Red E Tractors

[WHX?? 48,763]

Tom @Shynon mention he had one Not much out there on them. 

Rob @oldiron613 or anyone care to school us? They look somewhat seniorish. Guessing a Wisconsin motor? 

Appears later models had hoods. 

[WHNJ701 4,165]

I don't know much about them, used to to know a few people that had them.  There seemed to be a strong following for them if you could find one and parts.  Be interested to see what gets posted

[squonk 41,020]

Red E part of the EPCO line. Economy, Power King, Jim Dandy, Power Queen. L & G Magazine did a series on the entire line up

[ebinmaine 67,266]

I hadn't heard of them until fairly recently when @Stepney Spenser informed me of what's going just said. Super neat looking old rigs. 

[oldiron613 583]

My "other" favorite line of historically significant, early tractors!  

 

Jim Turner created Engineering Products Co (EPCO) in 1946 with his wife, Dorthy Welbourne initially manufacutring his Economy garden tractors in Milwaukee which by 1951, turned into multiple "brands" of tractors sold though a varitey of sale channels. (ie: Power King, Country Squire, National, etc...) Like many manufactures in this timeframe, alot of recycled automotive and suprlus parts were used. 

 

His father in-law, Everette Welbourne owned Pioneer Mfg (Page and Red E brands) which is where Jim started his engineering career and met his wife (the boss's daughter) before deciding to go out on his own after spending his time in the Army durring WW2. Pioneer and EPCO however didn't compete directly with oneanother in that Pioneer mainly sold hand held and walk behind equipment where EPCO only sold riding tractors targetted towards truck farms/vegitable gardens. 

 

By the late 1940's, the popularity of these small tractors gained so that Welbourne decided they needed to add a riding model to their product line and from the basis of a Red E walk-behind tractor, they created their first riding tractor, a model 14 which was really a terribly designed tractor by all standards and didn't last long. Figuring that their son in-law already has a proven line of well built tractors with a whole fleet of attachments, and Turner wanted to expand his sales network, there might be a win-win solution for both companies. From 1951 - 1957 Red E sold the model 15A tractor, which was a rebadged Economy painted the Red E red/black color scheme as their own sold through Red E dealers. Outside of the color scheme, decals and the name on the ID Plate, they were identical to Economy/Power King branded tractors. Serial numbers were sequencial too, so following a Red E badged tractor on the production line could have been another Red E, or an Economy, Power King, Jim Dandy, etc. This is why it's impossible to confirm how many Red E variations they actually built. 

 

The earlier EPCO made Red E's like the one pictured from 1951-1955 used the Wisconsin AEN engine (similar to the WH Ride Away Senior) while the 1956-1957 models were identical, except using the Briggs & Stratton 23FB engine instead. Currently only about (45) total Red E badeged EPCO tractors are known making them a relatively rare tractor to find these days. 

 

As I understood it, there was a bit of family friction between Turner/Welbournes that resulted in Pioneer going back to the drawing board and offering their own linup of riding tractors in 1958. That unforunatly though wasn't for the better as the EPCO tractors were much better built than what Pioneer replaced them with which ultimately led to the end of Page/Pioneer tractors over the next few years. 

 

As mentioned above, I authored a series of ariticles published in Lawn & Garden Tractor Magazine on the EPCO line of tractors called the "EPCO Files". The Red E article is in the Nov/Dec, 2018 issue. 

 

Rob

Edited October 6, 2020 by oldiron613

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Regular walking Wikipedia Rob is.