Orange gathers from across country

PENFIELD, Ill. — The I&I Antique Tractor & Gas Engine Club Showgrounds turned bright orange for the four days of Historic Farm Days.

In conjunction with this year’s featured brand — Allis-Chalmers — Historic Farm Days also hosted the Gathering of the Orange national show, drawing tractors from across the country.

During a break in a busy first day on July 9, Ron Repking, Triple A (All About Allis-Chalmers) Tractor Club president, and Chuck Whitaker, club vice president, who were among the A-C show’s coordinators, were pleased with the turnout.

This is the first day of Historic Farm Days. Leading up to the event, you didn’t know what kind of a turnout you were going to have. How’s it going?

Repking: I think it’s looking real good.

Whitaker: I’m always blown away every time with one of these, and they’re different. When they have a tractor featured like Allis-Chalmers, you have a certain turnout, but when you have a Gathering of the Orange, it just seems like it puts the nitro in it or something.

Repking: It draws people from all over. We have people here from Idaho, Nebraska, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Iowa — from all over.

Whitaker: I know there are semiloads coming right now from Ohio. They sent me a text message a while ago and they were Indiana. There are truckloads that are still coming here.

Repking: This has turned out to be quite an event.

Whitaker: There are also some things that got delivered here to the I&I Club that are Allis-Chalmers specific that haven’t been seen since the late 1970s.

Are most of the Allis-Chalmers models over its history represented at the show?

Repking: I would say, yes.

Whitaker: If we’re not, we’re pretty close because we have some of the newest ones from the last year in 1985. We have some from the early 1920s and into the teens prior to 1920. The one that’s coming is one of only like four or five that are in existence. We are just tickled to death of the turnout.

Repking: You’ve got to be thankful to the people who are willing to bring this stuff.

Whitaker: It’s a lot of work to load a tractor and haul it no matter how far you’re driving. We had one family that brought 19 tractors. It’s absolutely amazing.

Repking: Some people haul seven or eight loads for two hours each load.

Was one of the concerns if the higher fuel prices would impact the turnout?

Repking: There are people who think, “OK, we’re within two hours” or “This is in our area and we’re going to do it. We may not get another chance to do it.”

Whitaker: And that’s true, too, they may not get another chance because these national shows get spread out around the country. They’re all over the place. They’re two hours away and there may not be one this close to them for a while.

How is it working with the I&I Antique Tractor & Gas Engine Club, which hosts Historic Farm Days annually?

Whitaker: We especially want to thank I&I for having us, for hosting this event, and for having this facility which is outstanding.

Repking: They pretty much bent over backward to do what they can to help promote it and help us get what we need and get us set up.

Whitaker: Whatever we wanted, they said, ‘Yes, whatever you guys want to do.” So, hats off to them and their people because they’ve been outstanding.