The Classic Machinery Network

Wasn't Watkins at Crown East a very religeous employer who used to enclose Biblical scripts in the pay packets of his drivers?

The Massey 450 did have a Perkins engine, we used to run one and the engine was really quiet, the tracks were cream crackered but the engine was superb. When we were down Rhymney reinstating a 48" pipeline for MacAlpine/Wales Gas we got Kellands to retrack her! It tramped right up over Fochriw ...

Could have been worse - could have been someone down the manhole... even the C of the W!

Here is one of a largish Ackerman in the 70's, it belonged to a German outfit called Mannesmann and was working on a 36" line down from Cruden bay.... The first two pics are a smaller Ackerman on a very hard dig just off the Pennines in the mid 70's on a job for Yorkshire water - just about a m...

They are all the same machine, it was the latest and the last one we had. They were very popular on pipelines because with the 6 cylinder engine and plenty of throttle they would drag pole trailers almost anywhere, if they couldn't, nothing else on wheels would, thats for sure. With the double slew ...

You are spot on mate...

Great unit, looks very professional... loved the snap of the outfit negotiating a turn with a clear view of all the trailer wheels turning (as in changing direction) Thank you!

You are not wrong Cranky, but it is strange that if something is cat it is usually taken as being useless. ie. the weather is cat!

Really interesting pictures - thank you for posting them up - a bygone period when strut jibs ruled the roost! Lots of really interesting lorries too, especially Diamond T's and the like.

Here is a couple more, the first one showing the bending boom loading the bender and the second one is on a job near Yeovil.