Anyone seen one of these.

[FOWLER MAN]

Hi all,
Anyone seen one of these before? It's a Barber Grene lorry loader.
Also the Bedfords and Leylands it used to load.
Photos taken at Vaynor Quarries, Merthyr Tydfil 1960.

Fred

img116.jpg

[DaveS]

Hi Fred,

There were several variations on these B-G loaders, with various undercarriages, including crawlers IIRC, with either conveyors at the top as in your picture, or a chute instead. The chain of buckets was kept full by the horizontal auger on bottom feeding material from the stockpile.

The Dinky Elevator Loader is actually modeled on one.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dinky_Toys_-_Elevator.jpg

Dave. S.

[FOWLER MAN]

Hi Dave. S.
Thanks for reply, I didn't know about the available variations in undercarriages on these loaders.
I was loaded by the one in the photo. quite often. I ran an old 1957 "Hell Drivers" type Kew Dodge tipper
out of the quarry in the early 60's.( I was Just 20 then)

Cheers Fred

[Ron G]

I used to run one on tracks at a quarry when I was working for Lane construction.It was used as a backup when the loader was busy.Ron G

[modelman093]

Hi all,
Anyone seen one of these before? It's a Barber Grene lorry loader.
Also the Bedfords and Leylands it used to load.
Photos taken at Vaynor Quarries, Merthyr Tydfil 1960.

Fred

img116.jpg

Used to have one till Mum gave it away!!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/d.jones731 ... ky564x.htm

Angus

[pk1200]

What were the main drawbacks with such a machine,surely this was a economical way of loading certain materials?

[FOWLER MAN]

What were the main drawbacks with such a machine,surely this was a economical way of loading certain materials?

Hi pk1200
This elevator loader was quite quick loading a truck. I seem to remember the fitters spending a lot of time working on this one though. That may be the drawback, or maybe it was just not very well maintained.
Fred

[DaveS]

Like many machines of their time they had many, many moving mechanical parts, as all the drives were by chain, many of them open - for example the head drum was driven by a huge length of roller chain that went all the way from the engine and round intermediate idlers to change its direction. (This is even well modeled on the Dinky example - see link above).

The actual bucket elevator assembly was based on chains too, to which the buckets were attached, and all these moving parts wore quite quickly when subjected to the conditions they worked in with abrasive dust everywhere, resulting in a high maintenance requirement just as Fred remembers and the associated costs.

Dave. S.

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Folks.
One of the members at my local vintage machinery club has a track-mounted version of the B-G loader. The main body of the machine is in working condition and he's working - slowly - at getting the elevator fitted and working.

[FOWLER MAN]

Thanks Deas Plant
I found this photo of a track mounted B-G brochure on the net. I didn't know there was a trackmount model till I posted this thread.
Fred

img015.jpg