I'm worried, stuck, broke and pretty far, but I want it!!!!

[kenmoreguy89]

Hi ya'll, doing my weekly scan into vintage offerings  I came across something simply STUNNING!

What's that? Well...it's something you will not find  so easily in a lifetime...
Ie A Castor TL agitator (Multimatic), one of the first italian  made agitator washers and  that first came out in Italy, soon replaced by the german automatic front loaders style generally..
See my older discussions and history of washers in this country....

Couldn't believe it, really, I got blood on my head my  eye bulbs just came out....
I'd have already sent a deposit if it weren't that;
Seller won't accept bank transfer, postal, moneyt gram, doesn't have paypal...just cash at collect.
For some odd reasons doesn't want to have a courrier picking it up even if I organize everything...afraid for ignote reasons..
I can't drive to pick it up as our truck is under a long repair and Dad's Mercedes ML (the only other car in which it will fit, that we have)  is in Milan at the airport  as he left for spain for 2 weks and has keys with him...but could have a "friend" more like a simple acquintance actually,  picking it up for me the machine, at worse...but it's people I am pretty embarassed to ask this favour to...
I am afraid to get a lemon, seller states that when turned on the machine makes noise though agitator won't budge, so... it may a belt as  it may be the  transmission, and lord knows how impossible it would be find one...and I am really not into trannies rebuilding..
This makes it even more frustrating...

Though I want it, at least see it in person,  but I know someone more lucky than me will come first to this....sure...I am tied up...the damn seller won't accept anything else than cash at collect, no deposit nor anything..not sure if clumsy or just an a..hole

So what to do...pray for me folks, pray I will be able to drive down to Bergamo and see this beauty in person to check  whethere it's the belt or else, and pick this lady up and find a lovely home where to spend the rest of her life.....or at least mine in  this country.,.I am sure my family though would take care of her as she deserves...
P:S
I am damn broke also at the moment....but for this beauty I'd rather get a loan.

 

[this post was last edited: 10/6/2014-15:07]

 

[DADoES]

 
Looks very interesting ...

 

[zenith82]

Hope you're able to get it!

 

[Unimatic1140]

Wow, that's a beautiful washer! Hope you can get it Freddy!

 

[turquoisedude]

Very cool machine, Freddy.  I hope you can get it, also!

 

[cornutt]

Kind of reminds me of the designs of some Italian guitars of that era.

 

[philr]

Very interesting machine Freddy! What does Castor mean in Italian? In French, it means Beaver!

 

[a440]

Goodness Freddy! I hope your eyeballs and head are ok!
Very interesting and beautiful machine.
Go with your gut feeling though. Either you can do it or you can't.
I hope it works out for the best!
Let us know.

 

[washdaddy]

That is an interesting looking machine. If it's meant to be it will happen. Hope everything works out for you so that you're able to get it.

 

[mayken4now]

WOW

What a nice machine. I've never seen such. Hope you can get it.

 

[gansky1]

It is a great looking machine, what a neat find.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Thank you guys  for all the kind words. I appreciate them. Love you!

I will drive to the place this weekend with my sister's  Ford Fiesta  (mine, a beaten up VW polo from 1994  is not reliable for a trip this long), as I cannot before since I work.
It's an almost 4 hrs drive back and forth, I will check underneath hopefully to spot a broken belt and not else...will check it out and  I 'll see to  give the seller a deposit, as to show I am really interested in buying it and will ask to hold it until I can arrange an actual pick up...
That's the only thing I can do at the moment....
If the seller would accept a money transfer  by distance that would make it all easier, as I could do the deposit right now....but he won't.
I am also hopeful it will be still available for this weekend....it's such a beauty to pass unnoticed...
In this moment I am having lots of other expenses also, and am quite broke... but I cannot pass it...I want it and would look great in my new laundry room, can't stop thinking about...
I hate being stuck like this.... but If it's meant to be it will be...I'll do what I can....
Though I cannot even get an ulcer because of this.....
So I need to take it easy...

Yes, Beaver is Castoro in Italian, Castor though miss the final O,  the company was founded in 1955 near Turin, By Francesco Casarin, an immigrate from Veneto, the name infact stand for Cas which the initial for the surname of the founder and Tor, for Torino, the city where it was founded.
Castor started initially to make semi-automatic washers that used the vertical basket and the baffles, like the Drean machines from Argentina as to speak, but they were rough in style,  and  very few  liked this washing action,  so after a few years in 1957,  they started making agitator automatics, this machine should be from 1957....
And they made agitator washers for some years...

Castor was sold to Zanussi in 1969, though by that time they didn't make agitator washers anymore....
This is  still the original Castor.....

