Who bought MY Cub?

[Matt Kirsch]

When I was a kid growing up on the farm, there was a summer cottage next door owned by a family from Buffalo, IIRC.

In a little shed out back, they had what I now believe to be an early '47 Farmall Cub. I distinctly remember that it had a hand lift and the circle decals on the doglegs. It was definitely a Cub, and it's the tractor that sparked my interest in Cubs. It had a plow, a sickle bar mower, drag, and other implements.

The only time I ever remember seeing it run was when I was reeeeeally little, like <5, and I'm not even sure of that. I'm 31 now, BTW.

Well, about 10 or 12 years ago, the family sold the house to some, well, people... Sometime during the selling process, the Cub and all its implements disappeared, hopefully sold to a Cub lover who got it back in running condition and promptly put it to work.

If you remember purchasing an early Cub with a hand lift and a bunch of implements out of a falling-down shed in the North Java/Varysburg/Orangeville NY area about 10-12 years ago, I'd like to hear from ya. If you'd like to sell, all the better, but I'd just like to know that MY tractor is out there working for someone.

Some of the details that might spark your memory: It was a small white house right next to a small dairy farm. The shed's roof had partially caved in, and it was situated right near a barbed wire fence. On the other side of the fence was a large brown steel building.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Matt, you might also tryig posting your question on the Redpowermagazine.com forum or the Farmall forum on YTMAG.com. Hope you find it.

[EZ]

Matt,

How we long for those days of our youth when we can recall even the smallest of details. I remember as a young boy gazing at a little tractor that belonged to the railway. How I marvelled at it's compactness, it's sweet sounding little engine, and it's ability to do the work for which it was intended. I would get up very early on certain Sat. mornings to be at the station when the Canadian Transcontinental passenger train would arrive. At 6:30 a.m. under brilliant blue skies, the wind gently blowing the tall willows that seemed to be everywhere in this small remote hamlet of only about 30 people. This particular morning there was no other souls save myself and the station agent, who was just now opening the freight shed door and getting ready to fire up that little orange tractor. Puuuurrrrrrrrr, I don't remember any smoke. The agent was very skilled I thought in his operation of this little beauty. He would pull out of the shed, which was mated to the station platform by a genlty sloping concrete ramp. He was always pulling at least one freight wagon hooked to the drawbar by the use of a pintle hook. The wagons were at least 8 ft. long maybe 3.5 ft. wide. The wheels, steel spoked, rubberized but with non-pneumatic running surfaces, would sometimes encounter stones on the pavement of the platform, causing any cargo to shake and wobble as it moved along. This is getting longer than I had expected, but.......once the train was stopped at the station on this particular day, with me, standing not far away watching the baggage handlers offload a few pieces of freight including some big boxes, wooden crates with a covering of chicken wire, and containing what looked to me like birds. I watched in amazement as the agent waited for the train to leave, checked his watch, and with only him and I standing there, he began to open the "cages" and release all the birds from all of about 10 or 12 crates, maybe 150 birds, homing pidgeons. I did not even ask him why he let them all go as he made his way back to the station. He disconnected the wagon and hand pushed it to the side of the station. The door of the shed remained open, in fact the other side was open as well, so you could see right through the shed, it's openings provided a nice frame for the old General Store which sat on the other side of another set of tracks (for the station served 2 intersecting railways) Anyway........it was just me, the view around me, and the barn swallows swooping and darting, as they tended their "mud apartments" which were under every eave of that old station. Just me and hardly another sound. The agent gone inside, the train droning out as it got further away, the swallows wings cutting the air,.....but there was another sound...............ping....clink.......ping..ping.....pop....it was coming from the little tractor, it's engine now stopped and cooling down. I stood and stared at it, under the sun, I could feel the warmth still coming from it's body as I poured over it's lines and followed the contours of it's shape, and read the words that were on it.......... Cub Loboy.

Through a series of events, too long to describe here (though legal in nature) I ended up with that same tractor over 30 years later. It's in my shop right now waiting for a paint job, which I'm sure by now many are getting tired of hearing about, but it will get done. The important thing to me is that, I have it, and I will soon have at least one, if not 2 of the original wagons to pull behind it.

I really do hope you find yours.

[Dan England]

EZ: I enjoyed your post immensly. It is very well written, allowing readers to visualize the scene at the train station. Have you had training in writing? Again, very enjoyable reading. Dan

[johnbron]

EZ, I enjoyed reading your Cub story also and Dans reply sums it up to my feelings also.

[Ken (48 Cub)]

WOW, that was great! I enjoyed it very much.

[Vern Campbell]

EZ, what a great story. I wish my students could write nearly as well!

Vern

[beaconlight]

EZ you have literary prowess. What an interesting story. Both of these are classics.

Bill

[Matt Kirsch]

Yeah, thanks for hijacking my thread EZ

[EZ]

Thanks for all the pleasant comments.

No writer training here, perhaps our memory sometimes helps to create the "pictures" which are so vivid in our minds, that the words used to express them just seem to pop out.

I could not help putting them down after reading the details of Matt's quest for an old Cub tractor that he obviously has strong emotional ties to.

I wish him well.

[Dan England]

Matt: It is always nice to have good friends lol.... But, really, both stories are interesting, both are well written and I enjoyed each of them. Dan

[Bigdog]

That one needs to be put on the story page on the main site.

[EZ]

Matt,

Sorry about that ole boy.

I notice that happens once a while. You must have been posting just as I was writing my last post.

Anyway, have you tried contacting the original owners, or any of thier family?

Sometimes, under very special circumstances, you can just visualize that same tractor sitting in YOUR driveway, with you, running YOUR hands over those smooth fenders, those irresistable teardrop headlights, the pungent aroma of stale gas that has been sitting for years in a tank nearly rusted through......keep that image in your mind, think about it, ask around some more, talk to your dog, but not BIGDOG!

It'll come, you've already claimed it as your own.

[Bigdog]

Sometimes, under very special circumstances, you can just visualize that same tractor sitting in YOUR driveway, with you, running YOUR hands over those smooth fenders, those irresistable teardrop headlights, the pungent aroma of stale gas that has been sitting for years in a tank nearly rusted through......

You're killin' me here!!!!!!! I gotta go cub huntin"!!!!!!

Remember, you can always talk to your dog....... even the Bigdog.

[Matt Kirsch]

Heck, I was hopin' Bigdog's Cub radar picked it up.

For some reason the previous owners of the place all of a sudden got difficult with my family. My folks wanted to buy the place lock stock and barrel because it was so close to our barns, and a fire hazard, but the owners put an asking price of nearly 4 times what it was worth on it, and wouldn't even talk to us. Dunno why... We were always on excellent terms with them. Maybe there was an emotional attachment there too, and they were afraid we'd bulldoze the entire place and turn it into a cow pasture. They were right, but that's beside the point...

Suffice it to say that neither the current nor the previous owners would be much help.

I'm mostly interested in finding out what happened to the old rig, if it got scrapped, if it's sitting in someone's back yard rotting into the ground, if it's in the back of someone's machine shed, or if it's being used. Figured I might get lucky, this being the largest concentration of Cub owners in the world and all.