Hey folks, Long time lurker and first time poster here. I thought you might enjoy some of photos I've taken over the years of equipment left to the elements. First up is what believe to be an AC HD-20, with an intact GM 6-110. This machine sits at a long dis-used gravel quarry in the Panamint Mountains of California. Randy
Welcome to HEF mag6000, and I like the pics
Think you can get her started, Wrenchbender? :cool2 Welcome to HEF, mag6000.
Even with one wrench tied behind his back, he could!! Welcome mag6000:drinkup
Welcome to HEF mag6000! :drinkup Great pics by the way. Ya got any more?
SURE That ain't no hill to climb for a high stepper but my legs are really short on second thought :umno Thanks JeffD sorry to let ya down ..................but then it is an AC awh heck it'll probly start on it's own swing by and pick me up we'll drive it home.
I'm on my way!! I'll be riding down on my 350(just incase we need to push start it), so don't go anywhere's till I get there.
Ya know I bet that old gal kinda wants ta turn to the right all by it's self while under load. Check out those tracks dozer on the left loader on the right. Recon it came new that way?
Here are some from one of my favorite old mines of the Panamint Mountains. These pics are from the Keystone Mine. This mine last saw activity in 1993. And incidently, the Keystone Mine is only a stones throw from the Barker Ranch, where Charlie Manson and his "family" lived. Can anyone identify this truck? I never could find any markings on it.
Good Pics, nice CJ. :cool2 DP
I am not real sure, but I think it is a R-22 or R-25 Euc. Probably 50's vintage.
Think Jerry may be correct in thinking small Euc, but the look from the left front sorta reminds me of a Mack of about that same size and age. If it has a Detroit engine it's a probably a Euc, otherwise it could be most anything.
Here is the only pic I have of the engine.
Looks like a Cummins engine to me.
Very nice pics. Looks like somebody also dumped a couple of Jeep Renegades in that area too and they actually look in pretty good shape
I think you're right.
I agree that the engine does look like a Cummins and I am pretty sure that that is what the Macks had in them.It does look like a Euclid though.The Macks that I have worked around had a distinctive enough look to them that you would not mistake them for something else but that was in the `60s.Who knows how old that truck is.Ron G
One more of the mystery truck for good measure.
More from the Keystone Mine. A Payloader with a side-dump bucket, backhoe attachment (out of view) and a V6 Cummins.
start me up you shood take some diesel and batteries there and try to start the old gear up.
It's a good thing I don't live around there cause I would be like a kid in a candy/toy store:woohoo Keep them pics rolling on in
Are these things just abandoned? That loader especially is actually a pretty good looking machine. Where in California are they at? Great pics keep them coming!
OK, more from the Keystone Mine. An AC HD-6G that is in pretty good shape. I have a film photo of this same machine that I took back in 1998. And in comparing that one and the digital one you see here, I noticed someone has made off with the bucket dump/rollback hydraulic cylinders. Even though these machines will most likely never be used again, they are private property and should be left alone. The motto in the desert is to leave things as you found them so the next person can enjoy. Third pic is of an old military 5 ton 6x6 dump truck that is "parked" about 100 ft from the Allis.
Yeah Buddy, me too!! Great pics Mag6000.:yup
These are a couple of my favorite pieces at the Keystone. These are the ore loader and the ore dump wagon. They are parked just inside the main tunnel entrance.They were made by Eimco and have 6 cylinder Duetz air-cooled diesels. First is the loader. These tunnel specific loaders were also known as a "muckers". I'd say the tallest part of this mucker was no higher than 4 ft, if that. The dumper is bit taller but not by much.The operator sits in a sideways position on both machines. The pics are not the best due to the tight quarters and the ventilation shaft that has fallen from the ceiling.
And the dumper
I bet we have a few people that still use machines (and make money with)that old every day! KoO!
