KELSTON SPARKES

[tctractors]

At the moment bigkit, I have been working solid on a Nooteboom trailer that although its going to Quatar with a load, its realy for the owners truck collection being hooked up to a Scania 140 LBS, but on Monday I am heading down to a place called Laycock to take in a few "Jewels" plus I have just copped a job of rebuilding a D7 3T for a Farmer, in his words " I dont want any paint up crap, just fix er up proper to go to work with this ear drainer" so it would seem the "Firm" is flat out
blowing it on tctractors.

p.s. getting up early to pull off the front head on a 22A, then back to the Nooteboom rebuild.

[dicky]

i didnt know brookhouse bought the d9h,will have to do some more research as the company im on for has been converting base d9h tractors into sidebooms for him.we have done four so far and the fifth one is going through the workshops now.(small world)

[jcb4cx]

i didnt know brookhouse bought the d9h,will have to do some more research as the company im on for has been converting base d9h tractors into sidebooms for him.we have done four so far and the fifth one is going through the workshops now.(small world)

i think i spoke to the firm you work for at Newbury show i happened to mention the D9 there as i had been talking to TC earlier in the year about it
any chance of some pictures

cheers graham

[tctractors]

Kelstons, D9H had the highest serial No in the U.K. we dropped it off at his yard at Bidford, the daftest thing is I used to do a load of work for a man called Phil Strange (Pipeline Equipment Services) my regular job would be to convert Sidebooms to Blade or Scraper tractors as the pipeline side was going slow, the other crap job was swapping out those Donkey engines to Direct Electric start, lots of his Iron was Ex William Press kit, I am suprised to hear that Brookhouse Eng' is letting work out, as things seemed tightly clamped in by his workshop manager, I did spot some odd points on some of their D8-9's that made my eyes water a bit.

[dicky]

will try and sort some pix out asap.
i knew phil strange ,he also done some work for incat,i did a short stint in equatorial guinea for them (nightmare)
cliff chapman also use to buy the odd d8 off phil strange and i can remember my old man working on them all those years back out the back off the golf course on the m4/m5 interchange.i also know what you mean about converting donkey engine to direct electric as i had to do a few 631a and b motor scrapers for cliff chapman before they went off to do the northleach bypass
as far as im aware brookhouse hasnt converted any 9s ,we have done them all,apart from the ones converted in the states.not sure about the 8s tho

[tctractors]

Dicky, I never had any involvment with Incat, but had some great times with Paddy and Phil, I also copped a few jobs from the Chapman Massive, down near the M5 M32 area, I met a mechanic when working on a pipeline at Patchways called Brian, he was on site to patch up a 955 for a man called Frank Durston who was on hire to us, he often seemed to be around the Chapman sites, he brought a load of parts to me to sort a F/Drive on a D8H, later on I used to have regular dealings with Brian on tracked shovel parts, he had a bolt hole at Rangeworthy and we used to get on a blinder, Roger Brookhouse has over 300 sidebooms, plus a little army of fitters, so I would think the few bangers he has thrown your way would be like grains of sand, I was offered a bit of work from him, but the job never gelled into owt' in his yard there was containers full of draw works and a mountain of A frames, I am sure he has converted plenty of D8K's and D9G/H's into pipe layers, just as a mater of interest do you work for A. Reed, if so I have met a lad called Paul Adams that swung about there.

tctractors

[nick lamb]

I believe ks will be getting quite abit of work at Hinkley Point.Are they tied up with Walters?
P.S T.C. got a welder civilising the D5 blade up today and he's going back tomorrow to weld up the dent left by scrapers on the D8.No pics as too busy to go down myself as yard is nicely busy.

[dicky]

hey tony what a small world the mechanic called brian is my old man (god bless him) he used to do work for durston plant when bob patch (there own fitter) was a bit pushed, brian also use to do work for ivor and cliff chapman.he then went on for john moore tractors from stafford working out of bristol minerals yard at rangeworthy,this is where i first started work.
im now in my 22nd year at arthur reeds,we have done shed loads of work for mr brookhouse off and on esp lineboring pipebooms.
i know mr paul (peacho) adams very well,he done a stint at reeds.

heres before and after pics of d9h=m594 no4

[tctractors]

Dicky, I also did a few jobs via P.Strange for a contractor from around your Parish called Roger ??? his yard was his Farm and to say he lived "wild" would be under stating the deal, he wore glasses and seemed to have a never ending supply of fancy cars (Jag's Aston Martins etc) the cars were all full of High Stepping Ladys in Hot Pants, I was changing some blade rams over on a D6C that phil had sold him, your Dad (Brian) was there working on a shovel, a car full of " Pub Ugly's" turned up with the leather gloves on asking me and your dad directions to Rodger in rather rude words, we shrugged our sholders just pointing towards the Farm building, as soon as they moved away from us this Rodger chap flew past us on a push bike peddling like hell,both your dad and myself stood mouth open like dummy's, after about 5 min's the chariot with the "Pub Ugly's" crawled past, I did think they would need to get er' flying to catch up with the speed of the push bike?? another thing I remember was your dad and I both wore motorcycle style wax jackets with 4 pockets to the front, also both hated wearing overalls, I have posted photos of the D9 on another forum site some time ago.

Blowing it on tctractors

p.s. that Rodger might have been Jerry, I am crap on names???

[dicky]

tc,i cant think for the life of me who that roger/jerry guy is. i will ask around and see if i can dig anything up