Get your hands on a rare piece of Hymac history

Sun 08 Sep 2013

Get your hands on a rare piece of Hymac history

The machine in question is a 15 tonne class, Hymac 1501 hydraulic excavator, which along with the smaller 1301, was one of the famous company’s last developments during the final phase of the its history, when it was owned by Irish plant dealership John Kennedy, who had taken over the business following the collapse of the Brown Group in 1991. This example, which is currently available for sale in Bruce Atfields yard near Crawley, is one of only six that were ever made according to leading Hymac historian and plant enthusiast Jeremy Rowland.

It really was a tragedy that this machine didn’t get much of a foothold in the UK market, as by all accounts it was a pretty good piece of kit. Officially launched in 1992 the machine was powered by a Perkins engine, and also featured the top class German, Linde Synchron, load sensing hydraulic system. If memory serves me right I was due to test drive one of these models at the 1992 SED show in Milton Keynes, but sadly the machine on the demo plot had developed a fault on the day I attended, so I never actually got a chance to operate one of them.

At the time I was still operating a Hymac 580D for Swanwick Construction, and our local Hymac parts and sales business Solent Plant Services (SPS) which was owned by Chris Page, a man with a wealth of knowledge about Hymac’s, was trying to sell my boss a new 1301 machine to replace the ageing 580D, but sadly that never came to fruition either.

The new model venture came to an abrupt end in 1993, with just a handful of these new models making it out into the market place. Sadly the overpowering presence of machines from Japan and Korea proved too much to bear and the famous British brand was lost for good. There are still many examples at work around the globe though, with keen enthusiasts keeping the “Hymac” flame alive.

For those of you who are interested in the famous Hymac brand, a great new book is now available to advance order online. The Illustrated History of Hymac is written by my good friend Jeremy Rowland, who has an astounding in depth knowledge of the company, and has been a keen enthusiast since he was a young boy operating the machines in his local scrap yard. You can find out more about Jeremy’s new book by clicking on the link above. We would also like to thank our mystery digger spotter for sharing these photos with the Digger Man Blog.

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