It would be hard for any heavy equipment open house to compete with the number of machines on display at Fulton Owensby’s Open House held on Sept. 18. Of course, Owensby’s equipment is scaled down to mostly equipment models; but impressive nonetheless.

Seriously collecting since 1968, but accumulating models for more than 40 years, Owensby likes to invite contractors and mechanics who are customers of his company, State Line Machinery, Wilmington, DE; and antique equipment and model afficianados; to view his collection. He holds these open houses several times a year to share his eye-popping collection with others.

His collection, he said, has more than 2,000 construction and agricultural models, several hundred watch fobs, thousands of pieces of sales literature and many more photos of equipment in action.

Featured in the basement of his home and in the barn, Owensby also has such things as tractor-themed curtains; rugs; blankets; tie clips and pins, most of which are no longer in production; and pedal tractors sporting equipment manufacturers’ logos. If it has something to do with construction or agricultural equipment, odds are Owensby has it.

On a mantle in the basement, he even has an original papier mache figure of The Pep Boys: Manny, Moe and Jack, from the mid-30s. The figure was given to Owensby in 1992 by Robert Gregory, who repainted and repaired it. It was built by Frederick Wineburg and Associates, a Philadelphia, PA-based display company.

In his barn Owensby has actual models of antique machinery, including an early-to mid-40s HG Cletrac Hillside model; a two-ton tractor, which in 1927 was priced at $1,850; a Terratrac GT25 dozer from 1950; a 1944 Clark Airborn tractor; and a McCormick-Deering TracTractor 2TO from around 1932. The barn also houses a sparkling blue ’59 Edsel, a orange antique Chevy truck, antique gas pumps and oil cans.

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