Visiting a vintage tractor show in the Netherlands

Last weekend the 43rd edition of the IHF Panningen was held. The largest gathering of vintage tractors in Europe.

BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I like tractors! All tractors. I don't know much about tractors at all if I'm honest. I just like to look at them and see them at work. As it turned out, this particular event I visited also showed me a vintage demonstration of making barbed wire. That in itself was worth the trip. See below for the little video!

I have posted about tractor-pulling and vintage tractors before. Last weekend the 43rd edition of the IHF Panningen was held.

ihf-festival.nl

The largest gathering of vintage tractors in Europe. I had never been yet, so I started my vintage 1982 Mercedes W123 early Sunday morning and headed south. For those familiar with the Netherlands, Panningen is a small town southeast of Eindhoven. It is located in the province of Limburg, the most southern province of the Netherlands.

This International Historic Festival is pretty huge. It attracts some 25000 visitors. I must admit although I did hear some German and Flemish, my impression was it was largely a Dutch crowd, both participants and visitors.

It is entirely run by volunteers. One of the reasons I like these tractor festivals is because of the crowd it attracts. These are, as you would expect, mostly from the farming communities. And as you will see it is a real family outing, watching tractors. Lots of things for the kids to do and see.

The lady with the trolly is very typical for Dutch people on a day out. Be it at the beach, out in the woods, or here at a festival. You pile the kids and everything you need for the day into the trolly and pull it along!

First things first. After an hour and a half of driving on a warm, sunny day in a vintage car with no AC, I was ready for some coffee and a snack. So I got myself some of these tokens. One token cost one euro. You pay in all the food stands with tokens. Everything was quite cheap! Coffee, tea, soft drinks, and even a glass of beer or wine was one token!

One of the first vehicles I bumped into, was a working steam model tractor!

Look at this; vintage tractor galore! Next to vintage tractors, there were also a lot of stationary engines on display. You will get to see some of those too. Stationary engines were used in the olden days to provide power to all sorts of farming machinery.

Gorgeous combination!

Love the engine details

This tractor was an aircraft tug, that worked in the UK for many years, around the 1960s/70s.

Although the vast majority of vehicles on display were tractors, there were a couple of vintage cars. And some vintage trucks too.

Here you a gorgeous Saab. In Dutch, it is known as a "katterug" (A cat's back)

One thing about tractors, more often than not, the colour will tell you immediately what brand it is!

Of course, at an event like this, there were quite a number of these market stalls selling model Tractors and farming equipment.

As the day wore on I saw more and more little boys and their dads walking around with some of these!

Look at this, it might be vintage, but it is still impressive!!

If you have read some of my other threads you will have picked up on the fact that I am a huge Unimog fan. Mrs. D has vetoed getting one, but at least I can have a good look at quite a few of them here. They come in a bewildering amount of different versions. This appears to be the Long Wheelbase version.

There were also quite a number of these "track" vehicles. Here is a whole trailer full of them. These were all built in the early 1940s.

Two of my friends from my model engine building forum were present as well. They were giving a demonstration in brazing. Here you see Wiel explaining it all. He is quite amazing, he can braze weld just about any material. If you like, you could have a try yourself!

This articulated tractor is massive, from the 70s!

You will notice that some of these tractors have been restored to factory-new conditions, while others look as if they have received no maintenance at all for the last twenty years. One of each, restored and unrestored side by side.

Tractors as far as the eye can see. And make no mistake, just about every single one of them, was brought onto these display fields under their own power. Some might look old and beaten, but they still run!!

A gorgeous Hanomag.

The show was spread out over multiple fields. On each field, they also had an area where the old tractors were put to work. Here you see one of this vintage tractor pulling a vintage ground levelling machine.

It also meant there was a constant coming and going of tractors driving through the public on their way for a demonstration or coming back to be put on display again.

Another huge articulated tractor. John Deere.

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