12-14-10

Museum in Geraldine

when I stopped and paid my entrance fee the guy that was running the place just locked the front door and took me on a two hour private tour of the museum,

This is a  Boughton (French) same guy that made the bike on Bob’s Motor Werks logo.

two cylinder

the scooter was made here in NZ

This has a motor that charges the battery that runs this machine. Not much new in the auto world is there?\

A grand daddy of my Howard Roto Hoe.

another electric cart.

this is what they used to trip their hedges. I have not taken photo of the hedges yet but they are amazing.

one cylinder engine runs this tractor.

This is some sort of French industrial tractor.

Do you remember that race bike that was in the Wellington Museum that won the Daytona? Well that guy also built this Gypsy wagon. He must have been quite a guy to be so inventive.

one feature is that this car has no dimmer on the lights. When the Queen drives, she has no need to dim the lights. It just wouldn’t be right would it?

This is the most expensive car in the museum he said. It cost over half a million dollars. They Australians think this is hot shit too but I forget exactly why, other than it was a very fast car in its day.

Only two of these were ever made with the steering on the wrong side he said. It went around the world with its owner.

really narrow little car.

Ah, potato diggers

here is an odd one I have never seen before. It looks like it grabs handfuls of dirt and spuds and throws them as it goes along.

another digger that looks to be homemade. Looks like a New Z invention that never took off.

air cooled one lunger.

he said that this was a heat engine. A fire down below heated air and somehow ran this engine.

model T industrial engine.

Howard Roto Hoe tractor and tiller. These were invented and made here in NZ and then the guy moved to England and made them there.

a hands on starting demo.

he said that this was the first four wheel drive tractor ever made. He pointed out the weak spots that made it dangerous to drive and where it broke. It sure was nice having someone that knew all about these machines along and could tell me about them. It turns out that this is a collection that is owned by the members of this club and they have 100 members. No wonder that they have such a great collection.

sheep shearing outfits

He said this was a honey wagon where they would drive this down the alleys and pick up the shit in buckets that were left out back from each house.

he said they only made six of these with diesel engines.

This is one of his tractors that was on display. I think he said he had four on display.

what a great collection of cars, tractors, engines, and general farm equipment. Ross had it marked on the map for me to see if I was in the area. Thanks Ross for the heads up….