The featured marque of the 2008 Little Casterton Working Weekend was Case, founded by Jerome Case in Racine, Wisconsin, USA, in 1842. The JI Case Threshing Machine Company was built on the expertise and inventiveness of Jerome Case, but did not enter the tractor market until 1912, when it launched the massive 30-60 and 20-40 machines.The tricycle 10-20 tractor was to follow in 1915, which set the standard for the next decade as it featured an engine mounted across the frame rather than along the frame.

The early Case tractors leading up to and including the 10-20 were presented in a livery of red and green but with the development of the cross-mount designs in the 1910s and 1920s, the colour was switched to a dark grey scheme. There were examples of 10-18, 15-27, 18-32 and 25-45 at the Casterton event, although a few appeared to be in non-standard colour schemes.

The numerical numbering system was of course, informative, expressing the power at the drawbar and at the flywheel in a simple form. Around 1930 Case introduced a letter model system and around this time reverted to the conventional longitudinal engine mounting for all its new tractors. The remaining early models were renamed model A, etc.

In 1939, Case abandoned its grey colour scheme in favour of the bright Flambeau Red (orange) colour. Around the same time, a new grill design appeared which was said to be influenced by the shape of an ear of corn, symbolising Case’s history. There were examples of Case L, R, C and D at Little Casterton with a number of both blue Case CC and orange DC variations, the second C standing for row-crop versions, the “EX” in Case DEX standing for export model.

A number of owners had purposely brought along Case implements including several trailing ploughs and a threshing drum. Case ploughs are rarely seen at vintage events and I had not realised that the proper livery was a mixture of orange and green, bridging the gap between the early and later tractors, but a nicely painted Case plough behind an orange Case tractor is a very smart outfit.

The 1910 Case threshing machine, which was to be powered by a Case tractor, unfortunately fell at the first hurdle, as the density of the modern-day crop appeared too much for it to stomach. Henceforth it remained as a static display. Elsewhere, Carl Sharman’s Blackstone corn mill was powered by Nick Kitchen’s 1937 Case CC on the stationary engine line on Saturday.

The star of the show, however, was the 1936 Case Q combine recently restored by Ron Knight, which was working at the top of the field cutting part of the remaining spring wheat crop. This massive machine, which was purchased by a farming family in Suffolk direct from an exhibition and remained with them in working order for 70 years, is virtually all original part from the fact that the original owners converted it from bagging to tanker spec. Powered by its own engine, it was drawn around the field at walking pace by a Caterpillar Forty crawler. Its stable-mate, Ron’s Case 600 self-propelled combine harvester dating from 1958 in the later red livery also did demonstration runs from time-to-time.