TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

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concrete
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TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #1 by concrete » Sat Sep 10, 2011 11:28 pm

Hi does anyone have any information on this company.

thank you


Green Dragon
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #2 by Green Dragon » Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:23 am

Bought out by Tawse end of the 90's, worked for them 74- 82 on and off.


nick lamb
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #3 by nick lamb » Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:18 pm

I had D8 and boxes on hire to them in 1992 at Kinglassie,Fife.Got paid fair and sqare from them.
2 of my D8 and 435's,3 of Levacks D8 and 463's .1 of Kerr's 155 and 463's,an 8240B Terex of Rab Turnbulls pushloading and 2 of T/S's D6D's on the fill area.
They had a 235B too and some TS24 scrapers I believe.


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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #4 by AMRoss » Fri Jun 29, 2012 4:52 pm

Tractor Shovels had their office and yard in Inverkeithing and must have been one of the main muckshifters in Scotland in their heyday - they undertook a lot of of work on the A9 (both as a subcontractor and as a main contractor) and they worked regularly with MJ Gleeson on major road projects in Fife and Edinburgh.

I do not know who the founders of the company were but Tractor Shovels was merged with William Tawse / Hall & Tawse as part of the consolidation movement in the quarrying sector that ultimately gave us Aggregate Industries. Known as Tractor Shovels Tawse they went into serious decline in the 90s as their parent company concentrated on quarrying. However they have continued to operate as a fully resourced civils company in the Western Isles.

I have a hunch that Tractor Shovels was owned by London & Northern Securities or LSM Group and Natcon of Beauly was a sister company.

I would like to hear more about Tractor Shovels.


Green Dragon
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #5 by Green Dragon » Fri Jun 29, 2012 8:12 pm

Tractor Shovels was made up of two companies, Tractor Shovels (Fife) based at Burnside Inverkeithing. This was the plant hire side of the company with all sorts of plant from Whacker plates to Cat D6 and Komatsu D65A dozers. Tractor Shovels (Contracts) based in Wellwood on the outskirts of Dunfermline. They carried out bulk earthworks with a wide variety of plant including Terex TS14 & TS24 scrapers all different types of dump trucks and if memory serves me correctly had one of the first Cat 245 face shovels in Scotland. They started out as Struthers and Denny and I believe as the company got bigger and more directors were involved they took on the name Tractor Shovels. Their head office was in Alva Street Edinburgh until the early 80's. If I remember anymore or speak to some of my ex colleages I will post more.


Bomb
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #6 by Bomb » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:50 am

Hi

Green dragon has given a fair account of TS
The first time i came accross them was at Strathclyde Park, Hamilton where they had the muckshift contract off Sir Robert McAlpine. The plant boss was i think Jock McNeally and one of their engineers was Colin Hutchinson.They had a fleet of 6 Terex TS 14 s and some D8 with boxes. Most dozers on site were Komatsu. One Friday they had a brand new 155A delivered to the watersports centre end of the job.On monday when we came back to site all that could be seen of the brand new dozer was the top of the exhaust pipe in the adjoining river Clyde.
It was on this contract that i first saw laser control being used on a bulldozer to level out the bottom of the loch, which was to be used for the commonweath games.
TS did a lot of sub contract work for Tarmac on the A9 at Glenfarg,Calvine and the Slochd.They also did one of the first stretches of the A9 at Dalwhine as main contractor.
They had an extensive fleet of Terex equipment from scrapers, rigid dump trucks and 82-30 dozers.
They had 2 Cat 245 face shovels on the south cut at Calvine. This cut was blasted in one go by Northern Rock Drilling and registered 4.6 on the Richter scale on siesmograph in Chambers Street in Edinburgh
Tractor Shovels latterly bought over William Tawse. TS had been the sub contractor on Tawses A9 contract at Daviot. This contract had allegedly not been the most harmonious between the two parties, and when TS. Took over Tawse they wasted no time in clearing Tawses head office senior staff.


TS24
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #7 by TS24 » Mon Nov 19, 2012 11:02 pm

Tractor Shovels Ltd were owned by London and Northern Group plc who also owned CA Blackwell. London and Northern (L & N) were bought around 1987 by Evered Holdings. Evered around this time sold a lot of the acquired L & N companies possibly including CA Blackwell but they retained Tractor Shovels Ltd. Evered then went onto buy the civil engineering part of Hall and Tawse Construction Ltd which was previously William Tawse Ltd before the merger of all Aberdeen Construction Group's construction activities on the 1st January 1986 (Alexander Hall & Son, William Tawse, Hall & Robertson and Reema Construction). Tractor Shovels then became Tractor Shovels Tawse sometime in the late 80's.

