Recently this McCormick-Deering 15-30 was restored by a local man and has been placed at the Okanagan Falls Museum, also known as the
Bassett House Museum, whereupon it has become a tourist catcher for the museum, not to mention a magnet for tractor loving Waymarkers. One of the oldest buildings in the oldest planned community in the South Okanagan, Bassett House has housed a museum for close to 40 years.
As yet, this 15-30 is the centerpiece of a small and growing collection of farm implements at the museum, donated about a week ago by a farmer from Oliver, about 15 or so kliks south of Okanagan Falls. The present collection consists of only a Sulky Plough, a single gang disc and a Cockshutt 21 walk behind plough, but it's young and expected to grow considerably in the future.
Manufactured from 1923 to 1929, the 15-30 was a very popular model, likely the best selling of McCormick-Deering's lineup of the time. With a 381.7 cubic inch (6.3 Litre) 4-cyl kerosene burning engine built by International Harvester, in tests the 15-30 produced 27 horsepower at the drawbar and 35 horsepower at the belt at 1050 RPM, as opposed to claimed power of 15 and 30. International Harvester was pretty conservative with its published numbers, as the 15-30 produced nearly twice the advertised horsepower at the drawbar.
This deluge of power was transferred to the lugged steel wheels through a three speed transmission with one reverse gear. Rear wheels were 50x12 inches while the fronts were 34x6. Top speed in high gear was a slothful 4 MPH. The weight of the tractor was 6000 lbs. as it came off the assembly line.
The tractor's serial number plate identifies this as serial number
TG 139080 M. As yet we haven't been able to correlate that with a date or year of manufacture. This particular unit has steel wheels all around, with lugged double wheels on the rear. One might assume that the tractor spent much of its working life in wet, boggy soil, or some such. We believe the unit is still in running condition.