This late 1940s color promotional film for Allis-Chalmers provides a look at the industrial machinery company’s latest HD5 model crawler tractor, using demonstrations from around the country to show its versatility in a variety of agricultural, logging, and construction applications (TRT 16:26).
Opening titles: “Seeing is Believing, presented by Allis-Chalmers Tractor Division” (0:08). An excavator dumps dirt into a pickup truck. A continuous track vehicle pushes logs uphill. The Model HD5 is introduced, moving snow, soil, and lime (0:28). Plowing through a heavy snowfall in a rural field (1:19). The base model HD5 tractor is displayed on a rotating base. Half of the engine is exposed, revealing its inner workings (1:30). Closeup on the tractor’s diesel engine (1:42). Closeup on a piston moving up and down. The clutch assembly in a cutaway (2:02). The transmission, gear shift assembly, and steering clutches (2:40). The truck frame (3:15). Testing the tractor in harsh, muddy conditions. A montage of prototypes driving obstacle courses and hauling heavy loads (3:31). Construction site excavation. Exterior: “Contra Costa Agency,” a California Fruit Exchange warehouse (4:17). Backfilling and leveling. Loading gravel into a truck (4:58). Using the HD5 as a bulldozer to knock down a tree on the campus of Northwestern University (5:46). Shoveling snow in a downtown rural suburb (6:22). A “B-Type” Snowshovel is shown plowing snow on a road. Another HD5 uses a chain to tow a tree trunk through thickly wooded terrain (6:51). A winch is used to drag lumber in the building of a ski lodge. Logging work in the Pacific Northwest as well as the south (7:40). In Wisconsin, an HD5 uses a skid loader attachment to transport large stacks of lumber (9:14). Narration: “Even a lady operator can handle a 5 without difficulty.” Closeup on a smiling woman in the driver’s seat of a tractor (10:05). A trailer drags tree-length logs. The tractor crawls through deep mud, showing off (10:13). Hauling and installing a pipeline in Illinois (11:11). Shoveling gravel into a trench in Washington. Another does the same for a waterway in San Francisco (11:31). The HD5 works on a Los Angeles streetcar line, with a garage of streetcars in the background (12:02). Working in a city dump piled high with trash. Driving through a Chicago sewer line under construction (12:32). Organizing heaps of coal for a Chicago railroad (13:04). Building a road at an asphalt plant, hauling gravel and pushing a truck (13:27). An HD5 pulls a scraper, spreading soil (14:00). Digging an irrigation ditch in the south. Stockpiling coal (14:22). Working in concert with an AD series grader. Montage of previous scenes. Narration: “Amaze yourself as others have been amazed…” (15:01). “The End” (16:12).
Allis-Chalmers was founded in 1901 in West Allis, Wisconsin, and remained in operation until 1999. The Allis-Chalmers HD5 made its debut in 1946. By the end of its 1955 production run, over 25,000 models had been produced.
