Antique tractors take their place in history

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COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. — Since 1997, when he bought his first tractor, Keith Jones has been a collector. That first one had sentimental value: It was his grandfather’s. His grandmother made him buy it at auction though, and she later returned the money he had paid for it.

Since that time, Jones has acquired more than 230 other tractors.

Many of those former working vehicles of the fields will be on display at Keystone Tractor Works, a new antique tractor museum located in Colonial Heights. The museum opens the first weekend in November with a celebration that will feature a three-day car show, food and activities for children.

“We’ve been attempting to open the museum for a few years,” Jones said.

In November 2009, the former Benjamin-Moore paint factory in Colonial Heights became available; Jones purchased the building. Since July he and his business partners, including the museum’s new curator, Alan “Bones” Stone, have been hard at work making sure the building would be ready.

“In the past week I’ve walked more than 50 miles just in this building,” said Stone, whose phone has a built-in pedometer. That means he’s walked the equivalent of a trip to Richmond and back inside the building going back and forth supervising companies making final touches and getting displays ready.

Jones said that part of building the collection involved buying several smaller collections. He’s also attended auctions and looked into private sales.

“Once you get to that point, guys start contacting you to see if you want to buy their tractor,” Stone said.

The oldest tractor in the collection is a Waterloo Boy from 1915. Jones said that around that time the company was bought by a larger, more famous company that survives to this day: John Deere.

The latest tractors date from about 1960. “That’s when John Deere quit making the two-cylinder tractors,” Jones said.

As well as Deere, the brands represented include International Harvester, Case and Minneapolis-Moline. There are also several “orphan brands” — tractors that were low production numbers, brands that were around for only a year, or tractors that were built by one company and renamed several different ways.

As an example, the same Chrysler engine appears on three different tractor bodies, with three different brands.

“You’d even take it to the Chrysler dealership to have it serviced,” Stone said.

One of the most valuable tractors in the museum is a Minneapolis-Moline that was built for the 1938 model year. The tractor included a cab and second seat.

“The idea was that you’d use it for plowing the fields through the week and then drive it to church on Sunday,” Jones said. Only 150 were built, and Jones said 50 later had the cab removed because the company wasn’t able to sell them that way. Ten of the 150 were convertible models. “All told there are only about 30 in existence still today, I’ve heard,” he said.

Restoring the tractors has for the most part been carried out without too much difficulty. Jones said each tractor is typically taken apart completely, sanded and carefully repainted, and put back together again. While some have been more challenging than others, it’s been mostly trouble free — even when finding parts. The hardest part has been finding tires for some of the tractors.

“Some are pretty hard to find turf tires for,” Jones said. The turf tires allow the vehicles to cross the ground without breaking it.