Plant man’s memories

Since the blogs inception way back in 2008 readers sending in their archive photos from the old days has always been popular, although this has slowed considerably in recent years due to Facebook and the like, I still get some interesting shots coming in from time to time and in this post I will share the latest ones to drop into my inbox.

William (Bill) Peters got in touch with the blog after reading one of the old posts featuring a photo of his old boss Les White at the controls of an International Drott 250 as seen below.

Bill said, “I just came across the photos of Les White on the Drott 250 and I must say that brought back some memories of the good times I had when I worked for them. I was not too keen on the 250 myself as it was rather cumbersome compared to the Cat 977. Over the years I ran many different machines for them, ranging from a tiny John Deere 1010 up to Cat D9’s & TD30’s to the Hough H400 loading shovel, it was one of the best companies I have ever worked for and I had some great times working away with some great chaps too”. Bill has sent in some old photos from those days and promises to send more.

The Hough H400 loader is seen loading some International Payhauler dumptrucks in these first two shots which were taken back in 1974 on a site in Kingsteignton in South Devon.

Not a great deal of detail on this next shot but apparently this was taken during construction of the Plympton Bypass in Plymouth. The Hough H400 is loading a Euclid dumptruck on this occasion.

In this last photo from Bill, we see a classic shot from this era as Bill’s workmates enjoy their lunch break, or as the call it down in these parts “Crib”, alfresco out in the sun back in the day when we actually had summers in the UK. How refreshing not to see a single piece of Hi-Viz on display!

I hope we will be blessed with some more of these photos over the coming months as I know they are very popular with readers, myself included. We thank Bill for sharing them with us.