Just think at one time, operators could have been fighting over who would get the new piece. Why do they just abandon equipment, some of it probally run when they closed up shop. Looks like a neet place to explore.:beatsme
What are these it appears to be some sort of tanks?
cool pics, i wish there was cool places to go off roading like that around here:thumbsup
Wottarday????????? Hi, Wrenchbender. I'll hazard a guess and say filter housings. Neat photos, Mag6000. Thanks for posting and welcome to this little corner of cyberspace. Did anybody else pick that the A-C HD6G loader had dozer track plates instead of the usual loader-style pads?
tanks for the air starter maybe? I know a lot of underground equipment use air starters. I have heard that they were popular in aussie truck into the late 80's.
Did anybody else pick that the A-C HD6G loader had dozer track plates instead of the usual loader-style pads? Sure I did but only one side. I'll hazard a guess and say filter housings. tanks for the air starter maybe? :beatsme Both are possible but yet I still wonder thanks guys now I really want to know. Cause I ain't never seed one o-dem machines afrore ona kind they ain't many mines around here.
Thanks for the welcome and comments. Now you've got me thinking about those tanks. I guess I'll have to go back out there and have a closer look. It is difficult to tell with the re-sized pic, but the HD6G has the standard issue loader pads with bars welded on. They did a nice job too. And as far why the miners left these pieces behind when they ceased activity here? Probably was'nt worth the trouble to bring them out. This mine is 20-25 miles from the nearest paved road. And the fact that the equipment is old and/or worn out probably made them think twice about spending the time and money to retrieve them. Anyway, how about a few more from the semi-ghost town of Darwin Ca.
Real Places So these places are really out there and cars traucks and equipment just sitting around unattended for years. On this side of the Mississippi they would have become donor vehicles or worse just gone. Keep them pics comeing ya know we is pic junkies.
California is just plumb full of old iron like this, it's everywhere. Just take a drive off any of the freeways into some of the backcountry and you will see stuff like this. Old farm equipment is even more common.
More from the desert. Taken in Ridgecrest,Trona and Ballerat Ca. in order. Does anyone know what type of machine that is in the second pic?
The one in the second pic should be in the Wierd grader thread. Maybe Grader4me will chime in on this one. I just can't get over this stuff staying put right where it was left. Great pics
It resembles a road planer, and looks as though it caught fire in the cab area. But I sure can't pin a maker or model to it. It may also be a stabilizer, or soil cement machine, possibly built on a Galion 104 or 118 chassis.
That pic of the grader/rototiller thing is about 4years old and that machine has since disappeared to who knows where. Here are some from our trip to Moab Ut. I spotted this poor old Cat DW21 on the road to Halls Crossing at Lake Powell. The JD was in Escalante, Ut.
The pic of the JD tractor is great. :drinkup Any more vintage farm equipment?
That Allis after the Hough looks like a pretty good machine if it weren't for the missing cylinders. Where is it located do you know?
I love those old DW-21s! Cable controls, stick shift, pony motor, makes me appreciate what we have today.
Yeah I hear ya, one of my customers had an old D6 with pony start. Only problem was he could never start the pony. So I rigged him an eletric starter for the pony. But then he would forget to charge the battery and I would still have to go out and start it for him. Sure was glad when he traded that one off.
Those old machines were very good machines. My father moved a lot of dirt with DW21s just like that one. Nothing wrong with them at all, they just did not have modern conveniences we now take for granted. Was the old D6 direct drive? If it is, if you have another machine already running you can push it to start.
Oh yes it was DD I even took my 1 ton wrecker and ran the cable under the blade so it would lift the blade as I pull started it a few times. The guy was an Airline Pilot and when he was in town he would drive ya nuts. Once you would get him running he'd call in a couple hours cause he got stuck now. I know it's money anyway but I kinda like to be productive and not just spinning my wheels.
