Doug Hamilton’s machine memories (Part One)

by Nick Drew | Mon 13 May 2019

Doug Hamilton’s machine memories (Part One)

When used properly the internet is a wonderful place to share material and keep in touch with friends both current and from the past.

I was absolutely delighted to be involved in reuniting two old plant men recently thanks to our Memory of the Month series of blogs featuring the photos and memoirs of Bill Peters. Bill’s ex work colleague Doug Hamilton had read the posts at his home in Vancouver Island, Canada and contacted me to find out how he could get in touch with Bill here in Devon, UK. I put them back in touch with each other and from what I hear its been a great experience for them both, reminiscing about the “good old days” and recalling their adventures together. This has inspired Doug to contact me further, with a desire to share some of his photos and memories from his days in the plant game, which I am delighted to produce in this new series. Doug has sent me a lot of classic old photos but they are not chronologically listed so I have my work cut out, but I will do my best to sort them! Regular readers of this blog may recall that in Bill’s Memory of the Month series he talked about his time working on the Plympton Bypass around 1969/70. In this first shot Doug is seen backing his 30-tonne capacity International Payhauler 100 rigid dumptruck under the awaiting bucket of Bill’s Hough 400 loading shovel.

Doug comments, “Its really scary to think that all this was happening some 49 years ago! Although I have had nothing to do with plant since I moved to Vancouver Island 30 years ago, it stays in your blood forever!” As mentioned in one of the early posts featuring Bill, the Hough 400 was something of a celebrity locally in those days. It was a large shovel back in then and was featured in the local newspaper as this old cutting shows.

In this shot Bill is seen in action with the Hough 400 loading a more modern International 180 Payhauler a four-wheel-drive 45-tonne class rigid hauler. These machines were said to be very good in soft ground conditions.

During a visit to the then International dealer Cripps yard in Nottingham Doug spotted another brand-new Hough 400, which he was surprised to see, as there were not that many around back then. Doug wondered if the machine was destined to go abroad.

Finally, in this instalment on his way up to London one day Doug and his mates spotted this Hough D500 Paydozer parked on the side of the road and like most people with a genuine interest in plant they had to stop and have a look around her.

The Hough D500 was a bit of a beast and in those days was International's largest wheeled dozer. It tipped the scales at 64 tonnes and was powered by a 600hp diesel engine. Lookout for part two of this series over the coming weeks.

The magazine for owners + operators

Digger Man Blog

Doug Hamilton’s machine memories (Part One)

Loads more

Behind the Scenes with the JCB Dancing Diggers

Gravis Robotics Autonomy Here and Now!

Hidromek Goes from Strength to Strength

Subscribe to Earthmovers