Caterpillar DW21

[GIZZY]

C A Blackwells Caterpillar DW21

[bob]

these photos where taken a few years ago at power of the past Peter Fordham was driving it

[dpan]

Thanks for the memories. Wonder how many of the old timers that read this site remember banging nose on ground to flip the big slabs of muck off rear tires. Before power shift, rops enclosures, cushion hitch. Is that whats called the good old days. Hehe. We worked hard and played hard.

[bob finney]

i eft the employment of wyatts of diss in 1960 a joined a contractor in manchester to operate a brand new cat 22a d8and was sent out to m6 construction to push tarmacs 3 cat dw21s ex Tarslagsthey were used to strip top soil there before they moved th south mimms london contract along came a euclid loader and bottom trucks to remove the earth moving operation what a great tool my job was to keep them rollingthe hire lasted 3 years great from an x early 22a cat operator

[kopite]

I had only heard of these beauties but never saw one until I came to Ontario in 1978 and got my first job operating one on a road widening job near Toronto. It was a shock after operating Mac's 627's in the UK with cushion hitch etc. My previous experience on D8 and box helped me not break any cables but I could never change up a gear after loading and the pusher used to get pretty frustrated at me. Needless to say I soon moved on.

[martyn williams]

The late Pete Fordam on his old steed, a DW 15 this machine is now in the S E Davies collection. (Click on photo to enlarge ) David Precious push loading the DW15 on a very hot sunny day in 2005 at Ketton.
Martyn

[dpan]

Haz, maybe by 1978 that old 21 was well beat. The shift to second wasn't to bad, once they got rolling did you ever notice the other guys flip the hoist lever as they made the shift to higher gear. Remember an old hand say he could tell if a guy was a greenhorn by how he changed gears. Flip lever to hard it bounced back released brake, scraper dropped, stopped real quick. One time having to help mechanic string new dump rope, they always had operator at greasiest place, cross tube was enough to get your attention. Cable savors of no use when trying to get wet heavy peanut butter muck dumped. You are right cat and scoop time was sure help with dumping.

[kopite]

dpan, there were 3 of them, and all should have long been in retirement but they moved dirt and at very little cost I imagine. I did eventually get the hang of changing up a gear but it took me a few days. I only stayed around for a couple of weeks and moved on to greaner pastures.

[bob]

It was alright changing into 2nd in the cut if the pusher was not direct drive like 18a or 22a then he would speed up just enough to get into 2nd .If it was an 18a you could easily leave him and when you went to change into 2nd DW would stop dead followed by a big bang. On the old DWs I drove if when you where on the haul road and used the foot clutch to change gear the gear lever would come back and hit you hard in the palm and it bloody hurt , so I got so that I would change gear without using the clutch just getting the revs right and it would drop in perfectly

[dpan]

Haz how true, lots of outfits made money with wore out machinery. Remember similar situation as you working for a boney outfit had wore out AC-360's. Can tell a humorous story about them. After a couple weeks 360's were so bad parked them, rented DW 15's that were old but in good shape, like daylight and dark the difference moved more dirt because they kept running the short time longer that I stayed. First place they put us was up a steep ramp that we had to be pushed up to get to top, find a spot get straight drop pan and go over the edge, full load in short distance, dirt running ahead of front axle on way down, think drug more than hauled each trip hehe.
Bob without lots of push power had to pay attention to get away from the cut. Convertor push tractors could get you up and going when you lifted pan. Am sure you found most guys ran at speed comfortable for them, sure a few hotrods and everybody would race once in a while to break monotony but nearly everyone through the years that I worked for knew conditions determined speeds we could travel. Just keep moving at steady pace was what outfits I worked for expected. And yes I worked on jobs where conditions were such that you could run fast on hard haul roads loaded and empty. And know what trying to run in high gear on second gear surface is like.
And didn't we move more dirt in the bar than on any job we every worked.