Historic NZ Earthmoving Projects

[WabcoMan]

Yes, Ken Anderson is sadly missed.
A very kind and knowledgeable man

 

[RDG]

Sorry to hear about Ken, he certainly wrote a good book, I also have the one on Kopuka and just thinking back I might have got Kens book from musuem in Rotorua as I went thru it a couple of yrs ago. Cheers RDG.

 

[Contraman]

I have a book called Servicing Caterpillar by a bloke called Ken Anderson who was a GGH service man in Taumarunui back in those days, 200 pages of pics and info from down around Tongariro/ Taumarunui. It has lots of info on machines s/ns and who bought them + some of the names of staff at GGH at the time as well as lots a info on the history of Cat in NZ in the early days. Dont remember where I got it from, think my son saw it somewhere on line and got it from there, its published by C&S PUBLICATIONS Taumarunui, if thats any help. Cheers RDG.

Wow it is a small world.
Ken Anderson was my mentor.
I started as an apprentice under him at GG&H in Taumarunui hence my association with the area Ken was the Service Manager and the branch manager was Ray Robinson. Ray and his sons had some of the first D6C;s in the area.
I will try to get a hold of that book. Many Thanks

 

[Contraman]

Sorry to hear of kens demise, I agree he was a knowledgeable Cat Man.
Ken Anderson was my mentor.
I started as an apprentice under him at GG&H.

 

[WabcoMan]

Contraman,

You certainly had a good teacher in Ken Anderson.
Incredibly patient and a great diagnostic brain.
Did you know Jack Carrol who took over from Ray Robinson ?

 

[Alistair]

Cat 631

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.

View attachment 86119

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

The 631 in the photos belonged to WH Butson. There were 4 631 at bemore, 2 with factory cabs were Butson's and the 2 without cabs, belonged to Higgins Earthmoving.

 

[Reubs]

Hi guys, Would any of you have any information on the company by the name of Fowler Sealing that was based in Rotorua, and possibly Auckland? AS I have an old Galion grader that I am in the process of restoring that used to belong to that company. As I would be Interested to get in contact with anyone aho used to work or knew someone who used to work for that company, or someone who might know something to do with the history of my grader

 

[Mr Euclid]

Hi,

Thought I would add a bit more to this thread to keep it going.

Firstly, a link to some more photos from the Twizel era - Twizel Photos

Then, some photos from the construction of the Wairoa Dam near Auckland in the early 1970's showing Downers equipment, which suprisingly included a few 637's scrapers, and various other contractors in action - Wairoa Dam

I didn't take these photos so thanks to the original photographers for preserving these little bits of the past.

Regards

Mr Euclid

 

[Gavin84w]

Cracking set of pics in the first set, tnanks for the link.

If i could ask fi those first pics are scanned in to a higher resolution would you be willing to share a couple?

 

[planb]

nice pictures

 

[Aussie John]

Thanks for the link to the Twizel photos - brings back memories from when I was working there

 

[Mr Euclid]

Hi Gavin,

Your right, they are great photos in the first link and if they had a higher resolution and they would be fantastic.....unfortunately I wasn't the original photographer as all I did was find them on the web and posted the link.

Mr Euclid

 

[D6 Merv]

Great pics alright. Downers had 3 637s at weavers crossing huntly until somewhere in early 80s then i know they and a late D9G were sent off to a big job they had in fiji ? definetly some pacific isle. Anyone ever know what happened to them ?

 

[terexkerry]

Great pics alright. Downers had 3 637s at weavers crossing huntly until somewhere in early 80s then i know they and a late D9G were sent off to a big job they had in fiji ? definetly some pacific isle. Anyone ever know what happened to them ?

mate ran the job in chatems,they built the airport,and just left the gear there.

 

[D6 Merv]

Cheers kerry; hard to believe they just left it there ! place an,t big enough for any other big job there ! Thought would be too good a gear to abandon, shipping back here wouldnt have been that bad, after all supply ship for there would mostly be coming home here empty !

 

[terexkerry]

Cheers kerry; hard to believe they just left it there ! place an,t big enough for any other big job there ! Thought would be too good a gear to abandon, shipping back here wouldnt have been that bad, after all supply ship for there would mostly be coming home here empty !

its hard to believe,kerry

 

[dbtmaz]

I am particularly interested in the Higgins photo from Twizel, A guy i know has recently aquired a D9G, it came from a lime works not far from Dannevirke And before that it is ex monistry of works (Hawkes Bay?). Still has the MW plant number painted on it and also has a brass plate inside cab with NZ Govt Asset number. It looks the same as the ones in the photo, full cab, white roof and a 3 tine ripper on the back, Is it possible to find out more of the history of this machine.

 

[68M]

Hi There, The D9G you speak about was new to MOW and in the 1970's work at Porirua near the Police training college. MOW used to have a cushion pusher blade for it, hence the single blade ram mount at the top of the nose cone. I understand the lime works were the second owner. Don't think Higgins ever owned it, in fact 4 (I think ) of Higgins D9's went to Russia when they were sold. 68m

 

[dbtmaz]

Thanks for the info, do you know what projects it may have worked on? I was wondering about Twizel as some people have said it must have come from there, and looks the same spec as the higgins machines. Interesting to know about that blade we thought it could be for a cable blade. All in all its. A fairly tidy machine. The guy who owns the lime works said he got in from the ministry of works hawkes bay.i can post some photos if youd like.

 

[cat3208]

http://books.google.com/books?id=vv...&resnum=7&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false
A little information on the 495... hard to find much on the net about them.

Alan

Thanks! Very good link!