Historic NZ Earthmoving Projects

[Mr Euclid]

Ray, this is a great subject for a thread. I wonder how many years it took to shift the 3,000,000 yards on the Murupara project given the size of the fleets and equipment?

I think I have a copy of the same Benmore booklet that some of your scans are from. Attached below is another page from it for the Caterpillar machines on the project. The 631's I think were the first in NZ and belonged to JR Bishop.



I'll see what else I have stashed away as well. Looking forward to some good posts in the future!

 

[Aussie John]

A little bit more on the IH 495s. The 495s used at Twizel were the same machines that were initially used at Benmore and Avimore. They were a great machine and moved a lot of dirt in their time. I was working for the MOW at Twizel as a diesel fitter and spent a fair bit of time with these scrapers. At least 2 were written of due to accident damage - jack-knifing on icy roads and another was converted into a penstock hauler in the fabrication shop in Twizel for the Tekapo B powerstation. They were replaced with 15 IH 295s in 1974 which overall gave a poor run with a lot of transmission problems. Of the 15, we were lucky to have more than 10 running at any time. I spent most of 1975 looking after these 295s. The 495s were good on the road and would easy do 50mph plus and rode as good as a truck with no bounce. We also had safety latch hooks fitted to the bowl so that it would not drop while travelling on the haul roads.

Regards,
John

 

[Aussie John]

I doubt if the scrapers in the second last post at Benmore belonged to John Bishop. At that time from what I can recall, he only had a couple of DW15 scrapers and the largest dozer was a D6C. I remember having a go driving this pushing the DW15s while I was at highschool on a road project near Herbert in North Otago. He later went to a couple of Terex TS14s he set up push-pull for working in irrigation races in the lower Waitaki Vally. His first 631s would have been B series which worked on the Tekapo Canal.

regards,
John

 

[Mr Euclid]

Hi John, yes you may be correct with the 631's not belonging to JR Bishop. For whatever reason I always thought they were but after thinking about I don't recall seeing it in writing any where. Must have been one of the other contractors working at Benmore at the time.

Thanks

Mr Euclid

 

[Mr Euclid]

Just stumbled across this website................http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113162022035760#!/group.php?gid=113162022035760&v=wall

Lots of great photos of the earthmoving associated with the hydro project at Twizel.

 

[RayC]

Mr Euclid

Many thanks for a great link to the Twizel Photos...Fantastic photos...just what we are looking for...lets hope this jogs a few more memories

 

[Aussie John]

Great link to the photos. Brings back memories of the Camp4 / Camp 6 area and the different machines used on the site.

 

[Paydozer]

Good Memories.

Really great link - lots of good memories - the MOW 560 Payloaders and Komatsus were after my time.Will have a go over the holiday season to try and post some of my Twizel photos.

 

[malcolm]

A Few Kiwi action shots
enjoy Malcolm

 

[malcolm]

Some more

 

[malcolm]

4 more

 

[malcolm]

Some red Tractors at Matahina

 

[Paydozer]

Any ideas ?

Malcolm,
Some great shots - I see a couple of Roadmakers TD 24s - any idea on ownership of the other gear in the shots ?

 

[Mr Euclid]

A couple more shots. They link to an external hosting site as the scans are quite large.

First up another Benmore Ad:

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/2139/benmore1fs.jpg

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7261/benmore2fs.jpg

Some more Twizel:



http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8162/upw02fs.jpg

Mr Euclid

 

[X Quad Operator]

Good morrning Malcolm, Love these photos of the cat and can activity, I only ran a cat and can once myself, the cat and can was my dads era back in 1941 he told me he ran a D8 2U pulling a 35 yard woolridge scraper and how steep they would come off the hills. I also under stand the cat and can were great for finish work, I knew a lot of old timers that swore by the cat and can era, the stories they would tell at lunch they were great. Have a great day Mike Nebergall

 

[meek]

Hi,
I am a newbie here (FIRST post reply),

I found this forum via a search for LeTourneau Heavy Equipment and this thread appears to be an appropriate place to key into the these forums because it relates to the following thread that came up when I landed at this website:

Thread: LeTourneau scraper

Furthermore the following reply within the above thread caught my interest because of a question that I cannot ask until I have passed the three post requirement. So for the present, I have simply copied and pasted that particular reply below and I will ask the question once I am permitted to do so.

11-11-2006, 11:32 PM#3
JimBruce42


JimBruce42 posted the following:

“LeT never was in the business of small thats for sure.”

Meek,
Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[meek]

Hi again,
I am not just trying to fullfill my three post requirement but yes I hope this is allowed to add as my second post because the administrator said someting about a test place that I don't quit uderstand.

Anyway you folks most likely have seen the (National Geographic?) documentary on PBS TV about the building of the Panama Canal. If you have not seen it, it is a MUST see.

BTW: I have a little Terra Track Dozer built in the 1950's smaller than a D2. CASE bought out Terra Track in the 60's. I am rebuilding the undercarriage on my Terra Tack. Because parts are no longer available for the TT, I am upgrading to "Deere 40" pins and bushings on the rails (links) for the tracks. These new pins and bushings are larger in diameter and longer than the TT pins and bushings so I designed and built a fixture (tooling) for my milling machine to to bore the holes in the rails for press fit of the new pins and bushings and of course these new parts have to also be cut to length and naturally they are hardend alloy steel. Quite a project.

Please let me know if there is a better forum within Heavy Equpment Forums.com for me to engage others on this topic because I am going to need input on this project and could help others who might be doing the same or similar. For example; I could provide free drawings and photo's of my milling machine fixture if anyone wants to copy it. I should mention that this Deere 40 upgrade has already been succesfully accomplished by a friend of mine on his TT.

Meek,
Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[meek]

Hi,
I am a newbie here (FIRST post reply),

I found this forum via a search for LeTourneau Heavy Equipment and this thread appears to be an appropriate place to key into the these forums because it relates to the following thread that came up when I landed at this website:

Thread: LeTourneau scraper

Furthermore the following reply within the above thread caught my interest because of a question that I cannot ask until I have passed the three post requirement. So for the present, I have simply copied and pasted that particular reply below and I will ask the question once I am permitted to do so.

11-11-2006, 11:32 PM#3
JimBruce42


JimBruce42 posted the following:

“LeT never was in the business of small thats for sure.”

Meek,
Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[meek]

Ooops,
sorry: after my second post, my first post came up in the quick reply box as if my second post had been rejected as I incorrectly assumed so I just clicked on Post Quick Reply expecting to start all over again.

 

[D6 Merv]

Thanks for the great pics Malcom; must have been alot of TD24s running around here once ! Have only seen about 2 in my life, neither running. Any idea how many 24s, 25s and 30s were sold here ?
That first photo of the couple in love looking into each others eyes; almost letting the crawler run itself; is supposed to be Baldy Margan and bride, isnt it as am certain i have seen that pic before in a article about them ?
Anyhow looks like true love; and the perfect woman; be hard pressed to find a real woman to do that today !
Thanks and cheers Merv