Heavy plant man’s D9G memories

by Nick Drew | Tue 07 Jun 2016

Heavy plant man’s D9G memories

We were recently contacted by retired plant operator William (Bill) Peters who you may recall shared some of his old photos with us. Well Bill has kindly sent in a whole batch of classic plant photos now to share with the Digger Man Blog faithful over the coming months.

This first selection of grainy archive photos focus on the Caterpillar D9G that Bill was operating for Whites Plant way back in 1967, when they were working on the site of the old Plymouth gas works. Bill’s primary task was to rip the hard rock and shillet that is commonly found all around the famous naval city of Plymouth. Plymstock gas works circa 1967 004

In this shot the big D9G is pushing down a big slab of rock towards a waiting Priestman crane which I suspect might have been equipped with a demo ball for breaking up the rock. Old D9g Plymouth gas works circa 1967 006

Old D9g Plymouth gas works circa 1967 006

The iconic D9G was a legendary dozer and is still highly regarded as one of the greats of its kind among seasoned earthmoving men. I for one love the sight and the sound of them when they are in full flow! Plymstock gas works circa 1967 002

Bill has kindly offered to write a series of guest blogs about his time in the earthmoving plant and machinery game and from chatting to him I am sure it’s going to make very interesting reading. Bill said “I would like to tell a lot of the tales from back in those days when we really could shift a lot of muck, they seem to take ages to move dirt these days using dinky toy dumpers and swing shovels”. Old D9g Plymouth gas works circa 1967 008

Old D9g Plymouth gas works circa 1967 008

It will definitely be a series to look out for over the coming months.

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