September /OctOber 2014ISSUe 035

20 September /OctOber 2014ISSUe 035

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Of course today some of the biggest combines built have over 600 hp, with large draper heads that can run as wide as 60 feet. I have only seen those combines in pictures and I’m sure if I ever did see one I may have the same feeling as I did back in the 1960s looking at the Massey Ferguson 510. At the time the Massey Ferguson 510 was one of the biggest combines in the world. I just couldn’t imagine something so powerful.

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The first MF 510 combine I saw was owned by Charles Langstaff who farms near Wallaceburg, Ontario Canada. Charles is still farming and he actively recounted many stories about the combine. He had driven the IH 303 before the MF 510 and the productivity increase was incredible. He thought the cab was a huge improvement over sitting out in the elements, even though there

was no air conditioner and no heater. We both laughed as he recounted putting a kerosene heater in the cab come fall. He said he had to keep the window open to cast the fumes away. Needless to say, Charles had two MF 510s, which gave him the ability to harvest 100 acres a day, incredible at the time.

The Massey Ferguson 510 was the largest Massey Ferguson combine built in the 1960s.

Looking back, sometimes it is easy to forget that was a golden time at the start of the Heritage Era for Massey Ferguson. It was a bit of a transitional time away from their Super 92 combines with the introduction of the Massey Ferguson 410 and 510. It also represented a time when Massey Ferguson had over 50% of the combine market. It was a high water mark for Massey Ferguson and the 510 was the

biggest of what was considered one of the best combine lines at the time.

The MF 510 cylinder width was 45 inches, huge at the time. It came in a diesel and gasoline version. The gasoline version was powered by an industrial 327 GM engine and Diesel version came with a six-cylinder Perkins A6.354. Later Western Special combines used a GM V8-350 engine. Of course these

by philip shaw

Sometimes you could almost feel the ground shifting underneath you. sometimes things are

so far out there you can never imagine having

one yourself. that was what i felt like sometime in the

late 1960s when i saw my first massey Ferguson 510

combine. at the time i remember thinking a combine

that big, with a 15-foot head, was simply a monster.

it could harvest 50 acres a day in soybeans. i could

never imagine a day when i might own something like

that myself. combines were just becoming enormous.

i just couldn’t imagine something so powerful.