Inchgreen Backhoe Loader

[XS650]

thanks Dave , the handwritten history is a nice touch.

[DaveS]

Inchgreen Engineering Company works, Greenock looking from the waters of the Clyde in 1963/64.

Note the JCB on the quayside.

Dave. S.

[martyn williams]

Julian
When are you down this way next ?
Martyn

[Steelfab]

Hi Martin, I was down in Cardiff or Xmas and bumped into Andrew Merrit.

I met a JCB customer last week at the factory and over lunch got talking about old machines and he mentioned that he used to have an old Inchgrean machine and he sent me the attached photographs.

[nosneb]

Hi anyone remember the Inchgreen Backhoe Loader which was built in Scotland in the early 1960's?

I have searched the internet but to no prevail and have only found one image in the JCB archives of the Beaver model which I have attached for information.

Be interested to know what the history of the company was and if anyone has a spec sheet, pictures or know the whereabouts of a machine?

Higuys as you will see I am new to your interesting site.
At present I am attempting to convert some 8mm cine film to DVD and came across a we clip of an Inchgreen digger, which set me to search the web for any stories and came across your site.
I may be able to add some information for you as I worked on the construction of these beasts.I am not sure of exact timings before 1965 when I started at Inchgreen Engineering so here goes.
Inchgreen was a small light engineering companyin Greenock as previously noted, and was owned by Swires the shipping company. In order to increase business they started the manufacture of diggers.
The original design came from The Wagner Iron Works in Milwakee as stated in another post.
I think Wagner went out of business and Inchgreen "claimed" the digger.

The Wagner model was the Beaver,I am not certain of all details but it had a tubular frame/chassis and was built around a Fordson Major tractor unit.
The next model was designated the IG 5.
This was designed in house and again built around the Fordson Major tractor unit.
The hydraulics were a Hamwortyh pump,Dowty control valves and Nichol & Andrew rams.
All the major fabrications were manufactured by the Vulcan works of Paisley.
Hydraulic pressure was 2000psi.
The last of these machines were sold at auction in Glasgow late 1965 early 1966.
The machine in a photo from the JCB site is not a Beaver but an IG 6 which was produced from 1965.
This used the new Ford 5000 series tractor unit and required a complete redesign of the mainframe.
The hydraulics on this machine were Dowty control valves and pump. The front loader rams were Nichol and Andrews and the back actor rams were by Power Jacks Ltd. The slewing motor was a Dowty Actuator.
The cab was by Scottish Aviation in Prestwick.
Front stub axles from Ford's Thames Trader.
There were only about 30 of the IG 6 Built.
The Dowty hydraulic pumps also gave a lot of trouble, mainly due to the bearings wearing and the rotors wiping the aluminium housing.
The comment about weld quality is quite correct and there were various failures,I had to fix them as I was a service eng.
The company which carried out the fabrication was at the time involved in mining machinery fabrication an should have been better than they turned out to be.
Another problem was that they were unable to read first angle projection drawings so we had some parts on up-side-down, hey ho!
As an aside, when Ford changed to production of the 5000 series Mr JCB wanted to keep the mountings the same as previous Major mounts to save a redesign, but Ford refused to accomodate him so JCB changed to BMC for there power plants. I think the last bit is correcet but I could be wrong.
If anyone wants more info please feel free to ask I will help if I can.
Regards
Hamish.

[Martyn Henley]

Welcome Hamish to CMN
And what an interesting post, as your first post, thank you .. i think there a quite a few that would like to see that DVD James, so look forward to seeing it soon

Martyn

[Tracshovel]

Welcome to CMN Hamish and thanks for such an interesting update to this long running subject. It's also nice to see that some of the suppliers are still in business - we still use Nichol & Andrews for ram repairs to this day. More pictures of these machines would be great if anybody can help.

[XS650]

Great stuff Hamish , this must be the best site for info on the old Brit makers.

[FOWLER MAN]

Great stuff Hamish , this must be the best site for info on the old Brit makers.

I'd like to seccond that and "Welcome"
I'd forgotten all about Inchgreen. Only ever saw one, it was working at Usk in South Wales.
I think it must have been 1950's, Is that possible???
Fred.

[nosneb]

Great stuff Hamish , this must be the best site for info on the old Brit makers.

I'd like to seccond that and "Welcome"
I'd forgotten all about Inchgreen. Only ever saw one, it was working at Usk in South Wales.
I think it must have been 1950's, Is that possible???
Fred.

Hello Fred, I don't think they were around in the 50s started in the early 60s.
I forgot to mention that they went out of production due to the parent company amalgamating the company with their shipbuilding interests namely Scotts of Greenock. and using the facility for marine products.
This was after spending £100,000 on welding fixtures to improve the fabrications,these were never used and were scrapped at the jig makers.
A bit sad realy as we were getting good quality and had a self leveling front loader bucket and an extendfing back actor jib which extended about another 4 feet.
Another 2 "specials" were loading shovels . One was made for use in the sugar sheds in the James Watt Dock Greenock and was fitted with an Intrenational Twin Disc torque convertor, 2 speeds forward and reverse, the change could be made without stopping. The other loading shovel was for the whisky bottle maker United Glass of Glasgow it was fitted with solid tyres.
The engine of this one broke a camshaft and after we had it repaired at the Ford dealer in Duntocher I had the pleasure (not) of driving the machine back through Glasgow to our customer.
Another day another dollar.
Regards
Hamish.