Balfours at Dunblane

[DaveS]

Starting the soil strip on the Dunblane bypass.

The D9 driver was a bit of a case, standing out of the cab as the machine was pushing giving hand signals to the scraper drivers! Pusher-come-instructor!

[innes]

Starting the soil strip on the Dunblane bypass.

The D9 driver was a bit of a case, standing out of the cab as the machine was pushing giving hand signals to the scraper drivers! Pusher-come-instructor!

Hi Dave,
Worked on both of these beasts alongside Willie Livingston when I was with BB on the Mussellburgh By pass, stripped the Kelly ripper lift ram three times due to getting wrong seals supplied by F.....G (had to keep rebuilding as machine had to push scrapers in the morning, we had a Komatsu 155 but it wasnt up to pushing the 24s) turned out the ram had been damaged and the cylinder was bored out and honed and oversize piston fitted, apparently this was done by Taylor Woodrow at Butterwell before BB got the machine from them. Happy days !!!!

[DaveS]

Aye ......

I had the same thing with a bored out ram, but not on a dozer. Rebuilt twice on site and back at the yard I was told "It was marked on the ram when it was done". Right .........

I wonder if the 155 at Dunblane was the same machine you mention. I'll post a pic when I find it!

DaveS.

[innes]

Aye ......

I had the same thing with a bored out ram, but not on a dozer. Rebuilt twice on site and back at the yard I was told "It was marked on the ram when it was done". Right .........

I wonder if the 155 at Dunblane was the same machine you mention. I'll post a pic when I find it!

DaveS.

Hi Dave,
Seems to be the stock answer "the ram was marked when we done it", they must have used invisble ink instead of a hard stamp on the one I'm talking about as I can still remember the "heated discussions "about this one and there was definately no marks apart from the original ident numbers, still, keeps life interesting.

[nick lamb]

Hi lads,If I remember correctly,the 9 driver was Ian Todd from Perth.I remember Willie Livingston too,he was a rum feller but sound That tractor was traded for a D9N in 1991 and Levack bought the D9H off Finnings Glasgow.I worked with it at Libry Moor for Crouch's.The tranny blew and I recall BB's fitter Alan?? saying it was a regular problem with it.Willie reckoned it was a problematic D9H.You get them sometimes....

[innes]

Hi lads,If I remember correctly,the 9 driver was Ian Todd from Perth.I remember Willie Livingston too,he was a rum feller but sound That tractor was traded for a D9N in 1991 and Levack bought the D9H off Finnings Glasgow.I worked with it at Libry Moor for Crouch's.The tranny blew and I recall BB's fitter Alan?? saying it was a regular problem with it.Willie reckoned it was a problematic D9H.You get them sometimes....

Hi Nicky,
I only worked with BB for one year and left in 86 I think it was, the old 9 never gave much trouble when I was there, engine oil cooler and the usual running gear and a steering clutch just before I left. But i remember seeing it with the tranny out at a site west of Glasgow after I had been with Liebherr for a few months.BB didn't like spending money on the plant and it was a struggle to keep the TS24s running, they wouldn't buy any decent tyres for them and kept putting part worns on with the result one was down every second day waiting for OTR to repair it. I think OTR must have made a fortune out of BB.I know the fitter Alan ?? you spoke about,youngish guy he started after me then went to Fentons and then abroad, I heard he develevoped some exotic disease and was quite ill.
We had quite a few drivers on the 9 when I was there and one day the 9 driver never turned so Ike Elder the muckshift foreman asked a labourer "can you drive a dozer" the guy says yes so Ike says get in behind that scraper and get to work,the guy comes in at a angle at the 24 and knocks the push roller clean off the scraper,The push rollers and trunnions were completly shot but OK if you buttoned up correctly, Result one scraper down,Ike then gets another 24 driver to drive the 9 to push the other three so now two 24s parked up.Happy days.

[nick lamb]

Innes,this is a young Alan??? at Libry Moor in 1991.It must be the same lad as I think he went to Fentons.I hope he's allright now.I used to do quite abit of drinking and womanising with Ike's 2 lads,Dennis and Derick.They had a D6 size Leibherr dozer I think.

[innes]

Innes,this is a young Alan??? at Libry Moor in 1991.It must be the same lad as I think he went to Fentons.I hope he's allright now.I used to do quite abit of drinking and womanising with Ike's 2 lads,Dennis and Derick.They had a D6 size Leibherr dozer I think.

[innes]

Innes,this is a young Alan??? at Libry Moor in 1991.It must be the same lad as I think he went to Fentons.I hope he's allright now.I used to do quite abit of drinking and womanising with Ike's 2 lads,Dennis and Derick.They had a D6 size Leibherr dozer I think.

Dont know how Alan is as I lost touch with Willie Livingston and he used to keep me in the picture.
I know Dennis and Derek, Dennis is back up north in Nairn and was running a Liebherr A312 duck,Ike actually owned the dozer PR731 and some other kit and traded as Elder Plant now run by Dennis dont know what Derek is doing.

[volvoabdn]

are u guys talking about alan cross met him while i was in digs with bill livingstones wife in perth hes a helleva a nice guy but was seriously ill at that time but much better now and last i heard was married and after a while with torith is now with morris leslie