‘Devil tractor’ jolted to life by lightning strike

The 60-year-old Massey Ferguson, which is used for farm maintenance jobs, had gained a reputation for being difficult to start.

So Guernsey farmers Horace and James Camp were more than a little surprised when its engine suddenly started on two separate occasions minutes after a thunderstorm earlier this month.

The tractor – nicknamed the Devil because it once set fire to a field – has now attracted the attention of a research scientist from the University of Manchester who wants to replicate the phenomenon in a laboratory.

James, a writer, was checking a roof for leaks when he noticed the tractor had its engine running.

‘I went out to turn the engine off. Luckily we don’t ever leave it in gear, so it wasn’t going anywhere. We have builders in at the moment so at first I thought one of them had started it for some reason.

‘I’ve been looking for quirky local stories for inspiration lately, but you couldn’t even make this one up,’ he said.

Later his father, Horace, heard the tractor start up for the second time after the builders had left the property.

Dr Vidyadhar Peesapati, a knowledge transfer research fellow in the University of Manchester’s Electrical Energy and Power Systems Group, says he wants to recreate the switch-on.

And he says there have been other examples of tractor engines starting following a lightning strike. ‘I was approached by a farmer from Devon who says this has happened before. In that instance the tractor was in gear and crashed into a shed when it self-started, and a successful insurance claim was made.’

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