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It was tractors and not steam engines this weekend
It was tractors and not steam engines this weekend At the Sandstone Heritage Trust we are very often inclined to pull out an old tractor that has not been run for a while and give it a whirl. This Lanz...
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FARM FESTIVAL – 11 SEPTEMBER 2010
FARM FESTIVAL – 11 SEPTEMBER 2010 The annual Farm Festival will take place on 11 September 2010 at the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum. The museum is approximately 20km East of Pretoria next to the...
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Sandstone Heritage Trust Dismantles Phoenix Roller Mill in Grahamstown
We previously reported on the preparation for the trip to Grahamstown to dismantle and remove the contents of Phoenix Roller Mills in...
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MISSION SO IMPOSSIBLE!!!
MISSION SO IMPOSSIBLE!!! Gert Jubileus has prepared a report on the work he and his team undertook recently to safely dismantle and remove the contents of Phoenix Roller Mill in Grahamstown. Click here...
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Villiersdorp Veteran Community Day and Auction 18th September 2010
One of the Villiersdorp Branch of the West Cape Tractor & Engine Club’s aims is to interact with the community and to showcase their treasures to a wider audience. The purpose of Saturday’s...
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Phoenix Roller Mills and its Crossley X Engine in Stationary Engine Magazine!
In the November issue of Stationary Engine Magazine, published in UK by Kelsey appears this story on the dismantling and removal of Phoenix Roller Mill and its massive Crossley X Suction Gas engine....
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Tony Tractor Visits Villiersdorp Tractor & Engine Club!
Tony Psaila is on a Mission again! We met him last in 2006 after he’d driven his 1948 Ferguson (Vaaljapie) tractor all the way from Beit Bridge (you can’t get further North in South Africa) to Agulhas...
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The Phoenix Mill removal featured in the International Molinological Society...
The Phoenix Mill removal featured in the International Molinological Society newsletter. A write-up on the Phoenix Mill appeared in this newsletter recently. See pages 20 to 26! Click here to view the...
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A tribute to Nic Vallentgoed
A tribute to Nic Vallentgoed As a result of our participation in South Africa’s Agricultural Heritage we had the privilege of meeting Nic Vallentgoed nearly 20-years ago... Click here to view the...
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Tractor run to raise awareness of the farmer's contribution to food production
Tractor run to raise awareness of the farmer’s contribution to food production. A longstanding colleague of ours, Brian Calitz, arranged an interesting tractor run recently. Full details appeared in...
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Restoration of John Deere AO
Restoration of John Deere AO Chris Wilson, who has been a long-time associate of Sandstone Estates, has been working on a John Deere AO Orchard tractor. Some years ago we came to an arrangement with a...
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Road Engines at Kalahari Sunrise
Road Engines at Kalahari Sunrise At this year's Kalahari Sunrise event the collection of road engines were being particularly active and were busy every day. This little cameo of photographs shows the...
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Agricultural participation in Kalahari Sunrise.
Agricultural participation in Kalahari Sunrise. Although there was a very strong turnout by the Steam Division at Kalahari Sunrise we made strenuous attempts to raise the profile of our agricultural...
View ArticleWe are looking for old signage
We are looking for old signage. Old Signs The Sandstone Heritage Trust in the Eastern Free State who maintain an Agricultural Heritage site are looking for old signs which reflect South Africa’s...
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Massey Ferguson Tractors
Massey Ferguson Tractors Our two Massey Ferguson tractors mounted on a flat truck were a big feature of our Kalahari Sunrise event. Photo by Hannes Paling Bernard Dodd of the UK had sent us a picture...
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156 2nd June 2012 Cramer Mill at Stanford
156 2nd June 2012 Cramer Mill at Stanford I was contacted recently by Anton Boshoff of Stanford for help to get a Cramer Mill running. He said it was possibly brought into the country for use at...
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Fordson Super Major
Fordson Super Major Sandstone is rehabilitating old machines for current farm use. Our Fordson Super Major is a good example. It is now being stripped.
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An operating International Dozer has been acquired from a farm in the Eastern...
An operating International Dozer has been acquired from a farm in the Eastern Cape. It is a Model: TD-14A, Serial No: TDF36506, manufactured in 1953. Dozer Blade is a Bullgrader 14WG2, No: 107168. Full...
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Vintage tractor gathering - Pretoria
Vintage tractor gathering - Pretoria. The Highveld Veteran tractor and Engine Club (HVTEC) are again hosting the annual Farm Festival "Plaasfees" at the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum on 8th...
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Heritage treasures continue to be revealed
Heritage treasures continue to be revealed Our low bed has returned from the Eastern Cape with two items of significant historical interest. The first is a very early (approximately 1915) Fairbanks...
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Second Fairbanks Morse tractor discovered
Second Fairbanks Morse tractor discovered. A second Fairbanks Morse tractor, or at least the remains of one, has been located in the Cradock district. The farmer who owns it has kindly released it to...
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Old Timers to the fore!
Old Timers to the fore! Two pictures of our big old 1974 White tractor which we purchased in a scrapyard for a few hundred Rand was put to work hauling a monster 40,000 litre water tanker to supply...
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Ancient plant and machinery continues to do an honest day’s work.
Ancient plant and machinery continues to do an honest day’s work. A large farm like Sandstone Estates requires constant upgrading and maintenance. Whenever possible we address infrastructure...
