by Nick Drew | Thu 13 Oct 2016
Quarryman’s plant photo archives (Part One)
Regular Digger Man Blog and Earthmovers Magazine reader Alan Angilley has kindly sent in some archive plant photos from his father, Austen Angilley’s, collection of shots taken during his time working in the China Clay pits in Cornwall and at Foster Yeoman’s quarry in Somerset.
Some of these photos are a bit grainy and some are slightly blurred, but I think we can allow them that considering the age of them and in a way I always think it adds a bit of nostalgia to period shots such as these. First up in this batch we see a photo of a Caterpillar 773 dumptruck that Austen had from new when he went to work for Western Excavating at what was formerly known as ECC (English China Clay) back in the days before it was purchased by French company Imerys.
In this shot we see the same Cat 773 heading off up one of the ramps at the pit sometime later in its life, looking at the exhaust staining on the skip body.
The old Magirus Deutz 230 6 x 6 on/off road tipper was a popular choice in the quarry industries back in the mid to late 1960’s.
Quite a strong dumptruck theme in this old collection of photos and here is another make that is no longer around anymore is the Heathfield. The company itself was founded in the mid 1960’s with manufacture of its core products taking place in the unlikely venue of Newton Abbot in Devon. They had a chequered history with a number of different owners before finally being bought by South African ADT manufacturer Bell in 1998 when shortly after the company was shut down.
Not all dumptrucks in this collection though, as we see here a Massy Ferguson MF450 hydraulic excavator. A popular and fast excavator in its day the MF450 was based on the Italian Beltrami range which MF had purchased in 1968.
Finally in this batch how about this for a busy site photo, plenty of digging and ripping action going on here with a selection of machines and trucks at work in the background and what looks like a fairly new Komatsu D355 dozer in the foreground of the shot!
We thank Alan and his father Austen for sharing these photos with us here on the Digger Man Blog.