Classic archive Poclain excavator photos (Blog post re-visited)

by Nick Drew | Tue 28 Feb 2017

Classic archive Poclain excavator photos (Blog post re-visited)

Many plant and machinery enthusiasts will have seen some of these photos when they were first published in Hinton J. Sheryn’s 1995 book An Illustrated History of Excavators. With the collection now in my possession I would like to share them with the Digger Man Blog audience.

The French built Poclain TY45 was in its day a revolutionary excavator although by today’s standards it looks very strange indeed. The machine was first launched in 1961 the year of my birth! The machine, although primitive looking by today's standards, had stunning success around the world having been marketed in over 120 countries.

I found one of these TY45's around 10 years ago on a farm in Cornwall and was invited to take to the controls for a bit. It was a challenging machine to get your head around with all the levers presented out in front of you but with perseverance I did manage to control it in a fashion!

At the other end of the scale was the mighty Poclain EC1000, when it was introduced to the public for the first time in 1970 at the Paris Intermat show it was without doubt the largest fully hydraulic excavator ever built.

The machine was powered by an incredible 3 GM8V71 engines which developed 840hp weighing in between 142 to 160 tons depending on specification it could work as a 10 cubic-yard face shovel or a 6.5 cubic-yard backhoe. This machine continued in production until 1975 when it was replaced by the new 1000CK model.

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Classic archive Poclain excavator photos (Blog post re-visited)

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