by Nick Drew | Mon 11 Jun 2018
Digger’s day out at the Royal Cornwall Show (Part One)
Having missed out last year due to a clash of work commitments at the Hillhead Show, I was delighted to be able to return to the Royal Cornwall Show, the annual gathering of the Cornish community which takes place at its spiritual home at the showground in Wadebridge, where there is always plenty of plant and machinery to look at.
A warm and friendly welcome always awaits us at the CBL Plant Sales stand and this year was no different. There was plenty to see on CBL’s enlarged stand, especially for those who are fans of the “red & grey” Takeuchi brand. The undoubted star on display was the recently launched 15 tonne class TB2150R fixed boom variant, which as I expected is gaining fans up and down the country, so much so that the Japanese manufacturer is working flat out to keep up with demand! The example on display had been sold to Cornish based Bond Hire & Sales and sported the company’s newly designed corporate logo.
Also new in the red & grey is the 2.5 tonne TB225 which features an expandable track frame and is designed to meet legal requirements for towing. The unit on display had been sold to Liskeard based Steve Hoskin Construction (SHC) and was complete with the latest Ifor Williams 3.5 tonne plant trailer.
Thwaites dumpers were well represented on the stand with a number displaying the local customers corporate colour paintwork. CBL have gained a reputation for being able to offer this custom paintwork option which really makes the kit stand out on sites across Cornwall and Devon. This Thwaites 9 tonne forward tipping dumper was sporting the colours of Helston and Exeter based MJL Group.
Also sporting the red & white of the MJL Group was this Bomag BMP 8500 vibratory trench compactor. This stunning piece of kit was also awarded a Royal Cornwall Show competition machine award by the judging panel.
Heading on down to the Molson Group stand and I was greeted by a sea of turquoise blue Kobelco excavators! The stand was jam packed with machines, with the majority of them heading straight off to their customers from the showground. One example was this SK75 SR fitted with Geith fully automatic quick hitch that was destined for Liskeard based Champion Groundworks.
Nestling in among a batch of Hyundai kit was Royal Cornwall Show regular Harold Thomas’s new HX130LCR machine. This compact radius 13 tonne class machine, which requires no AdBlue, will be officially launched in the UK at the forthcoming Hillhead show in a couple of weeks’ time, but Earthmovers will be getting an exclusive look around this machine tomorrow, so look out for the report in the magazine.
Molson have recently added the Hydrema dumptruck range to its ever-expanding product portfolio and had a couple of the Danish manufacturers models on stand including the latest version of its ever popular 10 tonne offering the 912F.
Look out for another couple of Royal Cornwall Show highlights blog posts on this great event later this week.