Classic German Plant on Display

Our German friend and industry colleague Dirk Bömer is back with another series of images from his collection of historical machinery shots, these of which were originally shot by his friend Reinhard Gerdes.

Dirk has most recently gained the nickname of the “German Nick Drew” by the fact that like myself, he has found himself in the world of media & journalism having spent most of his life as a machine operator, which as I understand it, he is still doing to this day, although in a familiar tale, the journalism side is picking up more and more.

Dirk is also a mega construction machinery enthusiast and has been from a young age, not interested in any sport or other hobbies, machinery has been his life long hobby, and as such he has vast knowledge of the topic.

The photos he has shared with us here were taken at an annual convention of historic plant in Germany.  

The initial photo at the top of this blog post features the O&K (Orenstein & Koppell) LO51, built in the 1950’s the machine, was powered by an original O&K manufactured 2-cylinder diesel engine.

The Krupp-Dolberg D201 was manufactured in the early 1960’s and once again features a 2-cylinder diesel engine, this time from the Deutz stable. These 2-cylinder engines appear to have been popular in machines from that era.

Another machine from the O&K portfolio in the 1960’s was the O&K 7, which featured a tractor style undercarriage system.

Shifting to the 1980’s now with this 15-tonne class Atlas 1302 E hydraulic excavator, typically German in design and control pattern, these machines found favour with many contractors back in the day. The company are still building machines to this day, and recently were seen exhibiting at Bauma.

Another popular machine back in the 1980’s was the Hanomag 55C, these machines were powered by an in-house built Hanomag engine, and were commonly seen on sites in the UK in those days.

We round off this collection with a Faun-Frisch F85A six-wheel drive motor grader, a brand that was extremely popular in Germany back in the day. The brand was eventually gobbled up by O&K in 1986, and the graders range was effectively sold under the O&K banner.

We thank Dirk for sharing these classic machine images.

I came across this video of a similar O&K model, this time in dragline configuration, in action at a Dutch working day event.