Good morrning I need a question answered, is there any of the J.A.Thompson operators of the Allis-Chalmers 562 twin scrapers, out there or still around? My question is the 562's you ran for J.A.Thompson, were they the factory type scraper (two scraper's) with the front scraper like a 560, and the second scraper, was the back half of the 562 scraper? So that what the Allis-Chalmer 562 twin engine, twin scraper was from the factory,two engines. in 1962 on one of our jobs Sully-Miller Construction Co. had rented the J.A.Thompson twin scraper Allis-Chalmers 562's I think at least ten of them. My question is were they two complete Allis-Chalmers 562's hooked together, which would give them four engines, not like the factory Allis-Chalmers with two motors? Have any of you operators out there ever seen the pictures of the Peterson tractor's two 657's hooked together with one operator operating it? I was never lucky enough to work around the Kewitt 657 scrapers, they were in the Northern California area, where I alway's worked in Southern California but I was lucky enough to work around Thompson's twin scraper 562's. I think thompson's 562's were like the Kewitt's 657's four motors. Can any of you older operators from the J.A.Thompson spread, that ran those neet scrapers, answer these questions.
3 photos I found, cheers Malcolm
Malcolm These photos show the most powerful scraper ever made, wouldn't it been fun just once to get on this scraper and open the throttle wide open, and take it down the haul road loaded and see what it felt like at 32 mph, I wonder if it got squirley or if it wen't streight, and if you would of gotten the gitters and slowed it down. Euclid made a scraper out of three complete SS40's now it might of had more power, I like the three 657's hooked together I think I would of loved to try them both, how about you? Wish I knew how to put photos onto this site I think you would enjoy the photos I talking about. I had a operator his name Roy Cannon contact me on the 562's last week you know him" I'm really into the TSS40's Go to Murl's Video plowman58 I think you might enjoy. Mike Nebergall
Hi Mike If you have trouble posting photos I am happy for you to email them to me and I will post them for you. I have also downloaded and edited the tss40 video and can post you one if you wish (will look good on you 50 inch tv) regards from sunny NewZealand Malcolm
I have a book on the Alliss=chalmers TS 562 and 555 rubber Dozer and they are 870hp so if you had 3 scrapers hooked up the HP per cubic yard would be tremendous .They could sure shift some dirt If you had them in New Zealand they could fill in Cook Straight ,Aye That would stop south Island Drifting away L
Malcolm Send me your e-mail address please, have you seen the photo of Petersons Tractor's twin scraper one operator?, I really think this photo describes and shows how neet some inovations really worked. I was never a fan of push pulling even though I owned 22 rigs, it always seemed the first scraper, you as an operator would get about 3/4 of a load then you would fight to get the rest of the load, but if you were in the back it was always easy to heap the scraper, and half the time you would look at the front scraper and see you partner and the scraper bouncing. I loved hookin three 657's together there was never any problem loading, it didn't matter if you were in the front or in the back it everything loaded fast, I always tried to hook three together when I was in business. I ran a brand new 657 back in 1965 and made the cover of the Earth magazine which was published by Shephard tractor a Caterpillar store, this was before push pull, I'm still old hat give me a couple good push cats this makes for an easy day. Mike Nebergall
X Quad Operator photos
Thanks Malcolm for putting these two photos onto the Heavy Equiptment Forums.com for me. I lucked out in 1965 and made the cover of the the local Cat dealerships Earth magazine I was only 24 at the time, Good photo? The other photo's of the Peterson Tractor's twin scraper 657 they made for Kewitt construction in the early 1960's I think three sets were made, only one three scraper model 657's were made. The twin 657 scraper in the picture is the same type I remember of the Allis-Chalmers 562's that I worked with of J.A. Thompson's four motors, not the factory type Allis-Chalmers 562's twin scraper two motors. On 9/23/11 I asked the question if any old J.A. Thompson operators are out there that ran the Thompsons twin 562's scrapers four motor scrapers that can answer my question? I hope every body out there enjoys these two photos. Mike Nebergall
Those are great old pictures. Thanks for sharing them
Jerry I see your from SoCal where at in california? I'm a Local 12 member 49 years, retired 4 years, what companys you worked for down there? I'll send Malcolm more photo's so you guys can enjoy them. Mike Nebergall
If you go on ebay or the like you should be able to find the Peterson Tractor 75th anniversary book that discusses the machines (Cat) in fair detail! The cushion hitch was proven to be A better way to go as opposed to "linked' machines as the tendency for mech probs shut three units down at once! I am not an operator just A fan of these big earthmovers and ESP the things the Peterson bros put into iron for Cat and think you will enjoy the book!
