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Gainsborough Loading Shovel M.O.D.

Ian coombs

Ian coombs

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2023
Messages
190
Location
Western Australia
A479.JPG
you can see the depth of blast and cut on the last section..A483.JPG The finished road leading up to the first section that was blasted.A484.JPG
Looking now after all these years.. very untidy and a lot of wasted sand.. but we were on a vertical learning curve. In the Royal Engineers we learnt to drive/operate everything plus our core role as combat engineers, infantry, and you normally had a specialty like radio operator.. we had a period where we exchanged some guys for a week with a US Corp of Engineers who specialised in runway repair too.. the dozer op' had a book that recorded his hours on dozers similar to a pilot, he didn't operate anything else which seemed a waste of talent, but then again he was very good at what he didA488.JPG
Probably a sigh of relief that this is the end of the road, literally for us. Im pretty sure another one of our squadrons came back the following summer..

Early on I mentioned what to us was some unusual names..
The last photo is of my best mate at the time..

Al Beaver (very apt for Canada)..
 
W

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,553
Location
Canada
That's like when I went to see a large collection of very unique vintage equipment. You could spend hours and hours checking it all out.
 
Ian coombs

Ian coombs

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2023
Messages
190
Location
Western Australia
My boss on the Canada job who had gone off the radar for years turned up on the squadron fb page which was a brilliant surprise.. he took this photo of us at the end of the job.. I didn’t know this photo existed.. blast from the past..
IMG_8584.jpeg
 
Ian coombs

Ian coombs

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2023
Messages
190
Location
Western Australia
Welder Dave said:
I didn't take any pics. when I was there. There are some pics. and video's on the internet though of some of the machines. Henuset H1900 Hopto excavators, Henuset Polarbear trencher, Raygo Giant grader.
Click to expand...
I googled of course, that brought me to yours and skykings post last year.. what an education.. mind boggling to me.. it would have been good to have a person next to most of that gear ..
 
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Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,553
Location
Canada
Ian coombs said:
I googled of course, that brought me to yours and skykings post last year.. what an education.. mind boggling to me.. it would have been good to have a person next to most of that gear ..
Click to expand...
The raised up H1900 is huge, 103 tons+ with the high walker undercarriage. They have the pipe work frame that goes under it to raise it another 10 feet and also straddle the spoil pile from the Polarbear trencher. It would be awesome if they installed that! The operator would be about 25 feet off the ground! They have 3 machines with twin 8V-71 engines. The two H1900's and the Giant grader. They want to have all the machines running for their working museum. The Polarbear has a 16V-149 at around 1200 HP! Seeing a bunch of trenchers at an auction, Henuset built quite a few if their own trenchers. They also made two HD41 side booms that could pick up Cat 591 side booms. The owner of Henuset was quite the innovator. Those machines weren't part of the collection though.
 
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