Hi all, First thread on scrapers forum. Second thread on board. There is a little about me on the dozer forum. A query about the British built Blaw Knox Goliath scraper. I think they were manufactured in the early to mid 1950's and proved to be quite unpopular. I have only seen a couple of photos of one at work and it was in Europe with a company called P.C Zanen who may have been Dutch. Does anyone know anything about them as regards numbers built and how they performed. Photos would be great. Also the Russian manufactured MoAZ 546 or the earlier model MA3. I have seen quite a few images of them at work in the Soviet Union and also on U-tube. They appear to be rather crude and of typical Russian construction. The photos I have show them to be either Olive Green or a light blue in colour and someone said it signified the factory where they were produced. Were they exported at all? I have never heard of much Soviet Equipment being used elsewhere apart from a few dozers in England and maybe some dump trucks here in Aussie bought in for a mining project up North Queensland. Would like to know more and again, photos would be great. As soon as I can I will post some photos of the scrapers I have seen around the country. Best regards, Dozeron.
[Hi , the Blaw Knox scraper worked for a short while in the Netherlands . It was no succes . In the fifties and sixties several scrapers were sold by smart salesmen who told to contractors that these machines could do everything . They did not tell you needed a heavy dozer to pushload them . So , many construction firms started making scrapers . There have been a lot of unknown make . I have never seen Russian scrapers in Western Europ but I have much info about them . Here is a pic of a German Henschel and one of the American Curtiss Wright The Netherlands , johan7 ATTACH]112368[/ATTACH]
Hi johan7 Yes the Blaw Know wasn't really successful. There were only two Curtiss-Wright scrapers that came into New Zealand that I know of. It was very difficult for other manufacturers to compete against the likes of Caterpillar, Euclid/Terex and Wabco etc. The TS-14 was very popular and the agents sold 52 in one single year in the 1960's. That's one a week in a country of less than 3,000,00. Not bad business. NZ also had it's own home manufactured motor scraper. I will put up some images when I can post on the board. Best regards, dozeron.