Something for the old hands.

[dozeron]

Remembered this photo I had of a company in NZ that ran a fleet of machines on stripping overburden at an open-cast coalmine. This was possibly taken in the 1950s. The company was W Stevenson & Sons. There is a great book published about this job.
Its called Kopuku, Caterpillar, Stevenson & Goughs, Partners in Progress. A great book full of action photos.

[d4c24a]

great pic dozeron ,i have that bbok and yes there are some great pictures in it

[Holger]

Wow! This is encredible! What a huge amount of machines!

[Nick Drew]

Great pic Dozeron,

Are those 666 Cat scrapers in the front ?? or an earlier model

Nick

[dozeron]

Hi All.
Nick, those scrapers at the front of the shot are Cat DW20s. The two axle units at the rear are DW21s. There could be a couple of DW15s thrown in and maybe two DW10s, one of which I ended up owning the tractor unit after it was split and the bowl converted into a towed scraper (box) behind a D6 or D7. These scrapers ran for many years before gradually being complimented with the likes of Cat 630s, 627s & 637s. As a child it was like heaven when my dad took me to visit the job back in the 1950s.
dozeron.

[Nick Drew]

Wow, must of been great times spent with your Father at the jobsite, reminded me of the time I spent with my Dad on the Motorway jobs in England in the 70s , I never got to see Scrapers that big or in those numbers though!!

The earthmoving contractor on the M27 south coast motorway was M.C. Peirce ....Mickey Peirce to his friends, biggest he ran were Cat 627s and Terex TS24s, I always wanted to run a scraper but never got the chance, not likely to now as scrapers are rarely seen in the UK

Other kit on that job included ...

Cat D6C
Cat D9G
Cat D8H - 463 Box
Graders from Champion & Aveling Barford
Case 1150
Hymac 580C
JCB 5C

[Rolyd8k]

Hi Nick,just read this post about Mickey Peirce,we had a D6C on hire to him
back in 1974-5 on the Huntingdon by-pass,Peter Dalton was his plant manager
but had two of his own D8Hs & boxes on hire as well and later went on to
starting his own company,Dalton Contracts Ltd,working at the southern end
of the job were peirces own TS24s and 631s and a D9G pusher,at the northern
end of the job at what used to be alconbury motel there was four or five 657s
from Roadworks,story was they owed mickey some money so to balance the books
they came in and stripped the topsoil back down to spittals interchange,i remember
peirces D9G running along trimming batters and cutting the flanges off his bottom
rollers ,i pulled the machine off the job after 20 weeks and not getting paid
the bill got to £5000,it got to within 24 hrs before the ballifs seized his D9 and they paid
up + a 10% credit charge,they begged me to go back on hire but no way,instead went
on hire to R B Tyler carving the new road out from Spittals to Brampton,just as well i did as Mickey went bust a couple months later,i,ll post some pictures later under scrapers.

[John Gaunt]

Hi Roly, Not wantoing to hijack this thread, but were Dalton Contracts based at Setch in Norfolk ? It's just up the road from me, and I do seem to remember a contractor (other than Kier that is) on that industrial estate. What happened to them as I don't think they are there now.

John.

[Rolyd8k]

Hi John,yes thats the same firm,i bought my first D8 from them back in
the early 80s, Dalton contracts went bust in the late 80s or early 90s and
he started up again as Monohaul Ltd ,a few years on he took the muck on
the Spalding by-pass where he went under again for the last time.
RB