Finnish Finds

Anyone who knows me really well, will tell you that I have a bit of a rubber neck for spotting construction machinery lurking behind hedges, when driving or in this case being driven, by my great Finnish friend Esa Suominen.

On Sunday 8^th, Esa was giving me a tour of some amazing beauty spots in Finland, but while making our way back towards Turku to meet up with Olli Paivio, at a place called Lokalathi, we spotted a collection of restored classic tractors and some in the process of being restored.

However, nestling in amongst the tractors were 3 items of construction equipment that had caught my eye and sparked my “digger geek” interest.

The owner of this collection of machines was a retired contractor and engineer Mr Ääritalo, who spoke no English, but welcomed us to take a good look around, for which I was very grateful.

First up was this fine example of the venerable, British manufactured Ford 550 back hoe loader. These machines were based on the Ford 1000 series tractor unit, and were powered by a 3-cylinder 56hp (42kw) Ford diesel engine. They were well known for their solid no thrills build quality and reliability.

Next up was this old and rather weary looking Caterpillar D7D, which according to its owner had spent much of its working life in or around the town of Uusikaupunki, in South West Finland.

Although looking a bit rough, the machine is still a runner, and will hopefully be restored in due course.

We asked our friend David Willis at the Link Club for a definitive identification of the machine, and he tells us that serial number 17A14679 would have been built in 1960, production of the D7D stopped in 1961 when the D7E was introduced.

The D7D was first introduced in 1959 at 17A11981 up. The D7D was turbocharged which increased the drawbar hp to 112 (102 hp in the D7C), along with a new type of dry air filter and a pressure lubricated gearbox.

We saved the most interesting till last, as it was certainly something I had never seen before.

The 1966 model Porkkala 5000 front end loader, was built in Finland by Porkkalan Konepaja Oy in Masala, and this example had the serial number 1215.

These machines, which were based on the Ford 5000 tractor unit, are said to be extremely rare these days and it was great to see this one fully restored and in full working order.

All credit for the work that goes on at this place must go to Mr Ääritalo who I was delighted to catch on camera with his Porkkala 5000.

The Digger Man Blog would like to thank him for his time on the day, and for showing us around his collection.

I came across a very short video clip of one of these Porkkala 5000 machines still in use today courtesy of Janne Heikkinen.