‘RUNNING OF THE TRACTORS’
Annual Corrales meeting allows owners to show off their machines
Club members are ready to show off their antique tractors and vintage cars at annual meeting in Corrales.
CORRALES — You can always count on the Corrales Tractor Club’s annual “Running of the Tractors” show to be a colorful affair.
Vintage tractors turn out looking their best, John
Deeres in iconic green; Allis-Chalmers in sporty orange; Fords in red and tan, or, sometimes, blue and tan; Twin City tractors in dignified gray; Farmalls in flambeau red; and Minneapolis Molines in a stunning prairie gold that mimics the hues of sunny Midwest farm fields.
“When the sun is setting and hitting those wheat fields, those Minneapolis Molines disappear,” said Glenn Schoenbach, president of the Corrales Tractor Club. He’s restoring one of those golden beauties. He’s pretty proud of it, as he should be.
But pride of place at this year’s show may well belong to Schoenbach’s 1936 Twin City Model J and Tractor Club board member Anthony Wagner’s 1948 Farmall Super C. Those bad boys are movie stars.
Schoenbach said his Twin City and Wagner’s Farmall Super C were in the filming of “Dreamland,” an as-yet-unreleased Dust Bowl-era crime thriller produced by and starring Margot Robbie, probably best known for her Oscar-nominated role in last year’s “I, Tonya.”
Filming of the tractor scenes in “Dreamland” took place in November in Stanley, N.M.
Schoenbach’s Twin City tractor had a relatively simple part. All it had to do was stand still in a barn, constructed for the movie, while Robbie sleeps
nearby. Easy enough for a tractor to do.
But Wagner and his Farmall had more active roles. In one scene, Wagner is riding the Farmall as Robbie, who plays a Bonnie Parker-like bank robber, roars by in a car pursued by cops.
“Glenn and I were there two days,” Wagner said. “They had me plowing in a field at dusk right by the makeshift house they made for (Robbie’s character). It was interesting.”
Meanwhile, back in Corrales, Wagner’s Farmall and Schoenbach’s Twin City are preparing for more familiar roles in the 13th annual “Running of the Tractors.”
Schoenbach said the Corrales Tractor Club started in 2003 with five members, who owned eight tractors. Today the club has 65 members and about 50 tractors.
Schoenbach owns 13 antique tractors. A Corrales resident since 1990, he comes by his interest in tractors honestly. His father was a chief engineer and designer for Ford Motor Co. and designed Ford tractors in the 1950s. And Schoenbach made his living as a professional photographer who shot advertising photos for
Ford and General Motors.
In addition to his tractors, Schoenbach owns a 1965 red-and-white Ford Thunderbird convertible roadster, one of only 25 such models made in that year. The Thunderbird will be among the classic cars exhibited at the tractor show.
As part of a prominent Corrales farming family, Wagner grew up on tractors. In fact his Farmall Super C, despite its movie credits and show-tractor glamour, is still working fields. Wagner said his father, Gus, probably bought the Farmall in the 1940s.
“My dad has used Farmalls all his life,” Wagner said. “We have big John Deeres, but he always liked the Farmall. He would rather use the old tractors. I’m still using this (Farmall) for cultivating and fertilizing.”