[SEL] Re: Unearthing a Horde of Engines

[James Moran]

AF-
 To your first point...if these things are  to be found, I would guess that they would be more inclined to be  "buried and rusting away".  After all, that is how I came across  the IHC M.  No "dump sites" as you term it.
 This part of  upstate/western New York was once heavily committed to  agriculture.  As time went by, the suburbs spread out from the  city and the farmers sold off their property, yet retained some small  portion of the land along with the house and barn/outbuildings.   This, of course, is hardly unique to my area.
 In proximity to my  house such situations abound.  As one drives down some particular  county road,  old, no longer used tractors sit inside of such out  structures.  They tend to be McCormicks, For 8n/850's etc., some  Olivers and Massey Ferguson, etc.   To my way of thinking,  such arrangements would also yield some engines that have been  relegated to a dark corner, abandoned years ago but never  discarded.  The folks up this way were largely products of the  depression and the mindset was that nothing was ever too broken to  throw away.
 Of course, I could be very, very wrong.  The only  way to "go at it" (if anyone ever does so) would be to, more or less,  knock on doors and ask the right questions. Running ads in the penny  saver would not work.   As I wrote, tractors and related  implements are all over the landscape.  Does it follow the h-'n-m  would as well?  
  Just thinking.
  JM

fero_ah at city-net.com wrote:  Hi Jim,

A provocative statement fer sure.  Is this "unearthing" as in a bunch of old
iron buried and rusting away?  Or is it a dump site for modern aluminum Briggs
& Strattons?

Is it one or more of the collectors who started in the hobby in the 50's and
60's (when you could buy a running IHC "M" or Hercules or other for $25) and
who now has a barn full of hundreds of engines?  In this case, those engines
will most likely enter "circulation" at an auction when the old gent pops his
clogs and the widow dumps the horde.

Talk to us Jim.  We need more info before we can get breathless and excited.

Quoting James Moran :

> JC...I have a  sneaking suspicion that, if I put my mind (and body) to it, I
> could  unearth hundreds of engines within (let's just say) a fifty mile
> radius  of my home.  Should I bother with such an exercise or is it just 
> better to let these sleeping dogs lie?  Seriously...what do you  feel?

See ya,  Arnie

Arnie Fero
Pittsburgh, PA
fero_ah at city-net.com
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