07-06-2022

A cow for Thommo's horses to round up.

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Last Monday at the shed I was approached by ‘Private Jones’ (aka Cliff), who asked me if I would like to try & repair an item he had been given by somebody he knows. I said could you please tell me what it is, which he did & he would bring it on the following Wednesday. On the day ‘Private Jones’ presented me with a cardboard box & proceeded to remove the tissue paper from inside to reveal a Vintage Tin Plate Wind up ‘COW’. I agreed that I would have a go & see what I could do.

So once home I began to try & get it apart, all that holds it together are little metal tabs which have to be bent into a position ‘without‘ breaking them, that will allow the body sections to be separated from the winding mechanism. What a beast it was getting to the stage to see inside. It was as if it was hanging on for grim life &, it was not going to give up easily to expose it’s (putting it mildly) 'guts'. Once separated I had the ghastly job of separating the metalwork from the ‘huge‘ amount of 'cow dung' I had amassed, YUK!! On first inspection I noticed the rear legs had been bent backwards, this in turn had bent the metalwork that moves these legs. There are several areas that require attention, there is also a lump of cast iron that needs securing better, this is for making the toy stable. Well, I must press on, hopefully to see if my intervention has done any good.

Various comments have been made as the repair progressed - obviously one of the first was from TonyC "Have you joined The Repair Shop Norman?" but funnily enough I was getting a strange sensation that ‘Jay‘ was looking over my shoulder!!

As time went on I realised that it was the wind up part where all the troubles lay but eventually, along with some blue language and nipped fingers I managed to resolve all of the problems with the beast's internals.

Apparently the owner is a gentleman in his 80's and a bit of a collector of interesting models etc. He has had cows in his garden I think but only has sheep now ( it's a big garden, more like a smallholding). Perhaps he'll find a wind up sheep next.

The old girl is ‘nearly’ ready to chew the Cud once more and when you rev her up, my word the ‘Double Cream’ she produces. She's been scrubbed down, brushed, oiled & has just been refuelled. I shall miss her when she returns to her original pasture.

Author: Norman Hart