Before the merger Tractor Shovels (Contracts) had an office at 35 Alva Street in Edinburgh whilst their plant depot was at Welllwood Dunfermline. Tractor Shovels (Fife) Ltd the plant hire part of the company was based at Burnside Inverkeithing.

Tractor Shovels Contracts undertook the realingnment of the A1 at Penmanshiel in Berwickshire following the collapse of the Penmanshiel railway tunnel in 1979. Around the same time they were working at Torness Power Station carrying out the site preparation works. I can remember their large Euclid/Terex dump trucks parked in East Fettes Avenue Edinburgh waiting for a police escort back to Dunfermline around the time Torness was finishing. Tractor Shovels before being bought by Evered also undertook site preparation work at Mossmoran Petrochemical site in Fife and as main contractors the dual carraigeway section of the A9 Broxden to Burnside near Perth.

If anybody else has information or photos about Tractor Shovels or William Tawse it would be interesting to hear from them.


Ian Hamilton
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #8 by Ian Hamilton » Fri May 23, 2014 10:12 am

I owned a company Hamilton Plant based down in Nottinghamshire. I hired out 6 TS24 motor scrapers to Tractor Shovels initially working at Costain Mining in Kinglassie.We then moved across to Ravenscraig Steelworks. All my transactions were with Bob Howie who was the Plant Manager for Tractor Shovels based at Wellwood Yard Dunfermlin.Big Alex was the forman fitter I recall. Several years later I returned to Scotland with 6 Terex R50 Dumptrucks which worked for Keir's at Dalmellington OCCS in Ayshire.
Hamilton Plant became part of Andros(Ex Dargavel) based at Glenboig in Lanarkshire.Whilst at Andros I purchased a large number of tractors and R45 trucks from Watty Drysdale at Costain Mining.Lots of great memories and wonderful character's.
My brother was Stewart Buchan who was Regional Director for Blackwood Hodge at Cumbernauld who sadly passed away in Dec 2012.
I would love to hear from anybody who can add to my memories .
Ian Buchan


Neil Nicholson
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #9 by Neil Nicholson » Fri Oct 14, 2022 1:48 pm

Ian Hamilton wrote:I owned a company Hamilton Plant based down in Nottinghamshire. I hired out 6 TS24 motor scrapers to Tractor Shovels initially working at Costain Mining in Kinglassie.We then moved across to Ravenscraig Steelworks. All my transactions were with Bob Howie who was the Plant Manager for Tractor Shovels based at Wellwood Yard Dunfermlin.Big Alex was the forman fitter I recall. Several years later I returned to Scotland with 6 Terex R50 Dumptrucks which worked for Keir's at Dalmellington OCCS in Ayshire.
Hamilton Plant became part of Andros(Ex Dargavel) based at Glenboig in Lanarkshire.Whilst at Andros I purchased a large number of tractors and R45 trucks from Watty Drysdale at Costain Mining.Lots of great memories and wonderful character's.
My brother was Stewart Buchan who was Regional Director for Blackwood Hodge at Cumbernauld who sadly passed away in Dec 2012.
I would love to hear from anybody who can add to my memories .
Ian Buchan


I worked at Westfield Opencast at Kinglassie with Tractor Shovels in the late 70's on an old TS24 and then got one of the new haxagon fronted TS24's (No14) when they arrived at Westfield. Some of the other TS 24 operators were: Johnny Bruce, Henry Booth, Eck Simpson, Andy Oswald, Murray Gallacher, Jim McDade. D9 Op was Alec Wardrope and Komatsu 355 Op was Jock McQueenie. Cat Grader Op was John Atkinson. Foremen names to come and go were Willie Stark, Harry Fulton (RIP) Big Bob Balfour. Foreman fitter at Westfield was Jimmy Hutton? Tractor Shovels Director was Jimmy Main and I remember him having a Jag with Reg number JMA 1N, he lived near Kinross.


bgayton
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Re: TRACTOR SHOVELS LTD

Post #10 by bgayton » Mon Nov 27, 2023 3:22 am

Is anyone still interested in pulling Tractor Shovels' history together ... I started with TSL in 1984 and left 1989, was on all phases of the East Fife Regional Road, and Millerhill bypass and Tanfield .. it was my 1st job, and I was at the final drinks in Dunfermline when TSL was ended :( .. happy to share if anyone is still curious.
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