Caterpillar high drive side boom

[modelman093]

A bitch to load and carry on the low loader kazmik I bet. A bit one sided?

There's a pic on Big Al's website of a pipe layer being carried laid on its side to keep it in gauge for a trip to Italy!

[wxmman]

Did a job on this 583T today. It's going up to Scotland later this week.

[tctractors]

The biggest Sideboom Co in I am told the World is Brookhouse Engineering Bidford on Avon, Rodger Brookhouse owns the largest Sideboom ever built by Cat,dont ask me the Number but it can lift way over 100tons, I think he has about 200 D8k's(78v's plus 66v 77v conversions to s/boom) 60 to 70 D9G/H's plus an army of Komatsu 155 to 375 tractors, he puts this kit out on a global market and his kit is top order, he resently popped across the Atlantic and just about bought everything going at Auction, the ship was more than full after he was done.
tctractors

[modelman093]

The biggest Sideboom Co in I am told the World is Brookhouse Engineering Bidford on Avon, Rodger Brookhouse owns the largest Sideboom ever built by Cat,dont ask me the Number but it can lift way over 100tons, I think he has about 200 D8k's(78v's plus 66v 77v conversions to s/boom) 60 to 70 D9G/H's plus an army of Komatsu 155 to 375 tractors, he puts this kit out on a global market and his kit is top order, he resently popped across the Atlantic and just about bought everything going at Auction, the ship was more than full after he was done.
tctractors

Also has some pretty serious pipe benders!

[tctractors]

Angus, the man has just bought a D9H off a Co I do a load of work for,the sad thing is its going to be converted to a Sideboom, this tractor was used to push load TS24's most of its life, it also had a first class tilt blade, inside frame push blade and rear push block, best described as a top old banger, this tractor will just be lost in the line of Booms, its the highest serial No D9H ever in the U.K. I will post a few shots of it loaded up ready for the sad trip to get its gutts ripped out, I used to work on pipe lines for 8 years for A.Monk and Phil Strange (Pipeline Equipment Services) often converting sidebooms to blade tractors, this was usualy on ex William Press kit, now it seems the sideboom World is getting them all back???, the pipe benders that RBE have are about as good as it gets, he can bend a pipe the size of the Channel Tunnel

tctractors

[nick lamb]

I hear 4x 583's or 594's landed in Laing O'Rourkes yard this week at Wincham,Northwich<Cheshire.

[gah1950]

hello all.
the firm i work for sold a D9H about two years ago to roger brookhouse near evesham,that too was being converted to a boom.when it was on our coal sites pushing alongside D9R s it would absolutely bury them.
graham.

[MGI]

I remember the William Press side booms very well... They were mostly old 22A's with Boughton cross dog winches which took a bit of getting used to after driving the original Cat booms which had Hyster (I think) draw works with conventional levers. I think Press converted them 'in house' and the job was very professionally carried out! They also converted International BTD 20's into twin arcs and, again, top quality workmanship, they had Rolls Royce engines with six gears and would track along at amazing speeds. They also converted a few 8's into pipe carriers. I think Press came up with the first Hydra Booms as well, also based on Cat tractors! In those days Press were not getting a lot of pipeline work although in the old days they got more than their share... probably why they hired out so much of their specialist gear. They also supplied the fitters to fettle their own kit and they were top blokes as well! I also worked a few years for Monks on pipelines, the kit came out of Padgate but the office was nearer to Manchester, just off the A580 - Bill Prosser was the main man in those days. One of their downfalls was they had to use their own plant as much as was possible and their old Navvy drivers would only work a 40 hour week, even on an open cut river crossing they would jack it in at 4.30 on Friday and head for the hills - I remember particularly a job at Oswestry when they left their NCK 605s literally in the middle of the job and went home for the weekend! I was driving the stringing 22RB and the Spread boss (Tricky Dicky Conway) asked me to work a ghoster to cover for them, another old rope man called Cyril drove the other one. On the Saturday morning the Monk Foreman fitter (a huge burly bloke called Burt Packard) took over from Cyril but there wasn't anyone else who could drive a dragline so I ended up driving all day on the Saturday as well. Saturday night, Cyril showed up but Burt refused point blank to work through the night so I was lumbered again - Sunday morning, more of the same, Cyril wouldn't stay when Burt came back so I ended up working continuously from 0700 Fri morning until about 15.30 Sun when we took the buckets off and lowered the fabrication into the river! To add insult to injury I found out that although I got double pay after 12 hours, after 24 hours I went back onto single pay and started again, the only thing that kept me going was thinking of ways I was going to spend all the money I was going to get! Bill Prosser once told me that he operated on the principle that the profit would be in the 'extras' (another reason they probably went out of business)

[tctractors]

MGI, when I worked for A.Monk we used to have a wages clerk come around every 2 or 3 weeks to check on things as there was lots of "Dead Men" on the payroll, this clark asked for my hours I had worked that week, he new we had been flogged to death all week in some bad ground, I told him that I had hardly slept and must have worked 250 hours, he told me that he could not book me in for that many hours in the week, would it be O.K. if he put me in for 200hrs and add the other 50 in next time?? I might be only a thick mechanic but I "aint Daft", on the other hand I will admit that after getting my first weeks wage packet off Monks, I was so shocked by the amount that I cried, I had never had so much money in 1 lump in my life, I was only a young lad of 17, from leaving home at 15 had always stuggled to have any spare money as often I had only just enough cash to pay my room rent, Monk's gave me a Caravan (Old thing) and a great chance to get my act together, young lads these days dont get a look in sadly.

[jcbjohn]

Hi guys, currently working on a job in Czech republic on new boom for Denys, one if the guys has put a few pics together on you tube, take a look it's good ! Search " Chek pipeline"