Some all American classicsI was recently contacted by a great supporter of the Digger blog Bob Rocker who hails from Pompano beach Florida. Bob used to operate Cat dozers for many years but now aged 67 has retired from the seat. Like so...
Author: Nick Drew
I was recently contacted by a great supporter of the Digger blog Bob Rocker who hails from Pompano beach Florida.
Bob used to operate Cat dozers for many years but now aged 67 has retired from the seat. Like so many of us plant men it has become a lifetime obsession for him and over the years Bob has amassed a large collection of photos some of which he has very kindly offered to share with us here at Digger.
Bob is also a WWII historian and has somewhere in the region of 250,000 photos from the Pacific from 1941 - 1945 this photo shows the US Navy Seabees digging Coral for improvements on Betio Island Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands.
Bob says this photo could have been taken anytime after the 23rd November 1943 as the 2nd Marine Division started the attack on the morning of the 20th and it took the Marines 76 hours to wipe out the 4800 plus Japanese garrison on the Island and as soon as the battle was over the Seabees started working on getting the airstrip, docks, radar, anti aircraft guns, living quarters and communications back in running order. The two machines are Northwest Draglines possibly a Model 6 and a Model 41.
In this photo we see a US Navy Seabees Northwest cable shovel which is possibly a number 41 model working on an airstrip in the Aleutians in the summer of 1943.
A couple of superb black & white dozer shots now both taken during the war in the Pacific around 1943.
Bulldozers where used extensively during the war primarily in the construction of the airstrips which were crucial for the allied advance. In fact Admiral William F. Halsey once stated that "The four machines that won the war in the pacific were the submarine, radar, the airplane and the bulldozer"
I think the first one is an International machine but the second one is unidentified can any of our readers come up with a make and model?
[url=http://www.contractjournal.com/blogs/digger-blog/assets_c/2009/07/Dozer building road near Lae New Guinea 1943-42316.html]
[/url][url=http://www.contractjournal.com/blogs/digger-blog/assets_c/2009/07/Army Aviation Engineers building an airstrip in the Pacific-42319.html]
[/url]Moving on in years now firstly to 1953 and here we have a classic rope controlled Cat D8 clearing scrub land in Pomona in California
[url=http://www.contractjournal.com/blogs/digger-blog/assets_c/2009/07/D8 CAT clearing Land Pomona California 1953-42322.html]
[/url]On now to 1962 when your blogger was just a 1 year old! This is an all hydraulic blade version of the Caterpillar D8H probably one of the most famous dozers ever built by the Caterpillar tractor company seen here during the construction of a road in American Samoa.
[url=http://www.contractjournal.com/blogs/digger-blog/assets_c/2009/07/D8H building a road in American Samoa 1962-42325.html]
[/url]Talking of classics well they don't get much more classic then this, the name Bucyrus-Erie is as famous in the dragline crane world as Caterpillar is in the dozer theatre and in this series of shots we can see one of the largest construction sized cable excavator/draglines built by this American company the BE 88-B.
Bob took the photos of this 88-B about 27 years ago when it was digging a lake for a town house complex in eastern Coral Springs Florida, the dirt was used to build the ground level up higher as that area was farm land back in the late 1930's, 40's, 50's and into the early 1960's until real estate values exceeded its value as use for farm land and they started building in the area.
[url=http://www.contractjournal.com/blogs/digger-blog/assets_c/2009/07/Devcon 88-B Coral Springs-42331.html]
[/url]The 88-B had 100 feet of boom and had a 12V-71 Detroit diesel for power and had a Hendrix Heavy Minning service bucket of 6 cubic yards capacity, it belonged to Devcon International of Pompano Beach Florida which evolved out of Zinke & Smith Construction company from back in the 1950's & 1960's.
Another famous manufacturer of cranes and dralines is the Manitowoc cranes inc of Wisconsin.
This Manitowoc 4600 with a 8 yard bucket was shot some 20 years ago digging in Westin Florida, which is in south Western Broward county about 12 miles south west of Ft. Lauderdale, it had 120 feet of boom and it was digging canals to retreive the fill to build the land up.
Bob commented that small cable draglines have all but gone now as hydraulic backhoes have made them virtually obsolete the only thing that a cable dragline can do that a hydraulic backhoe cannot do is pile the earth high!
To round off our look at these American classics here are a trio of Caterpillar dozers at rest.
This old D8H was on an earth work job in Western Broward County over 30 years ago, she has had a busy life looking at the track grousers that are completely warn down on the tracks.
Bob shot this D8K model in a limestone pit in Western Broward county about 23 years ago these K models were the last of the big Cats with the conventional track drive the next D8 models would have the revolutionary raised drive sprocket design.
I have always loved the look of the American style Rops design as shown here, sadly they would not be of much use to us here in the UK with the kind of wet weather we get!
And here we have an elevated sproket design D8N snapped in Palm Beach county.
Thanks must go to Bob Rocker for sharing his photos with us here.
And don't forget if you have anything you would like to share with us don't hesitate to contact me here at Digger!
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Source: Digger
