3007 Twin Creeks Lane, Rocklin, California 95677
I hope my pictures and short stories will be of interest to
readers. The first pictures in the column on the left are of a Holt
that was used to plow snow in Alta, California. It had been parked
for 20 years and the pine trees that had grown up between the
tracks and blade were four to six inches in diameter. After the use
of a chainsaw and cutting torch, my friend Bill Santos, Jr., helped
me drag it out and haul it to my house. It took three months to
find all the missing parts needed, plus the purchase of another two
ton, and some well-needed tips from Bill Santos Senior to get her
running. This was my first tractor restoration that turned out to
be a lot of fun. The top picture shows where it was parked and the
work it took to get it out. The photo at bottom left shows my
daughter sitting on the finished project ready to go!
The pictures in the column at right are of a 1922 Fordson that
had electric start and manual blade added to it. The Gold Run
Garage used this to plow snow around the restaurant and garage
parking lot. In the pictures you can see they cut holes in the back
wheels so the snow would push up through for better traction. The
plow was raised and lowered by turning the steering wheel mounted
on the right side. There were garage door springs attached to the
blade to make raising and lowering easy. The electric starter and
flywheel were mounted where the belt pulley should be. They
attached a brake drum to the flywheel with another pedal above all
of this for stopping. This one is next year’s project. To see
more pictures of the Holt project, or of mine and my dad’s
engine collection, visit my web page at www.jps.net/cricket.
