by Nick Drew | Tue 04 Oct 2016
Classic muckshifting photos of C. A. Blackwell kit in action (Blog Re-Visited)
I came across some of these photos on one of the forums I frequent, so made contact with Alan Ross who had posted them, to see if he would share them with us here on the blog. I’m delighted to say he agreed to do so.
These action shots were taken in 1984 when Essex based C. A Blackwell (Contractors) Ltd were sub contracted to undertake all the earthworks in preparation for the building of the new Nissan car factory on a 799-acre (3.23 km2) greenfield site in Sunderland, Tyne & Wear. As one would expect from one of the UK’s most famous names in earthmoving, the company amassed an impressive array of machines to undertake the muckshift including many Caterpillar models and some rather obscure Komatsu WS23S motor scrapers, of which a dozen were bought and delivered new around that time.
Back in the day Komatsu dozers were chosen up to about 230kw, but above this power rating Caterpillar dozers were the preferred choice. In 1981 Blackwell became the first company to purchase a high drive D9L model like the one seen in this shot push loading a scraper assisted by a conventional drive D9H behind.
I especially like this shot showing a Caterpillar 641B single engine motor scraper which is seen discharging its load and looks to have become grounded. the machine looks to be getting a helping shove from a Caterpillar 824 sheep’s foot compactor. No concerns about emissions regulations back in those days as the 550 hp scraper engine belches out black smoke as it powers up! The Caterpillar 641 was first introduced in 1962 and was powered by an 8 cylinder Cat D346 engine. The machine had a heaped capacity of 38 cubic yards and was upgraded to B status in 1968. Apparently when Chris Blackwell one of the brother behind the successful company, first saw the launch of the 641 in the United States they didn’t think that the machine would be suitable for use in England. Such reservations changed a few years later when according to the chairman at the time, “the machine was modified in a number of ways”.
Here is another great image featuring one of the Komatsu WS23S motor scrapers in action. These scrapers were powered by a Cummins KT1150 engine with a power output of 438 hp. Not many of these 30 cubic yard heaped capacity scrapers made it to the UK, so it’s great to see these historic photos of them in action.
Motor scrapers were always a core feature of the Earls Colne based muckshifting company, but when the going got sticky the tractor and box became king and in this shot we see fine examples of Caterpillar D8’s and D9’s coupled to towed scraper boxes.
We thank Alan Ross of C.A. Blackwell Ltd for sharing these great photos with us here on the blog.