Classic plant rides again at veteran displays

Sun 31 Aug 2014

Classic plant rides again at veteran displays

The Great Dorset Steam Fair is one of the biggest events of its kind in the UK and every year they have an amazing display of classic plant being put to work in its own area of the massive field. This year the display was larger than ever apparently, with some stunning examples of kit in action. I have to confess, I have never attended the event, which is madness considering it’s not that far for me to travel, I just get put off by the traffic chaos that I hear the area suffers from during the five day event. Jamie took this shot of one of the all-time Caterpillar classics the D8H 22A with rope controlled blade configuration.

Next up is a fine restoration of the JCB 110B. When first launched as the 110 in 1971 these hydrostatically driven, rear mounted engine machines were way ahead of their time. This 1.25 cubic yard machine was later joined in the range by the 112 and the largest model the 2 cubic yard 114 in the mid 1970’s. However it was a short production run for these machines as they were phased out in 1979 as many turned away from tracked loading shovels. Also of note in the background is the Hymac 580C hydraulic excavator.

Finally from the Dorset Steam Fair, we see another Cat classic in the form of SE Davis & Sons D6 with hydraulic blade and rear mounted winch. It’s amazing how small these machines look now compared to the current D6 models. The ultimate star of the show must be SE Davis’s big Cat D9G which has been wowing the crowds during its display periods, belching out that familiar black smoke when powering up!

Moving on to Tom Athertons working day event now which was held at Tom's place in Warrington. One of the big attractions here was the big Caterpillar 983B. Initially launched as the 983 in 1969 these machines were the largest tracked loading shovel ever produced by Caterpillar. It was upgraded to B series status in 1978 but the machines suffered from reliability issues and were discontinued in 1982.

Cat kit so often dominates at these events and in this shot we see a great display of Cat power as a D8H pulling a Cat 435G scraper box gets a helping hand from another D8H behind.

It was not all yellow paint at this event though, as we see here Tom Atherton’s very own International T-D 18 dozer. Incredibly these machines were first introduced as far back as 1938 and were upgraded many times until the model was discontinued in 1958.

Finally in this batch of shots from Jamie, one of the most famous draglines of all-time the Ruston Bucyrus 22RB. Once a standard machine on sites up and down the country either as a crane, dragline or operating with a clamshell grab, these machines took a lot of skill and hard graft to operate.

We thank Jamie for sharing these photos with the Digger Man Blog.

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