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2212 Sullivan Trail Forks Township Pa. 18040 610-258-2963 |
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Another hobby is collecting and restoring old lawnmowers. I started by going to farm auctions and buying any old mower that was less than $10.00. I had a collection of Wheel Horse tractors already and the mowers were added because they were cheap. When the collection started getting out of hand I decided to limit my collection to Toro Equipment.
We sold Toro from 1948 until 2007.
Wheel Horse has it’s own serious collectors so I eventually sold all of my Wheel Horse tractors and implements to make room for more Toro.
2014 was Toro’s 100th anniversary and during the year I learned more about Toro Equipment from the Toro people and they learned some from me.
1920’s and 30’s
The Green mower is a Toro putting green mower from 1927 it had only one purpose and that is to cut golf greens at 3/8” or less. The Silver Flash is about the same vintage except this was Toro’s first mower made for the homeowner.
I do have a Toro Tennis court roller in my collection currently it is awaiting restoration however we did have it running this summer. The Green Mower is a park special the Park Special is one of Toro’s first walk behind mowers for the estate and municipal market. The Roller and the Park special are most likely pre war this is defined by the Toro made engine. About 1950 Toro changed the color or the equipment from Green to red.
Youtube link to the Toro Roller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2XEIpfxbgY
Post war 1940’s and early 1950’s Estate & Municipal Mowers
The Toro Professional and the Toro Park special started production during the pre war years and continued into the 1960’s. These 2 early 1950’s mowers no longer have the green color or Toro Engines. These were very popular for a very long time.
A new mower is needed for the Suburbs
The Homelawn was introduced in the mid 1930’s as Toro’s first power mower designed for the homeowner. It was expensive and heavy and once war production started the tooling was packed away. Like Most manufactures once war production ended Toro picked up where they left off. Toro use primarily Briggs and Stratton engines however Briggs had labor issues and long strikes would halt production. This 1949 model used a Continental engine. Continental an airplane engine manufactory was a minor player in post war lawn equipment engines. These is a very rare mower however when I needed parts to repair the engine we had them in our parts department.
Toro Sportlawn
From the Homelawn Toro introduced the Sportlawn in 1950. This was an important step if Toro was going to manufacture mowers for the growing suburban market. It was much lighter than the Homelawn with aluminum manufacturing techniques perfected during World War II. The Sportlawn’s were manufactured until the early 1970’s this mower was manufactured in 1953.
Toro Starlawn and Pony
The Toro Starlawn was a cross between the Commercial Park Special and the homeowner Sportlawn. In strength and cost the 27” Starlawn was closer to the 30” Park special the mowing and power unit was configured 3 ways. It could be purchased as a walk behind mower, or a Walk behind mower that had a the option of a rear mounted sulky style seat of as the pony rider with a front mounted seat. The Walk behind Starlawn sold for $400.00 in 1958 the Riding Pony was just $30.00 more
Check out more mower pictures on Flickr
My collection has outgrown this single page I am working on a new site.
If you have questions on old Toro’s call me or send an e-mail |
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Old Lawn Mowers |
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Please contact us if you don’t find what you are looking for 2212 Sullivan Trail Forks Township Pa. 18040-7901 Phone: 610-258-2963 Fax: 610-258-3973 |
