poclain 1000

[Mark Williams]

Hello Everyone,
As I have said in a post before, I was lucky enough as a young fifteen year old to go on the weekends & help the Poclain field service mechanic @ Shands East-Pit coal site to carry out routine maintenance. My joy was after the repair,to travel the machine back down to the dig on my own as all the fitters involved enjoyed a well deserved cup of tea. I would play about @ the dig when I got down there moving a bit of dirt until I was picked up in the Luton style Poclain Land Rover.
Shand had 3 Poclain 1000s,a CK1000 back-actor new @ Ffyndaff & 2 new CKB1000 face shovels @ East-Pit.The Ck1000 eventually joined the other 2 @ East-Pit.I also helped my father on the Poclain 1000 @ Ffyndaff where he was a fitter.
Shand had a variety of Poclain machines,a Ck600 back- actor, 2 Ck160 coal shovels @ Ffyndaff. The CK160s were swapped for the Cat 235 coal-shovels from East-pit, for some political reason.
Shand Mining,Miller mining & Norwest-Holst all had Poclain 1000s.Miller Mining had the first 2 Poclain EC1000s @ I believe was Pithouse site,or was It St Adains in Leeds.Can anyone clarify this. The EC1000 had 3 engines,I am lead to believe they were Detroit Diesel 8V-71.Miller also had a CK 1000 @ the same site. The CK1000 had 2 Deautz V10s,but I cant seem to be sure whether they were V12s,I'm sure someone knows.The Poclain CKB 1000 had 2 Cummins KT1150 engines.
I was an operator for Shephard,Hill @ Ras Bryn Oer coal site in Rhymney,when on the extension, Pen Bryn Oer, the Norwest-Holst Poclain CKB 1000 was hired in with 5 Terex R50s & 1 Terex R45.I was often mounted up on these trucks,when my Cat 769C truck was broken down.
After the Norwest-Holst machine was put off hire,it sat idled on site for about a year,before being transferred to the AGK, Derllwyn coal site,@ Glyneath. The management of Norwest Holst formed AGK civil engineering. The Terex trucks also went there.
I have some of my photos of Shand Mining, hope you enjoy them.

[Mark Williams]

Here are some photos I have found on the web. I hope the owners don't mind me posting them.

[Mark Williams]

And more again...

[Mark Williams]

Here's some more for you guys...

[Mark Williams]

Lots more,I've found for you to enjoy.

[Dah]

Two of Shand's ck's ended up in Dyggor Gaylords yard at Giltbrook - one shovel and one backhoe.

I'll try and find my photos of them when they were being
assembled. Looked impressive because they were both assembled at the same time - one in front of the other.

[Dah]

In the Opencast Images book you can just see the 1000 parked idle on the AGK site - replaced by a Demag 185.

What was the CKB model? Did it have the larger cab?

[Dah]

How reliable were the 1000's by the way?

[Mark Williams]

Hello DAH,
The Poclain EC1000 was the first fully hydraulic mining shovel on the market,with Poclain being the pioneers,in this field.
The Poclain 1000 CKB had several up-dates,an elevated cab,accessed from the rear,a change of engines to Cummins KT1150.A higher capacity bull-clam bucket was standard from the first CK1000,where a front dump was first used.They used to be prone to high hydraulic oil temperatures in the early machine & hard on hydraulic hoses,but the later machines had better success with better manufactured hoses.
The AGK Poclain CKB1000 front shovel was parked on site & was replaced by an O&K RH40 & a Liebherr 984,both of these were back-actors.John Locke also had a Cat 992C on hire @ this site.The site was then acquired by Walters mining,when AGK went into difficulty's.