Report from Vintage Tractor Engineers roving Reporter:
Cooley Vintage Festival, in Ireland, achieved a World Record on Sunday 5 August 2007 when over 4000 vintage tractors were working in one field at the same time. All the pre-1977 tractors were accompanied by a working implement e.g. potato spinner, plough, harrow, disc..

Tractors came to Cooley from as far away as South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, & the USA, to take part in the World Wide event. On the day, tractors were travelling along the motorways on the backs of lorries, or being driven by their owners along the country roads leading to Cooley.

The thousands of tractors assembling to take part in the record attempt made a colourful site, in spite of the pouring rain. At 2.45pm the loudspeakers called all drivers to take to their seats and start their tractors. Some tractors struggled to start and had to be pulled from their position in the row for a jump start. As the time drew closer , fumes were pouring out of tractor exhausts and a haze developed over the field. Spectators were rubbing their stinging eyes as the tension grew, and every tractor driver had a smile on their face.

When the time came for the record attempt to begin, the noise and smell of the tractors was memorable. The loudspeaker was reporting the involvement of over 4,781 tractors. The tractors moved forward pulling the working implements, and proceeded to work in the field for at least 15 minutes. The world record was broken in a wonderful atmosphere of excitement and a result of tremendous communal effort.

Here’s some scenes from the festival…