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Green John Deere
Green John Deere There is a lot going on with regard to our non-Steam activities which is over overshadowed by the activities of the Narrow Gauge railway. A good example is a shipment that came in this...
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The works continues.
The works continues. We often receive calls from collectors, in this instance Tracy Robb, who wish to dispose of their collections for whatever reason. This was an amazing load of agricultural items...
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Sandstone consolidates its collection of Lanz and John Deere Lanz tractors.
Sandstone consolidates its collection of Lanz and John Deere Lanz tractors. With 17 of these in the collection we feel it is time that they be brought up to scratch and presented as a separate...
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Lanz Bulldog Collection
Lanz Bulldog Collection Andy Watson in the UK maintains a worldwide register of classic Lanz tractors which currently holds information on over 6,800 tractors in 41 countries. The Register has recently...
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The restoration of the JD 620 Orchard tractor is well under way
Chris Wilson reports. - Click here to read PDF
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Sandstone completes the restoration of a second Massy Harris.
Sandstone Estates has a well-known and comprehensive collection of classic and vintage tractors. We first came to the attention of the vintage tractor world in 1999 with the inauguration of The Great...
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Stepping away from fossil fuels!
Stepping away from fossil fuels! Visitors to our 2022 Easter Steam event will remember the Donkey Cart that provided so many great pictures alongside the railway line to Grootdraai. We have now...
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New life in the Donkey herd.
New life in the Donkey herd. Recently we had the birth of a new donkey foal at Sandstone. He has been named Kagiso after the famous South African cricketer, Kagiso Rabada! Our pictures show Kagiso with...
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The Massey Ferguson MFE35 Restoration. Part 1
The Massey Ferguson MFE35 Restoration. Part 1 Tractor enthusiast, Charles Gardiner, has taken on the restoration of Sandstone’s Massey Ferguson FE35 tractor. This unit has not run for a while and...
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Ford 5000 restoration
Ford 5000 restoration The Ford 5000 tractor was a general purpose unit built at the Ford Tractor plant at Highland Park, Michigan, USA from 1965 to 1976. Many of these units were sold in South Africa....
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Sandstone's ability to blend old and modern.
Sandstone Estates commenced in its present form in 1996 and started with a fleet of modern equipment, mostly John Deere tractors and combine harvesters. Many of these are nearly 20-years old with our...
View ArticleThe Villiersdorp Show.
This annual event is one of the highlights of the vintage agricultural machinery community, particularly SAVTEK who were major participants at the recent Stars of Sandstone 2017 event. The show takes...
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Sandstone’s 24 oxen span!
We have been training our oxen over the last year or so and have achieved impressively large spans but during late July we inspanned 24 oxen, a number we believe to be the largest span in the world....
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The two portable engines from Sigisi Sawmill.
These two donations from Sigisi Sawmill have been collected from the mill near Kokstad and transported to Sandstone. As you can see from the pictures it was a very gloomy and misty day in Kwa-Zulu...
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Preserving the best of our past for the future.
Sandstone’s motto is never forgotten and a recent auction at Belfast saw us put it into action with the purchase of a number of classic tractors and agricultural equipment plus a very rare and complete...
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One score and ten!
The Sandstone Oxen team have reached another milestone with the inspanning of 30 Oxen during a training exercise. The initial plan was for 32 oxen but a broken yoke foiled the plan but this will happen...
View ArticleSomething special
A few days ago our fine team in our Livestock Department successfully in-spanned 36 Afrikaner Oxen pulling one wagon. We have been doing a considerable amount of research on how big these spans really...
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The Ox Wagon Collection
Sandstone has a representative collection of Ox Wagons, many of which were restored by Professor Eric Holm from the University of Pretoria, the acknowledged expert on these wagons. Professor Holm has...
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Lanz Tractors at Sandstone
For many years the Sandstone Heritage Trust has maintained a large collection of Lanz and John Deere Lanz tractors. They are very specialised and not all vintage tractor collectors are familiar with...
View ArticleSandstone inspans 36 Oxen for World Record attempt.
Ron Nel of Frameline has completed another excellent video production entitled, “Ox Power”. Click on the link to view. You will learn something about these magnificent animals!
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Sandstone’s International Harvester collection.
Many years ago a wonderful retired farmer Jannie du Toit from the Western Cape gifted his collection to the Sandstone Heritage Trust. Sandstone already had a reasonable cross section of International...
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Oxen and the Soya harvest, an historical approach. A real step back in time!
Recent weather events at Sandstone Estates led to a unique harvesting approach for the Soya crop from way back in time. Click here to read more {loadmoduleid 177}
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A classic BM Volvo 600 tractor
Recently a classic BM Volvo 600 tractor was donated to Sandstone by a farmer in the Memel district of the Free State in South Africa. Click here to read the full story
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The White 2270 Tractor under restoration.
TRACTOR RESTORATION NEWS Chris Wilson, Sandstone’s tractor guru, is restoring an exciting tractor at his workshop in KwaZulu-Natal. Click here to read the story of the White 2270
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Chris Wilson has been busy on a recent visit to Sandstone
TRACTOR RESTORATION NEWS Our tractor “guru” Chris Wilson has been busy on a recent visit to Sandstone identifying tractors to be showcased at the Summer Steam Festival from the 17th to 19th November...
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