robbie guy wrote:some pictures from the 60s, TS14s Leyland 680 powered, at Woolwich Industrial constuction developments.cannot remember the guys names. New 657s arriving in Ireland for the construction of the Ballymena Bypass mid 1960s
Rob.
Headin to belfast this morning ,me and me aul fella got talking about the motorway and how blackwells 657s and ts 24s did the cut and fill at templepatrick and how the fill was about aprox3-4miles away from the cut and how tyre pressures were let down up to twice a day because of the heat in the tyres ,these were the 57s pictured above after ballymena was finished.my da was on a 951 for grahams at this time.Next time he saw these scrapers was in the Shetlands when they were moved to work along with JMJs new 657s[think he said six] one of which my aul fella got new.Told me that the older 57s with the stiff neck were more bouncy than the one he had which had the cushion hitch.JMJs were set up for pushpull.Thinks that blackwells 657s were about ten years old when he saw them here.Also told me that his 57 was the last one of JMJs to get a second set of rubber.He reckoned about 3800 hours on original Also told me that the secret to make transmissions last was to use the transmission lock as this kept her from going up and down gears unnecessarily[much easier on every thing ].
Has anyone got any more picts of these
Also elsewhere on the forum plantman had posted picts of 619s which are or have been in leslie wrights yard.my aul fella thinks that these may have originally have been bought new by Boltons and if this is the case are quite possibly the first new motorscrapers sold new in ireland
Would Plantman or anyone here have anymore info on this.Cheers Mervyn