British Classic with a Finnish Twist

On the second to last day of my latest Finnish trip, there was still time to visit another old digging machine at the home of my Finnish colleagues’ friends in Hirvesalo, in the Turku area.

In what was initially a social visit, it soon turned out to be another opportunity for some unplanned “digger spotting” as out in the front yard my eyes were drawn to an old British built David Brown 1210 tractor, which was sporting front loader arms and a backhoe to the rear.

Built in their Huddersfield factory, the David Brown 1210, which was fitted with a manual gearbox and powered by an in-house built 65hp (48kw) David Brown diesel engine is a British classic tractor, and was in production from 1971 – 1979.

The owner who uses the machine for work around his and his wife’s property joked that he had just purchased new tyres for the machine, which were covered up to protect them from the harsh winter weather, and that they probably cost more than the machine is worth now!

The owner is a very clever guy with his hands, and has fabricated his own digging buckets on both the front and the rear of the machine.

It was the backhoe that intrigued me the most, the brand name on it was the Kartano Masa, I had not heard of it before, but from research at home it appears the Kartano Masa 2300 to give it its full handle, was a Finnish built piece of equipment and is quite rare now.

If anyone else out there has information on the backhoe, I would be delighted to hear from you.

I'd like to give a big thank you to my great friends in Finland Olli Päiviö and Esa Suominen of Konepörssi magazine, who work tirelessley to take me around to various places during my time up there, its always a pleasure to be around those guys.