by Nick Drew | Thu 12 Mar 2015
Reader goes plant spotting in Kenya
Never mind going looking for elephants, lions and giraffes in the Maasai Mara, when long time plant operator/supervisor and blog reader Nigel Mogg recently visited his favourite country he was out and about with his phone looking for plant photos to share with us on the blog.
During this trip Nigel met up with a bunch of young Kenyan lads who were waiting with the plant to go out on hire. Nigel explained that these lads were all aged between 25-30 years old and were really keen to talk about the machinery with an enthusiasm that was almost infectious. Nigel said, “If our younger lads were this keen back in the UK we wouldn’t be struggling to find operators”
Nigel went back to this plant yard area the next day and was kind enough to share some of his old copies of Earthmovers Magazine with the Kenyan” young guns”, much to their delight. The lads were keen to see Nigel take to the controls of something and apparently Nigel was offered a “start” out there operating either a Cat hydraulic excavator or a D6R dozer.
African countries have always been a hotbed for used equipment from around the globe, like this American version of the 4CX, the 214 S which is a centre mount backhoe model.
Another machine that is almost certain to have been manufactured here in the UK is this Cat 438C backhoe loader, which I would imagine once rolled off the Caterpillar production line in Desford, Leicestershire.
Quite often machines that are considered well past their sell by date in the UK, are given a new lease of life in these countries and a look at this line up confirms that.
Nigel is likely to be re-visiting Kenya again in the future so we look forward to seeing more of his holiday machine snaps here on the Digger Man Blog.