 

[philr]

Thanks for the info Freddy! 

 

[kenmoreguy89]

You're welcome, there're very little informations on the models castor made before the 60s,  this was because the company got sold "early" (infact is Zanussi made machines like Rex and so forth people thinks while mentioning Castor) and the buyers (Zanussi) didn't keep record of what was done before, and   this is also because it's in the 60s Italy had it's economic miracle and they started massive advertising, you find lots of older adverts of when it was already Zanussi but not of Original Castor....
Italy was knelt  by the war and German Nazi occupation, and It's surprising that in spite of everything someone,  and especially, an immigrant from Veneto (that back then was a very poor Region)  could start a washing machine and appliance factory in those years this quickly...
And speakling of history I always want to stress the fact that the economic miracle and regrowth and welfare of this country have been possible thanks to the American Helps, of which many Italians seems to forget too often.....
Here is how one of the early Castor  semi-automatics looks like,  it was manual fill only and it had an heater,  I suppose that the agitator washer had one too,  infact I spot just one fill hose in that picture, am surprised to see it still hookep up, it looks like it's been her spot till now ... maybe a vacant home?
I didn't want to sound morbid to the seller...didn't ask the history, but I will.
I cannot imagine if they used it to wash until now what their electric bill would be, as history teach, it resulted unsustainable speaking of elecricity pricing back then already in this country and even more than elsewhere in Europe, today,  the average italian with an average 1000 euros paycheck would need  to get a mortgage :


[this post was last edited: 10/8/2014-06:54]

 

[jetcone]

How interesting

I hope you swing it for the whole club !!
Undalay undalay

It's very stylish !!

 

[electron1100]

Aching Heart

I wish you all the best in getting this wonderful and interesting washer.
Gary

 

[hippiedoll]

so what happened kenmoreguy89???

did you go see this castor washing machine?
if so, how did it look?
was it just a broken belt?
does it seem fixable?
are you going to get it?
was the seller willing to take a deposit & hold the washer for you because he sees that you seriously are interested in this washer???

i'm wondering if you got this castor washing machine??? and hoping the best for you!!!

)

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Christina & all.

Thank you...No, I didn't manage to go look it up, Granma had some health issues and she was hospitalized Friday10th  evening, neigbhor called us as she found her fainted in the garage ... and she was brought to the hospital (she got a bad blood leak in the guts, cause of the angiodysplasia of which she suffered before also,  and derived  anemia), so I didn't mamnage to go there....
She needed an urgent transfusion and successive surgery , and being both my dad and aunt away in that moment me and my sister had to take care of her and visit her in the hospital in the next town and stay near to her...
Had been busy.....
Ad has been removed, and it's gone, I am so sad for it...though  of course my granma is more important... she should be dismissed Friday....she had her surgery and it went allright, gonna check this eveining, my sister is there now, she says she looks better it's just still stoned by the surgery....

 

About the machine:
It  simply wasn't meant to be, you know when you have a feeling, I was right.... I hope that who has took it will take care of it and at least post a video of it working...
I just had this feeling...you know...it all started badly....

 

I knew it.....
I wrote to Diomede (vivalavatrice) last Thursday to let him know of this machine, he already knew and offered me to go up to see it togheter in the weekend, but that was the same for me, I wrote him because in case he could go up to see it before me it was better  than nothing, he's a member here and it would have been "in the family".
Gotta confess of course  I wanted  it badly for me...but I just  had this strong feeling someone else was going to grab it faster than me, given the rarity, and surely would have been someone far, and more near to the place where it was than me...  so...I decided to write him because he's a good guy,  he's not jealous of his machines at all, actually he shares all of his beauties with everyone, infact, he opened a Vintage laundromat up in Racconigi where he puts all of his machines for public use...
So if he were able to go pick it up before me I could see it and use it anyway and I knew it would have been treated as she deserves.....even though not being "mine".... if someone else was meant to have it I preferred to be him.....

Anyway..... it  all means it  just wasn't meant to be.... and as said I already felt it...
You can't just have everything you want...
Thank you all for the interest..

[this post was last edited: 10/22/2014-08:14]

 

[washdaddy]

So sorry to hear that it didn't end up working out in the end for you. Would have definitely been an interesting machine to see up and running once you had obtained it. But hopefully whoever received the machine will get it back up and restore it to it's former glory and share it for other people to see.

As far as your Grandma is concerned...Truly..yes she is of course more important and it's great news to hear that her surgery went well. I'm sure you'll be thankful when she is released and back home resting and able to recover at home with the care and the love of family.