Found some old picture that have been taken of me on some equipment as I grew up. Here they are This is when I was about 6 yrs old at work with my grandfather. 10 years later I'm working by myself, here is a pic of me standing next to a rock that will be used on a pond dam. age 14 learned how to operate a 953 track loader age 14, on the cat 325 with grapple
pics through out high school. Age 14 -18 one summer running the dresser Bulldozer building a pond. Clearing trees to build a pond Pic of the case 330 dump truck I drove after school for a month while we were digging a 3 acre pond. Moving the new Deere 230 excavator across the creek.
Komatsu rubber track dump truck I used to haul mud away from a pond. this thing was awsome, truck is mounted on a turn table which allows it to swivel 360 degrees without having to move the tracks. Just washed it! Me next to the cat 5110 Excavator That's all. Anyone else have any pics of operating machines when you were young?
dude you are my hero!
Nice photos Dirtman, Whos 5110 is that? I can't say that I grew up around equipment like some others have, but I am making up for it now, by running them for a living.:notworthy :drinkup
It was on a jobsite we were working on. Stopped and took a couple of pictures of it one day before I went home. Its a massive machine!
dude you are really lucky to get so much experience and at such a young age. hats off to you man.
You're lucky someone remembered to take pictures at the time. I rarely saw a camera when I was growing up so there aren't many pictures of my early experiences with machines. It wasn't that camera's weren't invented yet (after re-reading that, that's how it sounded), it's just that nobody had one.
the heaviest piece of equipment i got near growing up was a lawnmower. lol. and a hand push electric one at that.
Yeah, I wish I was able to have taken more through out my childhood, but at least I was able to take those. Now I try to take more pictures since I have a digital camera. Notice how all those pictures are of " pictures" taken with my old polaroid instant picture camera. Those cost too much to be taking many pictures! I've also had the opportunity to operate a few motorgraders, rollers, compactors, tractors, Pavers, and the ungodly SHOVEL and I'm only 20 now
I wish someone took pictures of me when I was a kid around the equipment. Those are great things to hold onto.
Dirtman, you and I have grown up very similar. When I was growing up I didn't go to the babysitters, I was with dad, and if there was no place to be with dad, I was with my grandpa. Spent many hours riding on the 850 JD with dad and then more so on the Dresser 15C. Lots of hours riding with grandpa on the 860 scraper(no wonder my hearing is so bad, from the 671). One thing I have always enjoyed about our type of business, alot due to size, was that we tackeled many different projects. Lots of dams, waterways, timber removal, building sites, roads, etc. I am only a few years older than you but will tell you this. Cherish the time you have working with your father and other family members, the time goes way too fast. I don't get to work with my dad much any more and it tears at me each day. But I know that from growing up around this equipment has enabled me to be in the position I am today. Trbo Not to take away anything from D-man, but heres a few that I have from gowing up. Anyone else have any of themselves, would be neat to see as well. http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff123/EZTRBO/pics of myself/
nice pictures. I wish someone had a camera when I was a little boy around heavy equipment.
Nice, looks like you got a good start. I wish I would have had those opportunities as a kid, nobody in my family is in the dirt biz. I had to get into operating through my lawn maintenance customers wanting improvements to their land. When I was 16, I rented a Cat 312 for a weekend to remove 2 acres of orchard. From there I started slowly with heavy iron, but I'd been on tractors on the farm my whole life.
Landscaping ---> Heavy Iron Seems like for those of us who weren't lucky enough to grow up playing with heavy iron, that landscaping was a typical entry into heavy equipment/excavating etc. How many is that true for????
Landscaping seems to be a good route for most. I started running Bobcat's and mini's when I was 14 or 15 and the occasional 12 ton excavator for a couple orchard removal job. The sad thing is that I haven't run anything larger than a 15 ton excavator for an extended period of time. I really want to get on something 30-40 tons and go to town. Around here, most guys don't have anything bigger than a 120, a 200 at the absolute most. I haven't been exposed to the really big stuff, nothing bigger than a D5, I've run a Cat 988B at the pit, but that's about the biggest piece I've been on. I really would like to get on some larger iron, hopefully the union apprenticeship will get me there, if I am accepted.
Sure sounds like you're ready for the really big stuff. Sounds like you go at those orchard removals pretty aggressively. Gets you primed for the big machines. Good luck with the apprenticeship. Sounds like you've paid your dues and your ready to move on. Good luck man.
its true for me, my dad is a superintendent for a construction company that builds big commercial buildings and during the summer and when i ddid'nt go to school i would go to work with him, and run some equipment. the first piece of equipment i ran was a bobcat 863, then a JD 410, a cat 420, a cat excavator ( forget what size), a gradall, D3 , 953c, and a bunch of skid loaders including my dads NH L185, and of course the new cat 297c My dad also owns a landscaping buissness and I ran mowers and loaders.I grew up with landscaping 10+ yrs now. I am 15 going on 16 and would like to find an apprentice program for heavy equipment operating.
yea I saw the union apprenticeship online somewhere, what... how do you get excepted? what do you do speciffically? any classes
Yeah I got my start in landscaping too, My dad owns a fairly good sized co. for this area so i had a chance to run many different kinds of equip over the years until about a year ago when I decided to go out on my own. Excavating seemed like a perfect fit!
