From another perspective I am appreciative for those members and individuals that preserve the "old iron" and keep it looking like new. I also appreciate the others, like me, that use the yellow beasts daily. There is a place for both in this club and and mystified why it has to be one way or the highway on restoring old machines.
Mine are not the most beautiful examples but they work and no one has any problem as identifying them as a 75 year old machine!!
As to the membership, I do not think the membership list is up to date as many profiles list as members yet they do not show up on the membership list.

Love your perspective James!
-much like cars and other old iron, at the end of the day if that's what floats yer boat....do it !
-personally, i think it's impressive when a 75 year young machine can go to work and accomplish something!...just me

I tend to agree also. I like to see restored equipment because I like to see how they would have looked when new. I am 50 and most of my interest is in 60-100 year old machines that were old or worn out before I started paying attention. I personally enjoy saving something from a destiny of being melted down and making it operable and putting it to use like it was intended. For me using them at least a little is the real joy in antique crawlers or tractors. I especially like seeing real unrestored survivors as I personally think they were only original once. My goal is to get a Cat 30 and 60 operational and put in a crop using 100 year old tractors just to say I did it. The information that I have received via answers on this board has been terrific. I have asked many questions that I am sure seemed pointless or obvious to the experienced operator’s and I have received answers to nearly every question. Those answers and reading old posts on here have taught me a lot. Like any public forum I think you had better have a little bit of a thick skin or you will become offended, read only the ones you want too. I hope everyone keeps posting, I enjoy it all from the old pictures to the posts about tractors I don’t have or never will. Always tidbits about a service trick or a parts source that might be handy. Please keep posting, Mike

The notion that this organization is about rich folks with their museum pieces is a hard bit to read looking back on what this organization has been about.

Over the past couple of decades some of the best help and advice has come from folks that didn’t even own their own piece of Caterpillar equipment. The people that spent 40 - 50 years working at the dealership when this equipment was the latest and greatest have been the most helpful. They lived and seen the damage when something came apart when a corner was cut. They have seen the damage when a final wasn’t pressed back together with the proper force… they were not sharing option but what they saw in their career… thanks and RIP

There were people that didn’t own a piece of caterpillar equipment but operated it in the hottest of sun to pounding rain to deep drifts of snow keeping our roads open for the local government or working for a contractor building the the next phase of economic development. While they were not able to have their own they have more than helped out others in their hobby enjoyments. Thanks to everyone who has helped keep this knowledge alive.

Then there have been people who didn’t have the space or need for a big piece of Caterpillar equipment, but made some really nice models to share their love of the equipment and pass down the knowledge of a different time and place.

CR - Very well said!
Many here have had experience, some from early ages of growing up on the farm, construction, working in the timber industry,  transitioning to "pulling levers, eating dust and baking in the sun", to working in dealerships and then moving on to other ambitions and fortunately, some are still here offering what they can, freely providing information in hopes it helps someone and maybe even saves them serious injury.

Show room perfect?   How many saw one of those after a few hours of hard work or at least a season of those beloved pieces of iron and steel doing what they were built to do?
A coat of fresh paint makes a nice photo but does it change all of the wear and tear of the internals, even with a completed tear down and rebuild, are the parts all factory fresh?

Rich?   Is that what the "new generations"  call those that struggled to keep the machines going, gathering parts and pieces wherever they could be found them, often running machines that were in their second, third or fourth generation of ownership.  Did everything they could under some very tough conditions, often in the field where the machine said "enough- I Quit!"  Rich in the terms of work ethics, values and determination to do with what they had available, the values that were passed from generation to generation. They were true "do it yourself" there was no option until you either did not have the tooling or the facility to accomlish the task.

Personally, I often think how fortunate I was to be raised in the community and under the nurture of those that had the experience and know-how to get it done without the conveniences so many take for granted today.    Yes, I am thankful that I had those times and also miss many of them.  

If it were not for those "collectors, museums, farmers, and multitudes of others" where would you find a WW1 era machine running and be offered a chance to sit in the seat as operator?  Hard to imagine that the "NEW" top of the line Caterpillar will be running 100 years from now!

"keep 'em crawlin"   
CTS

 

I certainly do not get how anybody could get the idea that this is a group of rich people playing with CATS, there are some collectors and they have a very important place in this but for the most part my take is just a bunch of working people who likes and uses Cats. I started doing this long before it became a hobby and as I think of all of the mechanics ,parts people, landlevelers, farmers etc. I have got to know and some of them got to be close friends and all of them were there to to help you if you needed it and not a rich one in the whole bunch, pretty much like how the people of this club are! There are a lot of things that are available to us now that would not be here if it were not for this club and we better take care of it! 17afarmer Mike

my new mechanic (apprentic ) is 18 years old he come to work for me the day he graduated high school his hobby after work is restoring and rebuilding a 7u- d4 in his back yard not many young'uns have intrestes like that

Offer encouragement, help where you can, this young fellow will carry on the legacy after many of us are gone!
CTS

Hi, Folks.
I think enough has been said politely about 'rich people' in this hobby. If the same sentiment crops up again, especially from the same source, I suspect that the time for 'politeness' will have passed.

With VERY few exceptions, I get on very well with pretty much all of the people whom I have met through this '4um', at various shows and working days and through invitations to view their collections. Azza 'foreigner' in America, I could not have asked for or wished for a better reception. I even had the pleasure a couple of times of introducing Americans to Americans ON American soil. In one case, they both lived in the SAME town in Minnesota. ALL good fun.

There is room for ALL of us in this hobby but I don't see any space for negativity or bias.

Now let's all settle down and enjoy our hobby.

Just my 0.02.