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Doug Hamilton’s machine memories (Part Five)

Fri 14 Jun 2019

Doug Hamilton’s machine memories (Part Five)

I have been overwhelmed by the messages from readers who are enjoying this latest series looking back on an ex-plant man’s life and I am sure Doug will be delighted to know that too. This post features a few more photos from Doug’s time with Larry Webb working on the M3 close to Chertsey in Surrey around 1972, once again there has not been much information on them so I’ll do my best to set the scene. Early morning starts just as the sun was rising were common on the motorway projects, in this shot we see a line up of trucks including Cat 769’s and international 180 Payhaulers along with what looks like a solitary AEC 6x6. Everyone loved posing for the camera next to the Caterpillar 637’s, impressive machines when parked up in terms of size and even more impressive when running at full pelt down the haul road! Helping keep control of the dust kicked up from the dumptrucks and motor scrapers was this water bowser scraper conversion which Larry Webb used on the jobs. Doug writes that he always had his camera with him back in those days, how many of us wish we had done the same! In this shot the lads are posing for another shot, this time in front of one of Larry Webbs O&K RH25 face shovels, I wonder if anyone recognises the lads in this shot, if so we’d love to hear from you. This O&K RH25 looks like it has had a bit of a paint job, or the “old 5-gallon overhaul” as it was sometimes called. Finally in this batch, another fella to identify proudly stood here next to his mount, which looks like a Caterpillar D6C, any ideas? Lookout for more plant memories from Doug next week.

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