as an excavator operator, have you ever dug up anything odd?

[Neversweat]

Working on a new extension for the hospital, here in Herne Bay, cleared the top soil and footings marked, i set up on the line, first bucket full no problem, second dig and in the bucket was loads of mortar shells, all the little fins sticking out of the muck in the bucket .. never seen the banksman run so fast before, mind you i was not close behind ...
Turns out that the land was used for training the local home guard in the second world war, the mortars were training mortars, so the bomb disposal guys said... even so all 29 of them made a big bang when they did a controled explosion on the beach

Martyn

DON'T PANIC MR MAINWARING

Steve

[Joes1989]

Ive never dug up anything like that personally but we were on a job where we kept finding roman pottery! Also on the job im on at the minute they found a time capsule from the 30's they think! I never saw it as it was dug up before i got there!

The guy that trained me on plant found a bag of gold coins whilst doing a road way for Stokeys in the 70's!

[Xilence]

Years ago during dredging some machine guns from the second world war at the port of Rotterdam.
I think they suspected that we could found something near the bridges, because the place were full of military police during dredging.
Further a couple old swords which we kept and other useful stuff and lots and lots bicycle's and mopeds.

[Tegian]

Sometime in what must have been the late 70is my father was working somewhere between Boden and Luleå in the far north of Sweden. The area is heavily fortified, supposed to be there the Red Army was to be held back in case of ww3. Either way .... My fathers work crew suddenly found they had cut a thick fibre optic cable that wasnt on any of their plans. Did not take to long before there was a military team on site telling them to mind their own business and look the other way while they fixed the cable

[LAROOSKY]

dug a anchor once was at felixstowe container port

[IBH]

Somebody once told me Felixstowe is full of old anchors!

[LAROOSKY]

yeah reakon you could be right never worked in such a cold place was in december working with the tide had the caravan on the beach no electric slept in the digger the one time i did stay in the van got wocken up with boat spotters wanting a cup of tea!!!!

[Hugh Jaleak]

Seen a few cables get a tug. Makes you jump when it happens... I was working in a transfer station, car breakers attached to it had overhead power cables going across bottom of the yard. Some muppet got in the MF 450D one morning and tracked down the yard, hit the cables and put the factory and garage down the road out.... Electricity Board turned up, looking for the culprits, guys denied knowing anything about it. However it had rained overnight, a pair of fresh track marks in the dust on the yard floor stopping under the lines sort of gave it away......

Gang putting in the ducts for the CATV near me managed to slice through a gas service and electric cable virtually simultaneously.... Bit of a bang followed by flames coming out the trench..... Another guy digging around a plastic gas service to expose it to allow the machine driver to dig round it, put a tine of his fork straight through it.....

Heard a tale of a chap set to work in the cemetery when I worked on the council. Left him digging a grave, he was told it was a reopener, under NO circumstances go deeper than 6' 6". Came back later he'd gone a bit mad, heap of rotten wood and bones on the side amongst the excavated soil......

Worst has gotta be the crew at Corby laying new water mains. Their mole went through a large water main closely followed by a large gas main, flooding the towns entire gas network. Took weeks to pump the water out the gas pipes and get the gas back on......

All ive managed to hit was a buried bottle of CO2 gas, caught the valve with the bucket. It shot off and half buried itself in a bank, such was the pressure it contained. Just glad no-one was in its path.....

[1djspikey]

great topic guys

i have dug up some old miners tools at work there was a pick old rusty tin hat like dads army style and also a couple of chisels they got taking away to head office cleaned and put in a display of other bits

[mjb1]

was cleaning an irrigation lagoon on a farm years back when i caught something metalic, managed to fish out an old fordson major that had dissapeared one night in the 70's, old chap looked a bit embarrassed as they'd reported it stolen, turns out it'd rolled across the yard & into the pond.
case closed