To start the Marshall a smouldering piece of special paper, containing saltpeter, is inserted into the cylinder head by means of the special screw-in holder in the cylinder head. The engine is then turned over with a starting handle placed in the starting dog on the flywheel. This is aided by the decompression valve, which decompresses the engine for anything up to 6 revolutions (generally 3 revolutions is sufficient - a spiral groove on the perimeter of the flywheel is used to determine the number of revolutions and position before top dead center where the decompressor mechanism disengages and permits compression) to allow the flywheel to gain speed and inertia to turn the engine through compression, and get the engine to fire. Depending on the condition and mood of individual tractors, it is possible to get a thorough workout starting the Marshall.

Com : Szai : Now days, when everything is digital and in the cloud, can't smell, touch or feel, nice to see an old clunker, noisy, smelly hunk of steel of tracktor moving around. Reminds me of the movie Logan's run, an old man appears at the end of the movie,  young people never seen one before, 'cause they had to die at 33. Here the tracktor is the old man.

Com : Thnazi : I don't understand how you get that engine running (I mean, the process; not that I thought it wasn't going to start). But HOW it started. Man, I've never seen an engine fire up so fast and flawless like this one