Sad End to an Old Friend

Internet and video sensation and the man behind Awesome Earthmovers Chris Maginnis recently shared some more photos of the old Hymac 580D that I used to operate back home in Hampshire.

It’s often quite interesting to see how far the old machines travel once they have finished their working lives in England, its not uncommon to see old relics from the UK all across Europe and even Africa and parts of Asia. Its been well documented that I spent the best part of 9 years operating this Hymac 580D for the then Hampshire based Swanwick Construction. She was one of the 870 examples of this model built between 1980 to 1986 and was from the IBH Era of Hymac ownership.

I done a lot of work with this venerable old machine back in those days and despite having the carrot dangled about a new machine on numerous occasions, I remained on it until 1995, when the owner eventually purchased a much smaller Komatsu PC95/FAI 410 machine. A year later I left the firm as I relocated to Northampton for a year. As I understand it the old Hymac remained on the firm but was no longer in regular daily use, it was resigned to loading a topsoil screener I believe.

Photo: Digger Man Blog Archives.

Some years ago now Chris spotted the old girl lying in James Wightman’s breakers yard in Ballynahinch in Northern Ireland, at that time she was still a runner, but sadly as these photos show she is now resigned to being a donor machine, helping to keep the dwindling numbers of surviving machines going, it’s a very sad scene to look at.

Peering into the old cab here, I keep getting flashbacks about the many jobs we worked on and even recall how I used to heat up sausage rolls and pies by unscrewing the heater vent under the seat and placing the items in there so they would be piping hot for the 10am snack break!

They were much simpler times and lot happier too in those days. In the meantime, the old machine will continue to gradually disappear as it is cannibalised for the benefit of others in the field, a sad end to a dear old friend.  

The Digger Man Blog would like to thank Chris for these latest photos.