By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

PINCKNEYVILLE, Ill. — What could make a great tractor show even better? Toys!

This year the American Thresherman’s Assoc. celebrated its 49th show in Pinckneyville. Members of the Southern Illinois Toy Farmers Club brought toys from their personal collections for visitors to enjoy.

Allis-Chalmers toy collector Leo Weis said, “Richard Stewart from Makanda and I started the club.” Stewart is a well-known name among collectors because of his wooden tractors.

Several other talented modelers are in the club. There is Darryl Lynn, who creates trucks and trailers, and Dave Thompson, who builds models with moving gears. “His toys have been featured in Toy Farmer (magazine),” Weis said.

The show had humble beginnings, with the first show in Weis’ family room. Today, the club has grown to about 30 active members and meets the second Saturday of each month in a Carbondale church. Steve Reinhardt of Baldwin said the collectors just want to have fun.

“It is not a structured club,” he added. “It is open to everybody that wants to join. We get together to enjoy the hobby.”

Weis began collecting late in life. “My boy had some broken toys and I restored them,” he said.

Collector John Mucha from Pinckneyville is a Tru Scale admirer and a Farmall enthusiast who has been collecting for 22 years. He credits his brother for his interest in the hobby – when their father cleaned out, Mucha inherited the toys from his brother, who no longer wanted them … and has been collecting ever since.

“I like these models because they are like what normal people had, but they are hard to find now. Most of what I have is older stuff, (19)40s and ’50s,” he said.

Along with Mucha was his son, two-year old Garet, who was having great fun with a tractor that Reinhardt had brought along.

Clark Williams of Metropolis is an AC-only collector. “When I was 10 years old in 1940, my dad brought home an Allis-Chalmers WC. His brothers were AC dealers in Carmine, Illinois. I seriously started collecting in 1979,” he said. “I have got a model of all that AC ever built.”

Not long before the show, Williams was wrapping up his own toy show in Metropolis – an Illinois town that has its own fame as the “home of Superman.”

David Lukow of Cape Girardeau, Mo., said, “It was my friend Gerald Lingle (of Ullin, Ill.) that got me into the hobby. I collect mostly International Harvester, John Deere and Case, and just about all of them. I also collect tractor trailers,” he said.

Lingle’s favorite brand is International Harvester. “When I graduated from high school, I worked at International Harvester until they went out of business,” he said. “When they closed, I drove a concrete truck and farmed. I got started working on toys in 1979 or 1980 and joined the club with the other fellows.

“I do a lot of refinishing for myself, then sell the farm toys. I began doing custom work probably around 1980.”

He was set up at the show selling toys. This is a family affair for the Lingles – he works with daughters, Karla and Jeannie, under the name K&J. Soon, there will be a new family addition, since one daughter is expecting a new baby girl any day.

All of these collectors shared their time and their talents with others during this big show. As one visitor after another filed through the building where the toys were on display, one collector would visit with another and a finger would point at a favorite toy, making the owner smile. Learning and growing in the hobby is a mantra for the Southern Illinois Farm Toy Club.