Story of the exhibit

The tractor was built by Harri-Koit Lahek, alias Harris (24 January 1946 – 15 April 2024). Besides his interest in photography and film equipment, and having come into contact with mechanical engineering in his university years, he also wanted to try his hand at building a tractor. There was also a practical need, as the family had bought a summer house plot in Laulasmaa where a vegetable garden gradually had to be created. Harris built the tractor in a small garage and workshop in Liiva, in the Nõmme district of Tallinn. He searched for and bought the parts he needed himself, but was also helped by his machinery-minded neighbour Endel, who had some special parts turned at a metalworking plant. Harris also designed and built the necessary attachments for the tractor: a cart and a plough. The tractor was used to haul building materials along the streets by the railway in the nearby area of Nõmme, and it also helped to cart away larger amounts of garden waste. The tractor could be taken in a car trailer wherever it was needed. Harris worked with the tractor mostly in Laulasmaa, where it was used to clear the plot of larger field stones. A lot of work was also done with it in the vegetable garden. Harris's son Martin has a fond memory of how the tractor came about. When new front wheels were bought for it – they were made for small vehicles in the USSR – Martin somehow got the idea that they were bought for his future buggy, which he believed was going to be built for him one day. Still, Martin's disappointment wasn't great when he saw his father fitting them to the tractor he was building.