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This is "Old Dick", a 1958 International BTD640.

Based on the TD6, they were introduced in 1957 as a budget agricultural spec crawler to compete with rival makes that were undercutting sales at the time.

This model was purchased new by a local farm & used to pull a Massey combined seed drill, it remained with them until around 1982 when it was entered into the sale that resulted from G B Foot renting the farm from the now elderly brothers.

The crawler failed to make real money so our then boss, Richard Foot decided to buy it in as a keepsake to remind him of the similar crawlers he cut his teeth with when as a school leaver his father sent him to New Zealand to learn farming from a friend!!

TOT401 spent the odd day or two over the years doing the occasional menial task, mainly driven by Richard & stirred into life by myself (where I did my apprenticeship we had 2 TD8's so it was a bit of nostalgia).

After Richards death in 2001 the crawler has sat undisturbed, but then following the eventual transfer of all the tenancy's in 2005 to his widow Jennie, she decided that the farm would like to give TOT 401 to me!, so with Jennie's permission I have decided that it would be right to call it "Old Dick" as a reminder of another who had a soft spot this fine old bit of Classic British Engineering.

Hopefully there will be time this summer to start blowing a few cobwebs out of the chap, having now obtained a replacement Exhaust manifold from Pocock tractor spares I can get on with making things less dramatic when coaxing it into life!

Basingstoke Ag Soc ploughing match 2006