I started out on S7 Eucs, went to D-pull Wabcos and LeTourneau's, then got onto Cat DW20's, MRS 110's, and TS24's in the Seabees. Got a ride on a Cat or International pulling either a cable or hydraulic scraper once in a while. Back out of the service I ran TS14's in Texas and then my 1st real love again, TS24's outside of Denver. Pound for pound I enjoyed operating a 24 more than any other scraper before or since. Powerful, fast, easy to load and dump, they were great! But life moves on, Cat 613's, International 295's and 495's, AC 260's, 261's, and 460's, then Wabco 222's, then the big time, Cat 651B's and Euc TS32's in Wyoming. Since then Cat 641B's, 627's, 623's, 637's, 631D's, 615's, and 651E's, a 660A and a 666B. The DW20, or Twenty-wagon we called it, was a real hand full. Hard to start (pony engine), very stiff five-speed manual transmission with a hard clutch, cable controls, and it was a four-wheel tractor, not an overhung model. The damn thing nearly killed me once and I know other operators that jumped off the derned thing when it got out of control. It was a bad bouncer on rough haul roads and the bowl lift cable would hang up under the cable control lever right at the cable drum at the back of the tractor. Once it got tight, it would kill the engine or snap the cable. I hated that thing. So this picture of one is truly where the darn thing belongs. 20's and 21's did carry a lot of muck during the late fifties and early sixties building freeways and missle silos around America though.
Very COOL pics!!! :thumbsup Always neat to see the old equipment, especially like that. Its almost like going back in time.
A few more for today. A beautiful GMC truck with end dump out in the Nevada desert taken in '02. Anyone got a year on this truck? An ancient grader. I've forgotten the manufacturer's name on this one also taken in '02. And a very well preserved D8. I snapped this picture in 1984 while stationed at Great Lakes Il.
I'll take a stab and say that grader is a Galion, as I've seen a nearly identical unit parked outside a city works department (it's painted up and on display of course). I'm sure somebody will correct me though, heh heh.
I would say early to mid forties on the GMC,it appears to have a crank out windshield.I think it would be hard to nail down the exact year because things didn't change much during the war years.Their bodies started changing in `46 or`47 as I recall.Ron G
A Rare Bird Hi, Mag6000. You have a photo of a sorta rare bird there in that old D8. Unless I miss my guess, it is what was called a 'Hi-Power' D8, 2U series. They had some modifications to the engine including split exhaust manifolds and twin exhaust stacks close together as you can see on that beast. It was one of about 4 variations, from various sources, all aimed at making the base machine a better push-tractor for loading scrapers. These variations were fitted mostly to 2U and 13A series tractors and some early 14A series tractors but the introduction of the 15A series D8 with torque converter made them pretty much redundant. Here are some photos of some of the variants:
WOW. I missed a day or two and look at all the goodies added to the thread. I do not know what brand grader is underneath all that gear, but it it used to make roadmix asphalt. The center attachment is a mixing drum, similar to a reclaimer and it has a hose hookup to a oil truck, which pumps the oil into the mixing chamber and blends it into the native soil mix to create roadmix, also known as desert mix asphalt. Many of the dsert roads used to be paved in this manner. As far as the equipment being left where it is, most of the mines that go broke do not have the means to move out the equipment when it is finished, and most of it is run till it will not go anymore, due to a lack of money to repair it. When the mine goes broke, it is all abandoned. Modern mines have to post a bond to insure the site gets cleaned up, but that did not apply many years ago.
Deas Plant, Thanks for the info on that D8. I never noticed the twin pipes in the picture before. Neat stuff! The next bunch of pics are working older equipment taken in 1984. They could be "used and forgotten" by now. Here are more from Great Lakes Il., 1984. If I remember correctly, this was an airport expansion project.
And some more,
Now those are some BEASTY looking tractors pulling the pans. And thanks DeasPlant, I didn't even notice the twin stacks on the D8Cat in that last set of pics.
Here are some pics from 1987. This is the Yeager Construction Co. sculpting Little Mountain in San Bernardino, Ca. for a shopping center and housing tract. The pics are not the best. I took them from a long distance with a telefoto lens from the next ridge over.
