by Nick Drew | Fri 20 Oct 2017
“Rubber Duck” look back
Wheeled excavators, or as they are affectionately known in the UK “rubber ducks” are always an interesting topic, so I thought we would round off this week with this post looking back at wheeled excavators from the past.
Many of the photos in this post are now owned by myself, having purchased them from well know plant & machinery author Hinton Sheryn some years ago. As such some of you may have come across them before. We start this look back with a Poclain TP model which was taken in 1956. This machine was one of Poclain’s first self-propelled excavators and was a natural progression from its earlier truck mounted TL models.
Continuing with the Poclain theme and one of the company’s most famous models the TY45. The bizarre looking machine was first introduced into the Poclain range in 1961. This machine was powered by a Deutz air cooled engine, and was driven by its rear wheels at the back of a triangular frame, with two small steering wheels mounted to the fore. Incredibly this machine was global success and was marketed in over 120 countries. Mark Gunns who now works for Volvo, used to work for Poclain back in the day and he told us a bit about these machines Mark said, “When I worked for Poclain starting in 1974 the TY45 was the real bread and butter machine and we churned these out in large numbers to scrap yards and coal merchants. Almost all were sold with the straight mono boom, grab arm then either a re-handling grab (for coal) or 5 tyne scrap grab or 5kw magnet. If supplied with a magnet we would fit a belt driven generator - the kit and plate being supplied by Bernands in Sheffield. A lot were also supplied on solid wheels and every machine had to undergo chassis re-inforcement (because the French didn't believe they needed it!). The small workshop at the Wraysbury new machine yard, was constantly thick with smoke from the welding - up to three machines on the go at one time”.
Regular Digger Man Blog reader Rob Atkins, was once working on a job which involved cleaning out and widening a lagoon on a farm close to the small town of Market Weighton, in East Yorkshire. Whilst on the job, Rob spotted this old Atlas 1302E “Rubber Duck” hiding behind some trees.
According to the serial plate, this machine was built by Atlas Weyhausen in Germany during 1987 and weighs in at just over 16 tonnes. The farmer who owns the machine told Rob that it has not been used for at least 5 years, but a glimpse inside the cab might suggest that it has been rather longer than that.
One from the Liebherr stable now in the form of this A900 Litronic machine which is seen with a specially adapted long reach set up and reed rake, at work for the Witham Third District Drainage Board. This was back in the days when rivers and canals were cleaned on a regular basis, something that has been neglected over recent years as we have all witnessed during the recent floods.
I spent around a year on this Caterpillar 212BFT which was a badged German built Eder model for James King Plant of Northampton, with a TAB boom and tilting ditcher it was a great machine for a wide variety of jobs, I certainly enjoyed my time on it.
Finally in this batch this British built Hymac 610 is rusting away in peace on the glorious island of Cyprus and I think you will agree its a fine example just crying out for someone to restore her to her former glory.
I for one would be more than happy to see out my days on the island of Cyprus!