You gotta be 18 first of all. It varies from state to state and union to union, but they only accept a certain number of apprentices per year. The application is pretty straightforward, provide a resume with work references, letters of recommendation, copies of birth certificate, etc.. After that, I have to take a written exams for reading and math, should be easy there as well. Then you have to pass the drug test and a physical and after all that you're ready to fly. Out here, if I'm selected I go to the training grounds for 6 or 8 weeks next spring, can't remember exactly how long. A week or two is safety training, etc. I believe, after that I think we're on equipment. To be completely honest, I get the impression that apprenticeship program, at least for the union I applied for, is just like those equipment operation schools. I hope I'm wrong, I don't want to be at the training grounds for 6 weeks learning about how to maintain equipment and how to safely operate them, I already have a good handle on that. We'll see though, I may completely off from my expectations, but I'm trying to figure out what we're going to do out there for almost 2 months, you can learn a lot on the job just by doing it. I actually hope they just throw us on a different piece for about a week for the full 2 months, that would be awesome. I'd like to get on a grader or scraper eventually and the training grounds should provide that opportunity. Around here, most of the big jobs are union jobs and I want experience on larger projects. When I tell people I'm headed into the union, a few say it's a mistake and that unions are bad, but the on-the-equipment training is the best. 2 weeks a year you have to go back to the training grounds for training hours, pick and piece and go for it.
Union Training How much does the union apprenticeship cost? How many applicants for how many spaces?
It costs nothing to train, room and board at the training facility is free. However, you are not paid for the time spent at the training grounds, but I guess you can collect unemployment while you're there. I think to join the union costs $400-500 or so, a friend of mine who's a laborer told me that's what it cost him to join up. Around here, I'm told they accept 40-60 apprentices per year, depending on workload. I enclosed with my application 4 letters of recommendation, one was from a project manager of a large company that employs union operators that has a couple different offices across the state. They're pretty big here in WA, but they're huge in Hawaii. Anyway, long story short, I recieved an "intent to hire" letter from a project manager from the company, I hope that does something for me. I'd like to work for them eventually, if not, no biggie, but back home where I grew up they're the biggest around and working for them would be awesome. They did a huge development in my home town a couple years back, after mowing my lawns I'd go up there for an hour or two and see what was going on. Running a Hitachi Zaxis 650 and 5 Volvo A40D ADT's, 2 Cat D8R's with Trimble GPS units, a couple smaller hoes and dozers, this was one of the bigger jobs that I've seen back home.
that 5112 you could do some real damage . o by the way nice pic:drinkup
Pictures of me around equipment as a kid Here are some pictures of me around equipment as a kid. I think I first sat in a backhoe with my Dad when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I remember I started learning to operate it at 6 years old. I'd usually spend most Saturday mornings at work with my Dad. By the age of 10 I could run a backhoe no problem. Well here are some pictures, I don't have that many, wish I had more. They're not that good a quality, they're pictures of pictures if you get me. This is the first machine I ever sat in, a JCB 3C. My Dad's running it here. This was taken in 1975. Here's me aged 6 in a JCB 3C Backhoe And here I am aged 6 in a CASE 850 Tracked Loading Shovel
yup...i started cutting grass around the age of 11 then when i was 15 i started work for the dirt company, at 18 they moved me up to running the big stuff off and on....then at 20 i was put in the equipment full time and now i am 21 i'm still a green horn by all means...but only practice makes perfect
More pictures of me around equipment as a kid Here I am aged 10 with my Dads JCB 3CX-4 Backhoe and his car at that time lol. Here I am in the 3CX Aged 11 in a JCB 805B Turbo Excavator, I ran this very machine for a short time when I left school, it was a bit worse for wear by then! In the JCB 805B aged 11.
More pictures of me around equipment as a kid Me aged 11 running a JCB 3CX-4 sitemaster backhoe Stand back I'm coming through! Me aged 11 in the 3CX sitemaster
No Pictures I learned at 8, Dad bought a 1974 JD 350B with the bucket, and Blade and backhoe attachment and a 1974 Ford 800 with a 2 stick transmission and a 391 gas engine. tractor use to take alot of buckets in order to fill that truck. At 9 I was caught on the road with the tractor, RCMP was not too happy. Snowcleared alot with that Tractor it had no cab or rops. If that was today I suppose child protective services would have you arrested.:drinkup. For my 11th birthday I got a JD644B Dad said happy bithday now me and you have got to learn to run it. As luck would have it the 3964 showed up on my 13th birthday my hands are still sore from that one. and my arms must have streached and inch form bringing it hydrolic oil.
