Johnny Locke,Merthyr Tydfil O.C.C.S?


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Mark Williams
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Johnny Locke,Merthyr Tydfil O.C.C.S?

Post #1 by Mark Williams » Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:36 am

Hello Everyone,
Happy new year to you all?
John Locke was a plant hire company,from Kenfig Hill, near Bridgend in South Wales.He had quite a variation of plant,from excavators to dump-trucks & especially Motor-Scrapers & dozers,particularly Euclid & Terex TS24s.His preferred choice of dozers were Komatsu,with a large amount of Komatsu 155As. His company catered from civil-engineering,road jobs,quarrying & open-cast contract work,mainly back-filling with his large fleet of scrapers.His company was known for working long hours,7 days a week.
It was around 1987 that this small open-cast coal site was being worked.It was right @ the edge of Dowlais top,across the road from the Taylor-Woodrow,Trecatty site,which was still in progress by this contractor. In fact,you could say that this was the start of the Great White tip site,which Wimpey Mining,eventually carried on after Locke completed this small job.It was more or less a land reclamation job for Locke plant.
The site was very small & was right behind the terraced houses @ the top end of Dowlais.I remember to gain access to the site,you had to go through the entrance to a warehouse that sold house hold appliances.
The plant on site consisted of a Caterpillar 245B front shovel,with a clamshell type bucket.I remember quite clearly that this shovel had a green & grey 45 gallon drum on a bracket positioned above the diesel tank,as this shovel could not work the 12 hour shift on its own fuel tank & needed a top up.
There were 3 older Komatsu HD320 dump-trucks that were loaded by the 245B shovel.
There was a Caterpillar D8H with a ripper.
The coaling machine was an early Komatsu PC200 Back-Hoe.All of these Komatsu machines,were in the early orange colour.
The dry steam coal had lots of old workings in it & was loaded into lorries & taken up to the Cwmbargoed disposal point.
I can remember sitting on the side of the Dowlais to Merthyr slip road,looking down the sloped bank watching the 245B shovel working away.
This contract did not last very long & was completed in less than a year.
I hope this was of some interest,
Regards,
Mark Williams.


Whitlock 505
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Re: Johnny Locke,Merthyr Tydfil O.C.C.S?

Post #2 by Whitlock 505 » Sat Jan 02, 2016 1:22 pm

Hi Mark

I remember Lock Contractors very well when I was owner driver with Tarmac Topmix working out of Trefil plant and we won the supply of readymix to Lock's in 1989 to 1991 for the reclamation of land by Tafarnaubach by Geith Excavator buckets off the A465, was only supposed to be a 100 cube but I think we ended up supplying 1600 cube over the duration of the job!, good steady supply of concrete for the culverts and semi dry for road crossings kerbs etc. the only time we ever supplied no fines concrete, no sand just aggregate cement and water for drainage.
Remember the foreman Ian Bowden from Ebbw Vale and Ray Davies machine operator who also became a foreman on the Tafarnaubach job, good old days but we had our gripes at the time!
Lock's premises are still there on Heol-Y-Cyw common, always remember passing there and seeing the big Terex scrapers and Euclid dumptrucks

Thanks for posting your memories

Ian


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Re: Johnny Locke,Merthyr Tydfil O.C.C.S?

Post #3 by chris73 » Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:58 pm

I remember that site well. I can remember a friendly security gaurd letting me have a wander around when I was about twelve.
Remember the cat 245 and a couple of komatsu dozers, always thought they were bigger than 155s?
The furniture shop was Leo's and later burned down. The car park made an excellent race track for my radio controlled car at the time!


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