Classic machines uncovered at plant yard (Part Two)

by Nick Drew | Mon 25 Nov 2013

Classic machines uncovered at plant yard (Part Two)

Continuing my look around Bruce Atfield’s plant yard in Surrey, where I found a number of old and rare gems hiding away.

How about this for an early attempt at a mini excavator! Not much detail on this one I’m afraid but I suspect it is German in origin looking at the Hatz engine that is fitted, my initial thought was that it might be a Schmiedag? If anyone can confirm this I would love to hear from you. The machine has no bucket tipping ram, and by the look of things material in the bucket was dispatched by using an ejector style mechanism.

A quartet of old Caterpillar crawler loaders was lurking further on in the yard including a pair of more modern 953’s, a tidy example of a 943 and headed up by this 941B 1970's classic.

This ageing Volvo BM loading shovel would make a fantastic restoration project for somebody with the time and resources to put to it. Couldn’t find out the full detail on this model as I was not wearing appropriate footwear for the boggy conditions under foot!

Hidden away in a shed were masses of mini excavators of all shapes, sizes and ages, this old Kubota KH14 3.5 ton machine, which is in pretty good condition for its age, caught my eye for starters. This old girl would still put in a good days work for a small builder or farmer and could be yours for just £4,250 + VAT.

Another unidentified mini excavator was waiting for us in another shed, on first glance it looked like an early Takeuchi branded as a Priestman Mini Mustang, but with no real identification plate on the machine, this could not be confirmed.

One of the most unusual finds was this Japanese import machine, which was once again, unidentified apart from some Japanese writing on it. I have it in my mind that it could be a Yamaguchi but cannot be sure. A rare machine indeed that had the most bizarre offset slew arrangement on it, when we asked Mr Atfield about this machine, he said “How can you put a price on something so unusual? It will probably stay here with us forever”.

This is just one of the many mountains of excavator buckets that can be found at this yard. Makes you wonder what major projects some of these machines and buckets have worked on all over the country!

And finally a close up shot of the early JCB 3CX we featured in the first post. Slowly being cannibalised to keep other examples going, always a sad sight to see in my opinion.

Got any old and abandoned plant and machinery photos to share? Why not send them in for a potential future blog post.

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Classic machines uncovered at plant yard (Part Two)

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