Solar 140 I liked the closeup picture of you at 11 in the excavator,with you seating up straight and your toes just touching the floor. Classic picture that would be one that i would have framed and hangup on the wall at home and the office it you have your own busniess. Great picture:cool2:usa
Well, I've spent nearly 10 of my 14 years with my dad on the jobsite, and I can remember at least 3 or 4 of those was around one of our contractor's stuff. Never got to try any of it out, as the water company was busting our balls bad back then. Trying to maybe get a summer job with a local excavating company this summer so I can learn how to operate and work on them, hopefully!!! (And all I have for now are my "toys" lol...) Here's some of the stuff hiding around that I've found in the past year...
don't get discouraged if they don't give you seat time...or any responsibilities for that matter because if you are only 14 chances are they won't....just take everything as a learning experience, i started at an excavation company at 15 and now i am 21 running my own jobs with 1 or 2 laborers...like everything else in the world, it just takes time
http://www.stripmine.org/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi/wwwboard/stripmine?cmd=get&cG=1383131373&zu=3138313137&v=2&gV=1&p=#18117 some earlier pics from over at stripmine I posted Hey, they're friends of ours for several decades and they know I've been waiting for years for my chance to do so...may start out as a gopher but I'll get my chance soon. Hopefully. :beatsme
That first pic of the Bucyrus Erie crane looks like it was taken at Brunelli's yard over on Buckland street.Ron G
No family pics... I wish my family had taken pictures of me running the equipment too. I have hardly any pictures of me growing up running equipment. I am making up for it now though, I try to take as many pictures as I can thanks to digital cameras. They are the best.:usa
Ron, where is that? I took it at the Ansaldi yard on Bidwell Street in Manchester. If you mean Brunalli, I don't think they have a B-E but they moved some nice equipment next to the Rails-to-Trails path so I'll be over there this week. (I think there's a P&H crane, Drott/Case crane, Euclid truck, tons of Autocars, Dynahoe, Hitachi excavator, and I don't remember what else.) The 235B is over on the Bristol/Southington Line next to West Street, the Liebherr is at the former Mackiewicz Homes sandpit off of West St. (owner passed on and his equipment was sold and removed, but this one had a blown motor and is still sitting there), and the other two are at the Target/Lowe's site next to I-84 coming through town (also on West St.).
I don't get over there much these days but Brunalli had a storage yard on Buckland street just about across the street from where Wilbur street intersects and it seems to me that they had some Busyrus Erie equipment there from time to time.I agree that they have P&H too. I know where the jobsite is on West st.I recognized the Mobil station as that has been there for a long time. Keep the pics coming,I enjoy seeing them,especially in the areas that I am familiar with. My comment was just a shot in the dark,mostly to let you know that you are being watched. Ron G PS Buckland street is in Plantsville off of So. Main street just past the P.O.
I will get around to getting some of those pictures I have "digitalized" one is me when I was about 4 Y/O standing in a "huge" (at that time) Komatsu PC 300. I think I have one of me around that same time in a Case Backhoe.
Oh, that Buckland Street ops...I was told that was F&F Concrete's spare yard. They have a lot of P&H and Dynahoe stuff, but I never noticed any B-E stuff, but then again I don't go by there too often. And yes, I'm going down to Brunalli's yard and taking some pics later.
F&F just leased the property while they were operating their plant up the street there.They moved everything to west main street on their own property which allowed the owners to develop the property according to their wishes.Ron G
I knew that their old plant was over there somewhere many years ago...and sorry no pics today but definitely tomorrow. And I noticed a new site going up across from Brunalli's garage.
I have not been on Summer st. for many years.That used to be a good area for heavy industry with the railroad close by but trucking has undercut the cost of shipping so much that the railroad could not compete.That may be turning around somewhat with the price of petroleum these days.Ron G
I believe the town still has the option to tear out the path if the railroad decided to come back again...I know a lot of companies and the government fought for the line to stay in but no, Guilford took it out. There's nothing really new on Summer Street but there's something new being dug up across from the Brunalli yard. I believe there is still a small drop forge down there along with some commercial businesses and some big landscaping yard down by Plantsville and F&F (I think old Denmark Lumber?). Sorry, but no pics today as the sky looks kinda weird and I'm not walking a mile to get caught in a downpour with nowhere to go. :beatsme Hopefully tomorrow or sometime this weekend.