Heading east out of Edmonton, Alberta, on Highway 21, the lights of the gas towers recede in your rear-view mirror. Soon the highway is just a single lane of asphalt in each direction. Under a wide, open sky, fields of grain and pasture stretch out to an indeterminate horizon, blotted by the dust clouds of a distant, working combine. Pull off the slim ribbon of highway on to a gravel Range Road and all you can hear is the creak and clonk of an occasional Lufkin pump (those ‘nodding donkey’ oil pumps still a familiar sight in the Mid-West) and the rustle of tall grass in the breeze. Welcome to the Canadian Prairies!
The story of the ’57 Ford Custom started the day Andrew Scott took that road out of Edmonton, to move into the tiny rural town of Holden. Unloading his heirloom ’62 Mercury Comet, a new neighbour dropped by to say hello. Ralph was 40 years Andrew’s senior, but the two men struck up a firm friendship united in their love for old cars. Andrew was 30 at the time, a motor mechanic and
