Komatsu

[widget]

Hi all,
Been digging through the bits ive been given recently by a work colleague who retired, this is from his archives of Bradshaw Hire Plant.
This wonderful old photo intrigued me because of the tracks fitted on the machine, can anyone shed any light on them as i am not familiar with them

[jcb4cx]

apex tracks , swamp tracks ,for that extra floating ability

[tctractors]

The Komatsu 60P LGP tractor was in its day some weapon, the pad style as already stated is the Apex self cleaning style pad, fancy pads cost fancy coins so this tractor would get a top Hire rate and work on specific jobs only, Komatsu sold many of these tractors into a greedy market for wide spread dozers, now every CAT Hi-drive you see is near always LGP of this size tractor.


p.s. Never accept Travellers Cheques from a Pikey???

tctractors

[widget]

Thanks for the replies guys,

I thought they may be low ground pressure or something, and they do look expensive. Another stupid question.... Were they solid??


Bradshaws did lots of work on various jobs where this type of track would be used, i remember my brother telling me about the work they used to do out on the fen marshes and various sea defense jobs, lakes and rivers etc.

Komatsu must of made their mark on the company as they seemed to favor them over other machines, though they did run other makes of tractors.

Heres a photo of a few years later, a new Komatsu tractors ready to go out on its first job

[tctractors]

widget, there is or was a Bradshaw depot close to me in Tewkesbury that I have/did some work for??? they seemed very focused on Rail line crap so not realy my sort of thing, as I hate all the time wasting and life wasting away aspect of this type of work, it might pay well but I struggle to want to waste my life or whats left of it putting up with the supid nonsense that Rail Work involves, its just not my style.

tctractors

p.s. The older I get, the better I was???

[rdnicholls]

Hi all, I remember these with swamp dozer wrote on the side,sounded nice too and left a distinctive mark on the ground..

[jcb4cx]

i know where there is a carcass of a kommie swampy , will be off for scrap soon by all accounts
may have a picture somewhere

[widget]

widget, there is or was a Bradshaw depot close to me in Tewkesbury that I have/did some work for??? they seemed very focused on Rail line crap so not realy my sort of thing, as I hate all the time wasting and life wasting away aspect of this type of work, it might pay well but I struggle to want to waste my life or whats left of it putting up with the supid nonsense that Rail Work involves, its just not my style.

tctractors

p.s. The older I get, the better I was???

Hi Tony,
As far as im aware, John Bradshaw only ever ran the plant out of Cambridgeshire, unless they had a large job where they would set up a yard close to the job. I know they had a fair amount of work in Scotland at one point and had a Depot near Inverness for a while.

The Plant hire side of the company finally closed in the mid 90's as it was no longer viable, but its various other ventures are still trading, one being manufacturing where i am employed

[JimInOz]

Here's a pic of APEX Plates on a Furukawa CD5 Dozer.
I love the gentle sound the Apex tracks make ,especially on softer ground.

The D60 Dozers were popular on farms out here.

Jim

[widget]

Thanks for the info Jim, your pic makes it all clear