And some more...
How about a few more.
Last two.
Good flicks mag6000. Yeager has moved about half of California with Cat scrapers. Big jobs like these are good to work on and interesting as hell. Never a dull moment, especially with a well run and fast moving scraper production spread.
Sad to see what happens to the machinery at the end of their lives. Once proud are now rusting away.
Love that old D8 pic....... you got enough room on that seat for a honey!!!!
Mag6000 Great pics of the Yeager spread. I have seen a great many of their jobs around here. Shame to see the name gone away now that they were bought out by Skanska from I believe Sweden. If you look closely at the pice from the hiltop cut, you will see the old 641 stiff hitch scrapers are working in the rock cut in the center, with the D-9L pushcats to get better power to the ground, and the newer 651B's, 651E's, and 657B's are working the better dirt on the perimeter of the hill, with the older D-9H or G pushcats. Those old 641's spent most of their life stuck in the rock somewhere, and they were pretty rough as a result, but they ran steady.
I worked for Yeager back in the mid 80's-early 90's. I'll dig up some pics for y'all. :cool2
Temecula, Ca. and Anaheim Hills, Ca. :cool2
Most of the time I ran a 657B. My rig must have been down which is why I was on a 824. :cool2
Some of you might know Denny McCoy. He's on the D10 #1267 :cool2
nice pics
Great pics guys! I love those yeager shots mag6000 and RollOver Pete!!!:cool2
I'd say the two round bldgs in the background are the reactors at the Zion Nuclear Plant. That power plant is now shut down. I don't think there is a runway at Great Lakes Naval Base. Willy
You're right, no runway at Great Lakes. Here are a couple more oldtimers. An Autocar and a TD14(?). These pics were taken at a small family owned sawmill up in the San Bernardino Mtns in Ca. I remember the Autocar hauling logs and the dozer being used around the mill in the late seventies.
The 14 looks good. Probably could run in a day or so with a little TLC......
Welcome to HEF willy victor! :drinkup
If you listen real close you can hear the AutoCar running at an idle now. Looks like she's just waiting on a load to haul and someone to get that old tank off her back.
I agree on the Autocar waiting for another load.That is an '50s vintage.I used to drive a couple of Autocar concrete mixers,we had a '55 with round fenders and a '56 with square fenders,of course they were much larger than this one but we also had a tractor for our cement tanker that was just like the pic you posted. Those things were HOT in the summer,they had a big flathead gas engine with a four barrel carb and dual exhaust manifold with a 5x4 transmission and right behind the cab was a Chrysler industrial engine to drive the mixer that generated even more heat. I doubt that you could find anyone today that would drive that truck on a daily basis.Ron G
I love all those old pics. A buddy of mine just recently picked up an AC HD5G Im pretty sure its a 5 but it may be a 6. Its got a 2-71 detroit in it. Paid 750 for it and it runs great and everything works good. That was one hell of a deal.
Welcome to HEF chris88! :drinkup
Heres some more pics of my time with E.L. Yeager in the early 90's. I ran a 657B on this job. :cool2
:cool2
heres yall a new link http://www.overland.co.za/grader/index.html
OK, I gotta get my post count above 3, so I'll ask my question here... I'm new to this forum, but not new to heavy equipment. I have worked in a few mining ops here and there, mostly on the welding/mechanical side, with a few chances to run the equipment. I have since left that line of work to raise my daughter, after spending most of my life's savings on fertility treatments for my wife to get pregnant. I'm now a manager of an auto parts supply store. We live in a small farming community in Central Missouri, and we raise Holstein calves on our farm, just for fun I guess... Anyway, the reason for coming here was to ask for an opinion. I have recently found a small Hough Payloader that I'm thinking about buying, fixing up, and either selling or using in my operation. I do know the little things are pretty much useless in mud, but I'm more interested in using it in the shop as a forklift/loader/junk mover. This particular unit is a H25 Paylomatic, in pretty rough condition. The owner tells me that it was purchased several years ago, brought home and backed off the trailer, to never be used again. He says it ran when parked. My question is this: What's the little turd worth? They have mentioned maybe selling it for scrap price, and I believe that'd be a steal. It needs tires, paint, and a LOT of TLC, but I think it'd make a fine little machine. Can you guys give your opinions? I'd appreciate it! I'm going to take some pictures of it soon. I'll post when I can.
