by Nick Drew | Mon 23 Mar 2015
Hymac 880 at work once more on a UK site
My good friend and Hymac aficionado Jeremy Rowland, author of the Illustrated History of Hymac, had followed the progress of a restoration of a Hymac 880 which culminated with the fully restored machine going out onto a UK site for a test dig.
This particular machine is owned and has been lovingly restored by Paul McGuigan, who purchased it from Sweden where it had spent most of its working life, as did many Hymac’s back in the glory days of the British company. In fact the Scandinavian market was a very successful one for Hymac sales in those days with most exported machines being built to a much improved Scandinavian specification. According to Jeremy’s incredibly informative book, around 135 Hymac 880’s were manufactured during a production period ranging from 1968-1972 before the model was upgraded to C series status. This promotional shot shows an 880 at work in all its glory.
The machine in the footage was formerly owned by Conny Kolsjo in Sweden, a contractor and keen member of plant & machinery forums. Originally powered by Volvo engines, this 880 example has been retro-fitted with a Cummins V8-185 unit by Paul. He has also fitted a long dipper arm to replicate the example of this model that his father once used to operate. The following video footage was shot by Jeremy last year, when the machine finally returned to a UK site for a test drive. It looks very slow when compared to today’s modern equipment but in their day these machines were highly regarded. It’s perhaps somewhat ironic that in the background there are examples of Japanese kit working, early examples of which back in the day were partially responsible for the demise of Hymac.
[youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=797ESTCbAxQ[/youtube]
The Digger Man Blog thanks Jeremy Rowland for this video footage.