. Kids ages 12 and younger are free. Thursday is seniors’ day with people ages 65 and older admitted for $5.
Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is kids’ day and features a pedal tractor pull, valve cover races, scavenger hunt, bird house building and other activities.
Daily attractions and exhibits include antique tractors and equipment, antique lawn and garden tractors, stationary engines, a 1925 American LaFrance fire truck, a Kahlenberg engine, a Fair Banks-Morse “Z” engine, running saw mill with buzz saw, shingle mill and branding, threshing and bailing demonstrations, antique machine shop, Cooper-Bessemer engine, Franklin Valveless engine, corn shelling and grinding demonstrations, dowel making machine, blacksmith shop, drag saw and planer and Wilford power shovel.
Other events include:
- Horse pull, Friday, 5 p.m.
- Garden tractor pull, Saturday, noon
- Antique tractor transfer sled pull, Saturday, 6 p.m.
- Antique tractor pull, Sunday, 10 a.m.
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