Waterloo, IA: John Deere/Waterloo Boy Engine and Tractor Plants

Museum: (Satellite)

Driver Train Operations: (Satellite)

Service Parts Operations: (Satellite)

Waterloo Boy started by making stationary engines. (I originally wrote "gasolene engines," but the early engines ran on kerosene. Fortunately, I caught my mistake.)

9:41 video @ 1:43 via Dennis DeBruler

As tractors were being developed at the interesting turn of the century, Waterloo Boy mounted their engines on frames and wheels to also make tractors. The tractor in the foreground has their original livery. They changed to green and yellow when John Deere assumed control of the company in 1918.

Tim Rohde posted via Dennis DeBruler

John Deere's original designs for tractors failed, so they bought Waterloo Boy to fill what had become a serious hole in their product line. And to this day, John Deere tractors are made in this town. However, the manufacturing plants have changed a lot.

Viral Media posted

1944 John Deere Waterloo Works

For comparison to the modern facility, this is a historical aerial view taken in 1944. Operations in Waterloo began in 1918 building “Waterloo Boy” tractors. It was under a different name because Deere & Company bought out the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co. They continued manufacturing the popular "Waterloo Boy" tractor under that brand name until 1923 when John Deere came out with the John Deere Model D. In 1927, John Deere came out with its first harvester. This is how the John Deere Tractor Company came to be located in Waterloo, Iowa. The photo from 1944 shows a large network of buildings, railroad lines and roads. Photo from the State Historical Society of Iowa, 1944.

The History of John Deere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoFqUccdIHQ

The buildings in the photo above are in black on this map; and the purple buildings, and canal, are today's Drivetrain Operations, Service Parts Operations, and Foundry Operations. (I hope they filled in that floodplain before they built on it.)

They have grown to have several other locations around town.

Satellite

John Weeks posted six photos with the comment:

I have been through Waterloo, IA, dozens of times, and have driven past the huge John Deere Waterloo Works plant each time, but never stopped at the museum before.  While I am a big Oliver fan and not that interested in John Deere, it was still fun to see the JD stuff in person.

While John Deere green is one of the most recognizable colors in the world, JD was actually 20 years late to the farm tractor party. When JD tried to develop a tractor, those efforts failed, so JD ended up buying a company called Waterloo Boy to get into the tractor business. Waterloo Boy made a reliable two cylinder gas tractor that was practical for smaller farms.

JD stuck with this 2 cylinder technology for 40 years, decades after other tractor companies developed inline and V engines. By 1960, JD tractors were 20+ years obsolete the day they were built, but what they lacked in technology and efficiency was made up for in reliability.

JD developed a more modern tractor series in the late 1950s, releasing their New Generation tractor line in 1960. These were modern looking as well as having modern inline engines that were much more efficient. JD went on to make this series with incremental improvements for more than 30 years. They are the JD tractors that I like seeing at shows and working on farms — not the antique stuff or the new computerized stuff, but rather, the classic late 50s design that came to market in the early 60s.

1
Entrance to the museum. That is a New Generation series 4010 diesel narrow front parked by the door. Classic looking late 50s design.

1

2
A Waterloo Boy tractor. They were made from 1914 until 1923. This would be an earlier model before John Deere bought the company in 1918. Rubber wheels were uncommon back then, and rubber was in short supply due to the war.

3
This is the engine on the Waterloo Boy. It has 2 large diameter cylinders. You can see the spark plugs on the top of the cylinders. Valves were on the cylinder heads, driven by external push rods that came out of the crankcase. This is a hit and miss design, it only fires when the RPM drops. The flywheel keeps the engine turning when the cylinders are not firing. That is what gives JD 2 cylinder tractors that distinctive put-put popping sound.

4
While everyone likes tractors, I am more interested in implements. You so seldom see implements in museums. This is a corn picker. It cuts the corn stalks, bundles them, and ties them with twine. It is fascinating to look at since all of the mechanism is external and visible.

5
This is my favorite of the New Generation tractors, a 4010 diesel with wide front end. This model was made in the early 1960s.

6
When I walked into the museum, they handed me a time card and tried to put me to work. 😀 I had to sneak out the back to avoid becoming a permanent employee. The again, given the dramatic increases in health insurance, maybe I shouldn’t have been so fast to turn them down.

This is the video specified above in Viral Meida's comments. A history of John Deere tractors from 1918 to 2018. As I expected, the history skips the early years when they tried, but failed, to develop their own tractors. I wonder if they introduced their quad-track tractor 17 years after CaseIH introduced them because that is when patents expire.

4:21 video @ 4:07

Three of their Waterloo locations offer 90-minute riding tours for free. [Deere_tours]

The Tractor Operations assembles 7, 8, and 9 Series tractors. [SilosAndSmokestacks]