Hi Jdigger4130 I went to e-bay yesterday and looked up the Peterson tractor 75th anneversary book and didn't find anything about the Peterson book. Where did you get your book? at Peterson? I've been talking to Ilene Grafton at Peterson tractor, she is a granddaughter to Peterson of Peterson Tractor, I suppose I could call them and see if they have the book your talking about. How much did the book cost? where do you live in California? Not much work going on in California, I know my son just went to work three weeks ago, and he haden't worked for 2 1/2 years, thats a long time between jobs. thanks for the info on the book Mike Nebergall
X Quad Operator photos
one more
Malcolm good morrning, the color photos were taken on the same job as the photo on the earth magazine, these color photos were shot by the soils man on the job the 657 was only a month old. That was such a neat feeling to rip of the seat protection and I was the first person to run it. One other thing about that 657 it was the first first to have a reversable fan on it, it was nice during the summer months the other two 657's had regular fan's and they swet there butts off. The other black and white photos Caterpillar came from Pieoria ill and shot these photos, I asked the photographer for some photos and he sent me at least eight and I still have them. Hope I'm not boring you guys. Mike Nebergall
Never get bored with these.Designers should keep an eye them as well.Keep them coming. Thanks for sharing.
You're not boring me! I love old equipment.
neat machines
X Quad Operators photos
Malcolm, the first two photos are shots from the tv series the fugitive 1962? the third photo is the Allis-Chalmers 555 that I ran in 1962 for Sully-Miller construction which was brand new. The AC 555 it was at the time the biggest rubber tired pusher made, it weighed 100 ton's it had I think 40 ton's of led, 10 ton's in each tire, I blue a rear tire pushing a DW20 and you could not believe the cloud of dust that led caused. The dozer on the 555 was different than a regular dozer on a cat, the front engine compartment would go up and down look at the photo of the 555 and you will see what I'm talking about. I loved the sound of the Allis-Chalmers engines they had a deep rumble about them and the hole machine was a fast excellerator. The only problem was where you sat in the middle the visibility was bad, the real problem was the breaks from day one she did not want to stop, I would have to manually down shift it to slow it down to pickup scrapers. One time I back the back half of the 555 onto a 2 to 1 slope and turned it side ways to see how it would hang on to the slope and with the led in the tires, I actually think you could of put the whole tractor on a 2 to 1 slope and never turned her over. All I know Allis-Chalmers made good equiptment. Mike Nebergall
Hey Mike the Peterson book you mentioned must be the one. Mine is Peterson blue and I believe second edition. I believe I paid around 20 bucks on Amazon but have seen it go for much more. The Letourneo book is A great read also in regards to the scraper stuff and gives A decent history of earth moving according to him! No real pics to speak of but it tells the story of the Petersons "education" in making machines! I had no idea they were kin so its A cool tie in. My email is [email protected] If ya wanna see any pics from the book! I am A caveman and cannot get my photos to post on the hef sadly but have some dandys of boneyards in Humbolt to the bay. As for me I live in Marin county and I am A carpenter n maint guy by day n const toy and model truck addict by night! LOL. I would also say the Earth mover encyclopedia is A cool book to have in your stash as well!
one more allis photo
Malcolm, Good photo The AC 21 dozer was quite the push cat, I was a laborer in 1959 for Sully-Miller Construction and they had a Million yard freeway job in Orange calif, they moved the bulk of the dirt with a belt loader with Euclid bottom dumps and they were fast 55 mph on a seven mile haul, they must of had fifteen cats pushing to the belt. They had three brand new D9's back then and the rest of the cats were D8 15A's, 14A's, and 2U's. Sully-Miller rented a spread of DW20's and there main push cats were AC 21's and 15A's, the AC 21's had torque converters and they were fast in reverse the Cat 15A's with there torque converters were just as fast both the cat 15A and the AC 21 really worked good together as a team. thanks for the photo Mike Nebergall
Thanks for those fantastic Photo,s of Ts 562 and the 555 I loved those Aliss Chalmers machines, always wanted to see Ts 562 inb Action ever since our local engineer who had been on project where they were working Raved over trhem as be2ing the best
are there any video of all those old scrapers and dozers working good stuff..