Well, since this thread has been resurrected, I'll post an update on one of the machines featured earlier in the thread( The Allis track loader on page 2, post #23). Recently a bunch of us went to check out Charlie Mansons hideout in the Panamint Mountains and I stopped off at the Keystone Mine where the Allis is sitting and snapped some new pics. Found another small ore truck too. For years the loader arms were propped up with a 4x4 across the hood(see page 2). That 4x4 finally popped and the loader is resting on the ground now. Also, someone helped themself to the ram for the ripper.
Ore truck and stationary engine.
Someone needs to recover that HD6-G! That machine looks too good to leave it to rust. I used to operate a horizontal drill mounted on an HD6 with the 4 cyl Buda engine. That machine looks like it's in really good shape.
Anyone have any pictures of old tractors? Farmalls? Ive got a 1950 Farmall C so im a little interested in those
I agree thats a nice looking 6-G
Depending on condition a couple hundred to less than a grand, they were kind of an early cross between a forklift and skidsteer and you are correct they do much better on hard surfaces. There is quite abit of info on these on redpower, construction side. I agree that HD6 looks way to good to sit there slowly getting picked over....:beatsme Thx for the pics guys, the desert seems to preserve them quite well........
It looks like a Mack, front fenders bring back memories.
It looks like a Mack, front fenders bring back memories. for page #1 frame #9
Old grader in page 4. #49 When I was in grade school 1955 I saw this type of grader on a hand crank Fordson I think. It did not have duels but single tractor diamond tread.
ya I worked for that jerk a time or 5.....lol
Just giving this a bump, loved the old photos
'nother bump.........come on guys,show your selves,who are you really? I like those old pics.Ron G
You might be right, I first thought it was an Adams but after looking I tend to agree with you.
Something about the old 2U nags at me. I remember (real fuzzy) running one in the Army in 1961 or so. I seem to remember that it had some sort of different drive setup. Only 3 speeds and a odd sort of torque convertor or something like that. Was the 2U the dozer that was nose heavy. One Cat model around that time was noticable nose heavy and I think it had to do with the engine setting forward and that odd drive set up being stuck in between the engine and final drives. Anybody else have a better memory of these things?
Thats an LR Mack!! nice find
Nice pics. Just need a lick of paint and you could start working with them.
THe municipality I work for has two old eucs that look a lot like that one........ With CUMMINS engines.
heres my t340 as i found it in worcester.. and heres how it looks today it was going to be scrapped if it didnt sell. needless to say i bought it on the spot.
Fantastic job. Well done.
Nice! :thumbsup
Fantastic restoration.
The Autocar is 1946 + -(has a war time grill) not later than 47 more likely to be 46 and older looks like a C90.
my first pic-on forums
Crank her up! Nice Catch!
Hey, my first time posting something here. Here is a video of some old logging gear in BC Canada that I trekked into yesterday ( July 1 2012 ) more photos are at the blog until I figure out how to get photos pasted in here.....so how do you get photos moved into here?? http://youtu.be/__yYZk_aePw blog is at adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.com I'd love to get the info on getting images here Mike P
Here are a few of the hundreds of photos that I took on this property between 2006 and 2010. This old gear was parked on the acreage for over 60 years...it got off the barge and then never moved again. http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/01/more-photos-from-sterloff-property.html
I have seen a lot of old Iron just sitting and often wondered how much of it can be brought back to life?