The Classic Machinery Network

Many thanks Fritz for sharing the photos of your shovel I assume that you are going to fully restore it? Many old machines manage to survive in remarkably good condition considering their age; the trusty Ford motor is also a great engine, usually very reliable and good starters to boot.

Jeremy

Great to see! Was the age established I can't remember? It must be fairly early by the engine. Why did you remove the weight?

I found your forum quite recently while trying to identify a machine from a photo that shows just one end.

After trawling through loads of different makes of wheel loaders and shunting tractors I eventually figured that the cab shape fits with other stuff made by Weatherill

The photo in question...

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.u ... 7_orig.jpg

(from http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.u ... nches.html)

The machine was a shunting tractor used by Esso at Hayle in Cornwall. It probably arrived there in 1977 which is when Esso had a siding built into their depot. It most likely remained there until the end of rail traffic in July 82.

I've also seen another earlier photo which shows even less of the machine but shows a logo on the (same) end which fits with the Weatherill logo. It also shows that the machine lacked a coupling hook when it first arrived - just having the big buffing plate.

Does anyone have any idea what model this might be and the rest of this machine might have looked like?

Other than this photo I have found pretty much zero stuff about Weatherill shunting tractors so any more info on this or any other Weatherill shunting tractors would be a step forward.

Cheers,
Andy

Looks like a 12HD like this one-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55234888@ ... 171582511/

Muir-Hill made a lot of shunting tractors but never seen a Weatherill one before.

XS650 wrote:Looks like a 12HD like this one-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55234888@ ... 171582511/

Muir-Hill made a lot of shunting tractors but never seen a Weatherill one before.

Thanks. That was the exact photo that tipped me off to the Weatherill cab shape. I think this machine is at the Chasewater Railway in Staffs.

The other model possibility that I came up with was the 36H which also has the square-ish 'hood' by the cab. I'm not sure how to tell between the two models TBH.

Some other shunting tractor stuff that I found - a lot of variety but no Weatherills...

http://www.tractor-photos.com/picture/number2373.asp - maybe a Muir Hill
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128691640@N04/24522519433 - Muir Hill
http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/road/h ... #h38107a28 - no idea what this one is - looks like the sort of thing that might be found towing stuff around inside a factory.
http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/road/h ... 8#hb495180 - MF
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/8-yards/dmutrack.jpg (from http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/8-yards/y-intro.htm) - Ford County??

Regards, Andy

John Tutt may be able to shed some light as to weather ( )Weatherill directly built shunters or a conversion by someone else.

Hi this was a 12HD fitted with rear buffer bar and towing hook this was not offered as a standard production model but was a one off to meet customers requirements Weatherill did a number of special options for customers. Weatherill's first shunter was the Epping Auto Shunter. they also produced a shunter based on a L62B series 2

Thanks John.

I guess if it's a one off then only another photo of the actual machine in question will really tell me what it looked like.

In particular, whether there was also a buffer on the other end and whether the bucket arms and pistons would have been left off.

The usual form of shunting tractor conversions seems to have a hefty extra beam down each side supporting a buffer beam at both ends... but that doesn't mean they were all like that.

Regards, Andy

Thanks as ever John, i had completely forgotten the Epping model.

on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/fordson-based ... 2516786037?

Looks very complete. It is probably fact that if were a much more common straight ag tractor it would be worth more/sell more easily.
Never had a go on a 2H but it looks a bit of pig compared with 12H or equivalent Chaseside!

Hi Andy I think it only had a buffer beam at the rear but retained it loader arms and bucket as shunting was a secondary job for the machine. Early shutters had frames to connect front and rear buffer beam because they were based on tractors and therefore only had light weight body panels which were to light to take the forces generated in shunting later machines were based on loading shovels which all had strong mainframes.