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From Michigan Live.Com
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ENSLEY ? Arlene Culver beamed as she surveyed the farmyard lined with 72 antique tractors, old engines and other rusted farm equipment collected by her late father, Sherwood ?Red? Casterline.
?My mother is the reason for this,? Culver said. ?He always told her when he was gone, these tractors would take care of you.
?Well, it?s time for them to do their job.?
On Saturday, hundreds of antique farm equipment buffs from as far away as Texas will gather for an auction to sell off the rare tractors and engines Culver?s father dragged home one by one over 50 years of collecting.
Casterline died two years ago at age 92. The auction proceeds will provide care for Muriel Casterline, his ailing widow, Culver said.
For the parade of curiosity seekers and tractor buffs stopping by the farm at Algoma Avenue and 22 Mile Road, the collection offers a rare look into the world of farming whose time has passed.
There?s the rare 1934 Plymouth tractor, one of about 200 made before Chrysler Corp. sued and forced the company to change its name to Silver King. There are four Silver Kings on the yard, too.
Then there are Casterline?s beloved Hubers, rare giant iron and steel beasts dating back to the late 1920s.
There?s the giant blue Climax engine that once powered a snowblower in the Upper Peninsula. There are the small skid-mounted ?hit and miss? engines used to power sawmills and threshers and antique outboard boat motors.
Don?t look for your run-of-the mill antique John Deeres, warned his 60-year-old son, Allan Casterline. ?He liked the oddball stuff. He said everybody has a John Deere ? the woods are full of them.?
An inveterate tinker, Casterline wasn?t much for painting or polishing his acquisitions. But he loved to get them running. ?They?re all free, none of them are seized up,? Culver said.
Farm auction
Casterline loved finding the Graham Bradleys and Co Ops, tractors that were made in small Midwestern towns and offered through Sears & Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogs.
Also on the yard are the ?Timber Tuggers? he built for his logging business out of old truck parts and frames. There?s also a 1947 Pontiac and 1950 Kaiser that found their way into his collection.
Allan Casterline said they can?t identify all of the engines and items they pulled out of the storage buildings his father built to house the collection.
?We don?t know what they are, but the auction guys said there are people that will know,? said Allan Casterline.
Auctioneer Don King said he?s been getting a lot of attention from collectors throughout the Midwest. Though he specializes in antique farm equipment, the Indiana auctioneer was not going to guess much the collection will fetch.
?I don?t know because I?ve never sold one before,? said King, pointing to an old Co Op orchard tractor with bug-eyed headlights. ?I?ll know a lot more Saturday night.?
While most of the equipment will be sold, Arlene is keeping some treasures. Dearest to her are the tattered felt hat that her dad wore as he tinkered around the yard and the newspaper clippings and photos that featured his hobby.
And there?s the guestbook and pin map he asked visitors to fill out whenever they stopped by to look at his collection.
?He loved to talk to people,? said Culver, who is asking visitors to sign a new guestbook in honor of her father?s legacy.
Croton resident Bill Haan, one of dozens of curiosity seekers to stop by the homestead Thursday, said he was drawn to ingenuity and creativity found in the obsolete machines.
?It?s just amazing how archaic they are in design. But they functioned so well,? Haan said.
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