It’s a sore point for me when I see muck rails on blades being regularly mangled by excavators mauling them out of a soft spot.It shoes bad management from the top down. Don’t get me wrong,I’ve yanked them out that way in the past,but in the days of no muck rails and hyd tilt rams. I’ve had this blade tidied up,allthough there is still some plate to fix back on around the twin tilt area. Looks a whole lot better now.
It needed the before and after pictures Nicky.... And we all thought Blackwell’s was a decent outfit. Not any more, they’re probably run by accountants.
Not many good pics of the mess before hand Nige. Blackwells management are clearly hopeless. No wonder they are bust. The day to day running and repairs looks to have been carried out by Blackwells fitters.The work is pathetic quite frankly. Fortunately,Blackwells were that bad at maintaining their kit in receant times,that Finning have done most of the work other than basic servicing. The tractor is totally dry underneath.New engine and torque,eq and pivot shaft all done in last 18 months.The bills from Finnings are monumental. This is what happens when big companies turn their backs on their fitters and opt for dealer r&m contracts. That works all well and good if they run their business good enough to replace their equipment every few years or 15k hours. When times have come hard for Blackwells,it’s their short comings in their fitters that have sunk them.They’ve been left to Finnings for all major repairs.
I see they have another D9T (RJS01773) up for sale. Got 225k for a punt on that one as well..?
By muckrail you mean the trash guard at the top of the blade?
Nicky or Nige what kind of work does Blackwells do?
They're one of the UK's biggest earthmoving contractors. I remember them back in the day when they were "C A Blackwell & Sons Ltd." - long before even these photos were taken in 1984 - https://www.earthmoversmagazine.co....blackwell-kit-in-action-blog-revisited_68.htm They are now part of the Hargreaves Group of companies. https://www.blackwellgroup.co.uk/
If you were bush clearing I guess it could be, but when you’re pushing dirt (muck) 12hrs a day 7 days a week it’s a muck rail.
Horses for courses, and nouns for.. uh.. err.. regions? I just wasn't sure which part he meant.
That rail would be a hazard clearing trees , stems would get caught in between the bars and twist the lot off before lunch , the solid build , rolled foward extentions are the way to go or nothing , it wold also be a problem clearing stems out from between the bars till the lot was torn off . May be an overheating problem for some dozers having a solid extention .
That's what I would have figured. But I'm usually wrong!
Sorry for the late reply. In the UK we tend to call them muck rails .Its the same word we use for scraper arse ends. As Nige states,Blackwells were a well known construction company here in the UK.For many years they reigned supreme and the best of men worked for them.However,today it’s a whole different story.
I’ve not looked Nige. Can’t afford too
It’s nearly ready for work
I dunno, I was never 100% convinced with Blackwells, even back then. There was too much of the "Sarf Lunnun/Essex Wide Boy" about their operation IMO. Maybe it was nothing more than the "North vs South" thing with me being a Northener and them being from almost as far South as you can get without falling off the end.? Nicky, were you ever around Merrimans or Dyggor Gaylord..? https://books.google.com.co/books?i...oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Merriman Meighan&f=false
Sorry for the late reply Nige, I only worked on a coal site where Gaylord had some Euc R85’s and a 992 working,so don’t know much on them other than the obvious. As for Merrimans,during the 1990’s they were selling overhauled junk in the form of tractor and scraper components.They traded on their good name,but we got wisened up to their tricks with a particularly bad run of luck on a D9H that was pushloading us. I call it fraud
An old photo of Blackwell's at work. I think it might be the M11 in Essex/Cambridgeshire. Tandem pushing 657B's with D9G "Growlers". Back in the day nobody moved scrapers on lowboys. Imagine you were in a car and meeting a fleet of 657's barreling down the road. Usually they were moved late at night or early morning on a weekend when the traffic was light........... Photo is from late 60's/early 70's as far as I can tell.
Can’t see me been allowed to drive these down the road anymore
No mate, those glory days are long gone ......
brings back memories of when i was young. the company i worked for roaded scrapers most of the time. it was cheaper to pay me a days wages and burn fuel for a 50-80 mile move. they had TS14's and 631's. always had to pack a big lunch in case it broke down. usually no chase vehicle unless there were more than one at a time. only came looking for you if you didn't arrive in a reasonable time
One of my friends who passed several years ago worked on I-59 in north Alabama. That region is the end of the Appalachian Mountains so it's very difficult terrain. He would tell stories of driving 657's through the small towns from segment to segment where the scraper dirt was.
I wonder how many tramped twin engined scrapers on the road with the back halfshafts removed?
Everyone as far as I'm aware. There were a lot of twin-engined scrapers around in those days.
I’ve worked with a fair few Cat twin engines scrapers that would get the back packs removed in a few hours to make them single engines units in the right conditions. Never saw that with Terex TS24’s though. Most 24’s on our shores were either Yanky B9’s with the big V12 up front and in-line 6 in the rear,or British B10 machines with twin V8’s. I doubt the V8 units would have had to power to run in single configuration?
Worked with an outfit that ran over the road all the time . Some times 2-3 day trips they would grab old tires with bowl to act as auxiliary breaks because maintenance wasn’t high on there list of things to do. This was through NJ and NY.
I don't have 657s or twin engines but we drive our 621s right down the road or through town. Squeeze a tire between the apron and pan for an extra brake and head out.
Had a contractor in Flint that used to road their scrapers.....right down the shoulder of I-75. *** you gonna do about it other than get the hell out of the way. Ed
That’s a great idea using an old tyre in the apron as a break
It works. Had to come up with something after a near collision with a FedEx truck. Looked like a milling machine came through for 60ft from the stinger ripping up asphalt. Besides that my best memory from scraper roading was when I felt a bump going up a big long pull on the hwy. My crazy brother's scraper would outrun mine and he was giving me a boost.
Company I worked at back in the '80s had 2 Trojan loaders, I don't remember the model, but a tractor-trailer couldn't carry 2 full buckets of coal. They had little to no brakes, of course. We had to take one back to the power plant from the shop, about 7 miles. We put an R-model with a beat up steel dump trailer in the front, my brother in the loader, then me in the service truck bringing up the rear. The plan was to put the bucket against the dump trailer, and use the truck's brakes. The route was flat except for a high 4-lane bridge. The plan was to put the bucket against the trailer at the top and let the truck keep it under control all the way down. As we got to the top, the driver looked in the mirror and saw that huge bucket, and panicked! He started stuffing gears coming down the bridge, and holding the air horn down! When we got to the bottom we were doing over 60 in a 35 mph zone, cars scattering! When we got stopped a couple miles later, the driver opened the truck door and started babbling apologies. My brother didn't say a word, he jerked him out by the hair and knocked him out with one punch half-way to the ground.
More from the vaults - Stokey Plant, the UK's premier rock ripping contractor back in the 1970's. Still going today. Back then their operators were the class of the field. Photos taken from Stokey's web site.
How many bedrooms is the cab?
Yes,Stokey men were top drawer as they did all their own servicing and cutting edge changes
I think Cat didn't offer a cab back then. Those were the 1st generatrion cab IIRC. Made out of fibreglass.........!!! ROPS didn't come until much later. They did indeed. Every one of them was a pretty competent fitter as well as being a top-notch operator. What I always remembered about Stokey was that all ripper tips and cutting edges used during a job were charged to the customer on top of the machine hire rate.
Those are Leverton cabs in the pictures. Made just up the road from where I went to school. Nicky, those TS24’s also came out with a V12 and rear V8. Coal board had a few that found their way into muck shift when the NCB had had the best out of them.