Dan Magness of Whitehall, Md., brought his 1949 Field Marshall tractor to the Historic Farm Days at Penfield, Ill. Dan said he found the beautiful Field Marshall about 20 years ago in Lancaster, Pa., at an Amish consignment auction.

He said the group were upgrading their equipment and brought their “junk,” which, lucky for Dan, included this amazing tractor he had been looking for over the years.

There were a couple different versions of the Field Marshall made, most starting with a crank, but Dan’s particular model is called the Shotgun because, he said, “It started with blank cartridges, a shotgun shell.”

He found the tractor in the middle of winter 20 years ago. “They were all trying to start it; it took us a month to get it going after we got it home.” The tractor uses a glow plug, which is where rolled-up paper is placed and then lighted. Then the smoldering paper is placed in the hole.

Finding the best paper that would work was a challenge. “I had to experiment with the paper. Gempler’s catalog paper works great.”

The Field Marshall has an interesting history: “This is the first diesel tractor made in England. After World War II their technology was antiquated,” Dan said.

The slow-moving fuel-efficient Field Marshall was just what the English farmer needed to get the job done. Dan is familiar with the requirements of farming because he is a grain and dairy farmer in New England.

“The Field Marshall is most unique, and it was popular after the war before they got their infrastructure repaired. This was one giant diesel cylinder that would burn slow and run on used motor oil, raw vegetable oil, gas and lard or almost anything. That is why this was so popular.”

The one-cylinder two-cycle diesel has 40 hp and 750 rpm. She weighs in at 7,500 pounds and has a 3-5 speed transmission.

Dan is used to smaller fields like those found in England, he said, rather than the fields he was seeing in the Midwest when visiting the Penfield show. “Out our way, eight acres is a big field,” he explained, adding that living in the shadow of the Chesapeake Bay area, farmers in the area are among the most regulated in the nation.

Besides farming, Dan has been bitten by the antique tractor collecting bug and his Shotgun is just one in his collection. The Field Marshall tractor was built by Marshall Sons & LTD in Gainsborough, England.

The history of the company goes back to 1848 when the Britannia Works was founded in Gainsborough by William Marshall, a millwright.

According to the British Transportation Heritage website, Marshall purchased the millwright business of William Garland in 1855 and by the end of 1885 the works encompassed a 16-acre site with 11.5 acres of buildings.

The company employed 1,900 men and made portable steam engines, threshing machines and agricultural machinery exported from Marshall’s to all over the world. In 1861, after Marshall died, the company was taken over by his sons, James and Henry, and became Marshall Sons & LTD. During World War I it was a munitions plant; then in the 1920s, according to the website, “the firm was in the forefront of internal combustion engine tractor and stationary oil engine design in England.”

Marshall Sons created several different tractors, starting in 1908 with the petrol-paraffin tractor they called the Colonial. In 1930 the first diesel tractor, the Field Marshall, was produced and the design was based on the German Lanz Bull Dog.

During World War II the company made midget submarines, boilers for industry and the Royal Air Force and some agricultural machinery, as well as machinery for road building and maintenance.

The company was open until 1993, and in 2007 the Britannia Works was redeveloped into a mixed retail space. The Field Marshall tractors started as crank start.

“Then, for two years,” Dan said, “they made the shotgun shell start, from 1949 to 1950. Then after that, they were electric start.”

The emblem on the side of the Field Marshall is quite remarkable. Dan’s son has a foundry and recreated the original. He has the original at home for safekeeping. “This is the most intricate emblem I have seen,” Dan said – it consists of a hand holding a baton.

The goddess Athena sits on top holding a trident in one hand and petting a lion with the other.

“The top speed of the Field Marshall is 7.5 miles per hour. They also made a high-speed contractor version that ran 9 miles an hour.”

The air cleaner on the Field Marshall is quite big and Dan said it is just the top layer of filter. “Underneath the oil bath air cleaner is a horse hair cleaner.”

Another unusual feature in this tractor is the way the radiator opens on the side with the fan in between. The appearance of the tractor takes on big proportions with the giant muffler and one large light. “The whole tractor looks like a cartoon,” he said. “Everyone thinks this is not the right muffler, but it is.  The tractor tends to blow out oil and it was designed to blow out the oil drain.” When he uses the Field Marshall in antique tractor pulls, by the end of the day he is covered with specks of oil.

Besides the Field Marshall, Marshall Sons & LTD made another crawler version of it called the Track Marshall.

This is not the first time that Dan has been to Penfield: “I was here with my 1957 122 Porsche tractor five years ago.” The lovely Porsche made it to the 2014 show, too. “I started collecting tractors around 35 years ago,” he said.

For more information about the 2015 Historic Farm Days show, log onto www.antiquefarm.org

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.