SHORT BROTHERS PLANT HIRWAUN,ABERDARE

[Holger]

Great pics! Thanks a lot!

[Ian Fletcher1970]

Thanks for posting a great set of pictures John - Are there any more to come?
Thanks

Ian

[flatman001]

A few more from the Short's brochures



URL of the original image: http://i55.tinypic.com/24zc12p.jpg

NCK Eiger 110 ton

URL of the original image: http://i53.tinypic.com/23js9yx.jpg

RB-22

URL of the original image: http://i55.tinypic.com/2h3y8w2.jpg

Newport Depot near Jcn 28 M4

URL of the original image: http://i56.tinypic.com/2agn4v4.jpg

[flatman001]

From 1960/70s Brochures


URL of the original image: http://i56.tinypic.com/2mmv1bo.jpg



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Ford 180 Backacters

URL of the original image: http://i52.tinypic.com/ff96za.jpg



URL of the original image: http://i53.tinypic.com/14djct5.jpg



URL of the original image: http://i56.tinypic.com/2u9ih4k.jpg



URL of the original image: http://i52.tinypic.com/30scz1x.jpg


From 1960's Brochure

URL of the original image: http://i53.tinypic.com/258xy7b.jpg

From late 1970's/80's Brochure

URL of the original image: http://i53.tinypic.com/2nkmb00.jpg

[FOWLER MAN]

Hi John,
Thank you for this post.
I knew Vernon and Gabe Short and find this very interesting. Their sales business in South Wales was run from the Swansea and Newport depots. I bought a Ford 550 digger from them in about 1978, I also had Liner dumpers and mixers which they suplied.
I still have one of the 5/3.5 mixers in the yard, it has a Petters PAZ1 engine and dates from 1977. It is still in working order.
Fred

[martyn williams]

Great photos John,any more ?
The site of the Newport depot is now overgrown,the 22RB photo looks like its at the smokeless fuels plant at Mountain Ash.
Martyn

[flatman001]

These few focus on the transport side of the business


URL of the original image: http://i52.tinypic.com/2815vsw.jpg



URL of the original image: http://i56.tinypic.com/29go7lv.jpg



URL of the original image: http://i55.tinypic.com/6ok6yw.jpg



URL of the original image: http://i55.tinypic.com/k4a0au.jpg



URL of the original image: http://i53.tinypic.com/2vlmqyt.jpg

[martyn williams]

The first photo was at the Newport depot,just an overgrown wasteland now.I can remember seeing that Foden on the road a fair bit.
Thanks for posting those photos, any more ?
Martyn

[gah1950]

hello flatman.
thanks for sharing the photos on shorts,the one with the 61RB leaving the newport yard is particularly good.As things are today that type of weight would probably need at least nine axles,but in those days if it fitted on the trailer away you went. .
regards graham.

[MGI]

I remember doing a job topsoil stripping & reinstatement a few years back up in Yorkshire, it was a 48" steel pipeline for Yorkshire Water, AMEC were the main contractors and we subbed the strip & replace off them. The job started right next to Selby golf club and we were the first company to start using any sort of regimental plant (the fencers only had a couple of tractors and trailors and a fence post basher) It was at the time of the miners strike and the plant hire compamies in the area were in a desperate position. We hired the D8 equivalent Komatsu which was a 455 or something similar, it weighed in at 55 tons with the blade. It was absolutely brand new, the tracks were still yellow and the manager of Short Bros Barnsley depot came out with the machine to give us the once over. He was a big bloke (not fat - just big) He was ramrod straight and very direct we started calling him the Major, he seemed ex military. Strange thing was, his son was driving the machine and he was just the opposite to his old man, covered from head to foot in tattoos, skin headed, huge boots with external steel toecaps and ear rings. his trousers finished about a foot off his ankles! We christened him 'Tokyo Joe' The fitter told us he was the 'hardest' bloke in Barnsley and used to fight pikeys for money! Having said that he was a good operator and when we moved on we took him with us (on our own Cat 245) We got the Komatsu for £15.00 an hour when the going rate had been double that prior to the strike! The job went all the way to the other side of Barnsley and we had to strip a mile a day! Trouble was we kept catching up with the fencers! We had two 360's with blades pulling the first section out, then we had three D6's pushing the spoil as far as they effectively could and then we had Tokyo Joe shoving the rest of the way, one of the D6 drivers was bald and we called him 'Harry the Haircut'. He was another driver we took with us when we moved to the next job (Oxford)) Another later addition to the squad was a diminutive guy who stayed with us for years, we called him 'Danger mouse' he was always on about the fights he got into (all 5'5'' of him). Fantastic crack on that job!