by Nick Drew | Fri 23 Aug 2019
Excavator Specialist Spots Old Broyt on Holiday
Veronique Kennerson is a Product Specialist with French manufacturer Mecalac and it would appear, that like many of us, if we are on holiday and spot a piece of ageing machinery, we cannot resist the temptation to get the camera out for a few shots!
On a recent trip to Iceland Veronique spotted this old Norwegian built Broyt X2B and just had to go and take a closer look. It must be really interesting when you work for a modern forward thinking manufacturer like Mecalac, who build incredibly stylish and innovative products, to suddenly be confronted with an old piece of hydraulic excavator history like the Norwegian built Broyt, which were pretty basic in design and even had no driving wheels to move around on, instead relying on its own digging arm to pull or push itself around the job site.
The X2 was first launched in 1958 and was followed by the X3 in 1964, however the model that Veronique discovered was marked up as an X2B, one of three upgrades to the standard model that followed along with the X2M and X2T models that were fitted with the Perkins 6.354 diesel engines. Production of these machines continued into the early 1970’s.
Veronique noticed that there is not much in the way of operator friendly ergonomics inside the cab, but did observe that a cabin heater was fitted, a pretty essential item of equipment when working in some of the Nordic regions where these machines would have been a common sight!
This example looks to have been stood for some time, but a quick search on You Tube and I came across another X2B model that is being put to good use by an enthusiast.
We would like to thank Veronique for the use of her photos contained within this blog post.