Larry Webb’s German Adventure (#FlashbackFriday)

Our German friend, machine operator and photo journalist Dirk Bömer, has been in touch again with another batch of previously unseen photos featuring a job undertaken by long gone English earthmoving contractor Larry Webb.

There is not that much historical information to go with these photos, but I will try to do my best to pad it out, either way, the photos which were taken back in the 1970’s by highly respected photographer H.H. Cohrs are awesome and not in need of many words, and I’m sure fans of heavy machinery from the past will appreciate them.

Photo: An early morning refuelling session for a TS24 motor scraper.

The late Larry Webb himself had previously had an illustrious military career as a Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot, however, with his military time served incredibly, he went on to own the St Albans, Herts based earthmoving business that bore his name.

In the 70’s he was one of the largest contractors in the game, working on some of the biggest projects across the UK. Perhaps most notably, they undertook the massive job of blasting out the cliffs on the M5 route around Avonmouth which is still a stunning landscape spectacle to this day.

These photos depict the company’s undertaking of a massive job in Germany, which was a rail project near the Northern city of Lübeck. Larry Webb deployed a large number of his motor scrapers which included Terex/Euclid, but most notably Caterpillar 627’s with the Cat push pull concept, of which he was a very early adopter, having done his research on them during a visit to America.

However, according to Dirk, this project did not go well for Larry Webb and was actually described as a financial disaster for the business, and it was quickly a case of Auf Wiedersehen Pet, as they headed for home.

My understanding is that Dirk is planning to write up the full story for a potential feature in Earthmovers Magazine at some point during the winter when he has more time, I for one look forward to reading that one!