Danish plant man discovers a British classic (Blog Post Re-Visited)

Fellow plant operator and the man behind the highly successful Danish Construction Channel, Lasse Holst, has been out and about with his camera and discovered a backhoe loader whose roots are distinctly British.

During a recent vacation, Lasse Holst ventured out on a road trip in search of some plant classics in his native Denmark. In an old lime quarry he came across a number of classic plant items, amongst them was this early 1970’s Hymack/Whitlock 570, standing in a shed covered in lime dust, but according to a member of the workforce, the machine is still a runner and is occasionally put to work around the site.

There were three models in the Hymac/Whitlock range, which they manufactured during the company’s Powell Duffryn era, consisting of the 270, 370 and the 570 seen here, which featured a larger and more powerful engine. Hymac had actually taken over Whitlock in 1972, however it is said that Whitlock had been manufacturing backhoe loaders since the mid 1950’s. These machines however, spent most of their time living in the shadow of the hugely successful JCB models, which were available at the time.

I used to think they looked incredibly cumbersome, with a cab so big one could almost hold a small party inside! They did have a strong following from certain customers though, especially those devoted to the Hymac hydraulic excavator range. In this promotional shot we see how a 370 model would have looked as new back in the day.

We thank Lasse for sharing these photos with us here on the Digger Man Blog.