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1954 Thistle Major Tractor

In Model Cars > Pedal Cars > Show & Tell.
Pedal Cars885 of 891What is this pedal car?1959 Thistle "Lightning"
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    Posted 14 years ago

    shawimm
    (18 items)

    With nearly 100 hours invested over the past winter months, my project is finished. and as with the last two pedal car projects I too will be gifting this one to my grandson for Easter.

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    Comments

    1. Savoychina1 Savoychina1, 14 years ago
      Off the chain...mad skills
    2. ggmsmolly ggmsmolly, 14 years ago
      How cute.
    3. David Sheltus, 13 years ago
      had one of thes tractors on the farm in the early 50's . missed one on e bay two years ago , Still looking.
      You have done a fantasic job restoring it .
      Congratulations
    4. cheri, 13 years ago
      I have one identical to yours . Have been trying to research its make and history on and off over a number of years. Surprised and delighted to see what mine looked like when new. Good on you, you made a wonderful transformation. Would like to talk more with you. Can we exchange emails?
    5. shawimm shawimm, 13 years ago
      Thank you all for your comments...sure I'd be glad to share info
    6. spiritinthesky3 spiritinthesky3, 12 years ago
      Love this! FYI ...Theres a cool mattel x 15 1964 on bonanza for sale... Its pretty cool looking.... It's not really my thing, but I've been contemplating the purchase for sculpture check it out in antiques. I'm curious if it could be worth more then my art?
      ~PEACE~
    7. Siobhan127, 12 years ago
      Hi, my dad has one of these in its original form, painted orange and green, its a Triang one, do you know the value of yours? My dad is interested in selling his.

      Siobhan, Dublin, Ireland
    8. shawimm shawimm, 12 years ago
      Knowing what I've got invested into mine I probably wouldn't consider selling it for less than $800- $900
    9. scottvez scottvez, 12 years ago
      Great restoration job!

      scott
    10. RussTenale RussTenale, 12 years ago
      I wish I had the ability to pull that off. Great job, very nice.
    11. shawimm shawimm, 12 years ago
      Thank you......when I did this one I thought it was my favorite...until I finished my Jeep and trailer yesterday. I posted a photo on this web site, but it is attached to my original listing that I did for the Jeep when I acquired it a year ago
    12. lancewabigwan, 11 years ago
      i have one of these tractors orange with red hubs
    13. shawimm shawimm, 11 years ago
      Cool!........does it have a name on it?
    14. lancewabigwan, 11 years ago
      thistle major tractor factory papers printed in england all original
    15. shawimm shawimm, 11 years ago
      Cool!...Is the name "Thistle printed in the same format as mine, or is curved in front of "Major Tractor" and does it have clam shell type rear fenders or bicycle style ones. The 1954 and prior ones have the bicycle type fenders. Mine were rusted beyond repair so I had to fabricate the later clam shell type. Other than that and the pedals it has all of it's original parts.
    16. lancewabigwan, 11 years ago
      im thinking there bicycle style the writing is white over orange the fenders are red im pretty shure its all original down to the papers on the side its all there perfect shape harley orange its got the smoke stack top its a nice original papers printed in england im more less looking to see what the history on this tractor is and what its worth.
    17. lancewabigwan, 11 years ago
      ya there bicycle style
    18. shawimm shawimm, 11 years ago
      Awesome!......Having the original engine transfer is very rare. A couple of years ago I assisted the administrator of the Triang web site in acquiring images of this so that he could recreate it. Believe me it took nearly a year to find enough images to piece together an entire engine and if I remember correctly it's different from one side to the other.
      Your colour combo sounds a bit different from most that I've seen but there are variations. I know that Triang set up their Canadian subsidiary company in 1947, which went under the Thistle brand name, and that the tractor was being produced as early as 1950. As for a value for one in original condition such as yours. It's like anything thing it depends on demand. Being Canadian as opposed to a U.S. brand it is much rarer but the number of collectors for Thistle's are a lot less as well. From my experience I'd estimate a value of $500 - $1000 which is really under valued when you factor everything in.
    19. lancewabigwan, 11 years ago
      theres some education there for shure ya thats what a friend of mine says the paper is the rare part of the tractor but it being all original is the best part
    20. shawimm shawimm, 11 years ago
      For sure....they're only "original" once
    21. lancewabigwan, 11 years ago
      i know this tractor should be in your collection i would let it go but for the right price these pedal cars are pretty cool
      if i said 2100 would that be reasonable
    22. shawimm shawimm, 11 years ago
      In order for it to achieve a value any where near your figure it would have to either be in exceptional condition or be quite unique. Sad but true......the number of collectors interested in Canadian Thistle's brand pedal car, etc is not as strong as that of collectors of pre WWII U.S. pedal vehicles, where the prices can reach into several thousands for a particular car/plane, etc.. As you can imagine.....without seeing photos it is impossible to estimate the tractor's value.
    23. lancewabigwan, 11 years ago
      very true as you are correct the papers on each side are different but i will have photos posted hopefully today or the following i just dont have the camera at the moment to do so its in very nice new condition 95 percent original paint papers tires its all there engine papers say printed in england very nice tractor .
    24. kidspades, 8 years ago
      I have this same one all original it has the orange paint job with red fenders and red hub's does anyone know some info on this tractor like what year and where they were made and how many were made?
      thanks Jason
    25. shawimm shawimm, 8 years ago
      Hi Jason, Check out this site that I contributed to: http://www.triang.nl/thistlecanada.htm and if you go to the main page for Tri-ang (which was the parent company to Thistle and produced the same models in the UK as in Canada, only with slightly changes in graphics, etc) and you review the catalogue offerings you can perhaps narrow down the approximate year your tractor was issued http://www.triang.nl/pedalcarsgeneral.htm The tractor first shows up in 1950 and w up until 1956, however some catalogues are missing for certain dates...the first models had bicycle type rear fenders and the laters one were "clam shell" styled....hope this helps

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