Steam there was a tv series back in 1960's called The Fugitive, in the first season, Disc 1, Disc 4 they shot on a job site near LA they based the story around the Allis-Chalmers 562's stupid story. Youtube Murl's Video Plowman58 you will enjoy this Euclid Tss40's. another movie late 30's early 40's (Earth worm tractor staring Joey Brown) you will love this movie. The Fugitive, Earth worm tractor you can get them on Netflix enjoy them. Mike Nebergall
Okay, if I understand this correctly, there is ONE operator for three different bowls (in the pictures toward the front of the thread)? Are any of you out there previous operators of such a monstrosity? I cannot fathom the idea of running three scrapers in a row around a jobsite all day long for weeks on end! I would think that three different operators on three different machines would have more control, and be able to maneuver a little better; thus saving time in the long run...don't let me have it by any means, but tell me if I'm wrong. I appreciate the innovation, I just don't see it as being economical. (Not trying to make anyone mad, just fill me in...thanks!)
Look at that beautiful highway yellow in the sun, some awesome iron for a 24 year old to have at, the boss must have known you were worthy cos you don,t get that sort of iron brand new back in those days if you were a cowboy.
Good morning johnhenryroff, I use to own 1200 series 657B models, we were on a job in new port beach California back in the 80's the material was surger sand, two 657 hooked together you could not get a load, the first scraper after a 1/4 of a load the back 657 scraper it would start hopping, you could try and get a bigger load and watch the back scraper bounce him self to death or pick up, and the back one would get a 1/4 of a load then the front one would do the samething as the back scraper bounce, between the two maybe one load combined. The solution to that problem was to hook three 657B'b together, the first scraper no problem's at all came out with a good 40 yard load and a fast loading time, same with the second scraper, and the third scraper also 40 yards, three was the answer here. On the older pictures 1960, of the three 657's hooked together I would be willing to bet the three hooked together would out load any three conventional 657, single operator's being pushed, I would think the loading time on the three hooked together would be around one minute flat, maybee even faster, remember they were in good loading material. Remember this was not a high production job. Kewitt wanted volume of yards moved per day, not load count for billing purposes. Your comment on three hooked to gether, I would think that it would of been an honer to of been asked to operate this large three scraper rig. If you had the opertunity to have run the first 657's made they were awfully rough riding scrapers, I had a lot of operating hours on them, I would think operating the three hooked together, you would have a much smoother ride over the scrapers rear tire, and the contractor wouldn't be cracking a whip wanting to know why your not running balls out all day. The three scraper would of been a pleasure to run. Mike Nebergall ( Merry Christmas)
Thanks for the insight Mike...as for three scrapers hooked together-that I can understand (I wasn't suggesting the dozer method, just three separate hook and bale). Anyway, I do agree that it would have been awesome to run, it just looks like it would be a nightmare trying to get used to it (though I'd be thrilled to give it a whirl)! I came across a little wrong, didn't think that it would be BAD to run, just thought it would be slower than heck. Thanks again Mike, and Merry Christmas to you too!
Interesting that you mentioned 3 stringing in sand X Quad.. when we had a sand job a while back we were doing it with 627B's, and discovered the same thing. 3 push-pulling was the hot ticket. Mine had no rear hook, so I was tail-end Charlie... depending on how much room we had, I could pile on a huge load compared to the other 2... just hang on and stack it up! From what I read about the triple 657, only the most skilled operators were allowed to run it. No surprise there!
Justin, if you have pics and cant get them loaded here, email them to someone here you trust that can. I could do it if you want, let me know! Just use the Private Message button if you are interested. I'd love to see pics of this old iron, as I'm sure the other guys here would also. Marry Christmas and HNY guys! Alan
To Everyone, Have a Great Christmas and a Prosperus New Year, Stay Safe ,
Hi mike, How you doin', been a long time. Ken dyer
Hi, Yah, I worked off & on for J.A. Thompson for around 10 years 1963 - 1973. Ran 562s on several different jobs, also ran Euc TS 24s, and A.C. HD 21 dozers and did quite a bit of grade checking as well. Also worked for Sully Miller. Ran 562s for Altfillisch/Fulton for good period of time. Ran TS 24 tandem scrapers for Bill McKnight and others.
As an addition to previous reply. I was the very first Cat D9 Quad pushcat operator for Western Contr. at Castaic Dam and then for Green Const. for a couple of years on several different job sites on the I-5 freeway re-routing over the grapevine between Castaic and Gorman. 1967 - 1969. Was grade checker, foreman and superintendent from '69 to '88. Owned several Cat dozers from 1988 to 2007. - Since, - retired.