Ransomes 54" Thrashing Machine Restoration - Manufactured 1947
September 2006-January 2008

This machine was built in 1947 at the Orwell Works in Ipswich and it was the 294^th machine dispatched that year. When new it cost about £730 including extras of a feeder, chaff bagger and pneumatic wheels. [Ransomes 1946 price list] The 54 refers to the width of the drum in inches hence the length of plant material it could thrash. The ‘Tractor’ indicates that the machine could be driven by a tractor and it requires 18-horse power to operate. Up to about the end of the Second World War the usual power to drive thrashing machines was provided by steam traction engines and tractors were becoming into common use after the end of the war. The machine could be used to thrash wheat, oats, barley, rye and beans.

"A light, full-sized, thrashing machine for private use. The machine has all the features of the normal finishing machine that produces a perfect sample. This type has also an ideal application where weight considerations  are the deciding factor, as also for heavy natured country or downland" such as the Chilterns.” [Ransomes advertising literature]

The machine was donated to the museum in 1991 by P. Buller of Sarrat, a local village, and was last used at the museum in 1994. Until 2006 it had been stored outside under a tarpaulin and deterioration had occurred, with some parts beginning to rot. The construction is of oak beams with tongue and groove deal boards. The surfaces around the drum and where the grain passes are covered in metal sheet.

In August 2006 a local man, John Smithson, when visiting the museum, volunteered to restore the machine. As a young man he had operated two sets of thrashing tackle for a contractor in Worcestershire. A project team with two other museum volunteers Chris English and Keith Baggaley was set up to restore the machine to working order for demonstrations at the museum. The restoration was made possible by a grant of £1500 from the Chiltern Conservation Board Sustainable Development Fund. Further fund raising was required to purchase the new pneumatic tyres to fit the original wheels. The restoration project required over 1000 volunteer hours over a period of eighteen months. The following web pages show photographs taken during the work and reflect the range of activities and techniques required to bring the project to a successful conclusion. These included researching the machine and the badly deteriorated notices, identifying and dealing with the original flaking lead paint safely, treating against wood boring insects, replacing rotted tongue and groove boarding, replacing leather friction pads on the feeder canvas drive shaft, repairing metal sheet parts, redrawing the belt diagrams, designing and sourcing a new feeder canvas, sourcing new belts, making a missing iron part [courtesy of Brian the Iron, the Museum blacksmith], sourcing new tyres and computer work to recreate the working notices on the machine [courtesy of Chris Maynard of the Museum].

The Project Team and Chiltern Open Air Museum are very grateful for the financial support and invaluable advice from the following :