Old Hymac 'Duck' still Putting in a Shift #FlashbackFriday

Back in the glory days, the venerable British built Hymac was the king of excavators before the Japanese and Koreans appeared on the scene. However, many of these old machines are still out there working on farms and self build projects around the world, in the video below we see an old Hymac 610 which is still working to this day.

Wheeled excavators have always been something of a niche market in the UK, unlike central Europe where they are used a lot more and in many different applications, but I am noticing a rise in “rubber ducks” as we affectionately know them in this country. 

However back in the 1960’s & 70’s the Hymac was the king of excavators in the UK with its popular 580 tracked model, its wheeled variant was the Hymac 610 was built from 1965 to 1970 during which time 263 were manufactured, many of these old machines went on to work in scrap yards around the country and some can still be found to this day.

This video shows one of those 263 still working somewhere abroad. They were not the fastest of machines either, incredibly only able to travel at 12 mph, but in the dig they are still better than a 1 RB!