A piece of Pitt Meadows history is alive and well after months of hard work by local volunteers, just in time for the 2024 Pitt Meadows Day celebration.
Pitt Meadows residents Ron Blakely, Bruno Piccini, Rick Higgs, John Laseur, Lyle Sullivan, and Doug Miller have dedicated countless hours to restoring a couple of historical tractors at the Hoffmann and Son Shop, with the dream of seeing them driven in the annual parade.
And now that both machines have been returned to working order, it looks like that dream is about to become a reality.
The McCormick-Deering 15-30 and Ferguson tractors have quite a historical significance to the community, having once belonged to Hans Hoffmann himself.
“The one tractor was made in 1927 and the other one is even earlier and probably close to 100 years old,” said Higgs.
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When the group first set eyes on the tractors, they were in quite rough shape, explained Blakely.
“The machines were all operable in Hoffman’s day, but they were rolled in here, shut down, and sat for more than 15 years,” said Blakely.
However, with their combined wealth of mechanical knowledge, the group was able to get some life out of the aging machines.
“We went into the Quonset hut, where it had been sitting protected from the rain but with ambient air temperature, and the engine was seized,” said Higgs.
“So we pulled out the spark plugs, poured a little diesel in each cylinder, and let it sit. We came back two weeks later and we could just get it going by hand,” he explained.
“I went out and bought a battery, we put the battery in, left the spark plugs out, and the engine blew the rusted diesel all over the wall of the Quonset hut. It was just hilarious. So we finally had an engine that turned and it kind of progressed from there.”
“They’re good, reliable, simple machines,” added Blakely. “If they have trouble, you can find it and fix it. Unlike today’s vehicles, which you open the hood and you can’t see or reach anything.”
Making these tractors operable again required a lot of outside help, with the volunteer group reaching out to many different local and international sources for parts and advice.
“We’ve had to scrounge and go wherever we could to get stuff. But we wanted to spend money locally if we could,” said Higgs.
Whenever they hit a roadblock trying to source things locally, Higgs said the group would expand their search to south of the border, where he explained that old tractors are a big ticket item across much of the U.S.
A variety of local businesses were involved in the tractor repair project, with the group giving a special shoutout to Big O Tires, Highland Turf Farm, Maple Ridge Towing, Richardson Radiator, Miles Tire Services, VanderWal Equipment, and others.
“It’s been absolutely terrific to get this kind of help from the community,” said Higgs.
Once the volunteers got the tractors up and running, Maple Ridge Towing carefully transported them out to Highland Turf Farm, where they were given various tests to ensure they could withstand being driven for extended periods of time.
And with the tests being a success, the next step will be loading the tractors back up and prepping them for the upcoming Pitt Meadows Day celebration.
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Being able to do this is extremely important to Higgs and the other volunteers because of the attention they hope it brings to the Pitt Meadows Museum.
“We want to take this stuff out in front of the people of Pitt Meadows and show them what’s available for them to learn about when they come to the museum. And then maybe some of them will want to support the museum,” said Higgs.
“The population here has grown and that population came here from somewhere else and might not know much about this community necessarily. So we want to stimulate their interest by making some noise on the parade route.”
The museum is currently looking for people who are willing to walk alongside the tractors during the parade. Interested individuals are encouraged to contact the museum at pittmeadowsmuseum@telus.net.
The Pitt Meadows Day parade will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 1, with the new route taking the tractors and other floats from Pitt Meadows City Hall to the Pitt Meadows Athletic Park.