by Nick Drew | Thu 15 May 2014
Classic track shovels in action for Whites
During my recent visit to witness the delivery of Steve Rules new Volvo excavator, I was fortunate to meet Steve White, whose father used to run a famous plant hire and contracting firm in the South West, this chance meeting reminded me of some archive photos I have, featuring his dad at the controls.
Les White is seen here operating one of the company’s International Drott 250 tracked loading shovels. We believe this photo was taken around 1964. The 250 was International’s largest tracked loading shovel and was a direct competitor for Caterpillars 977 model. The machine was fitted with a 2.5 cubic metre bucket, or could be specified with a 3 cubic metre version.
This circa 1963 photo shows another of Whites machines, in this instance an International TD-15 grubbing out a large pile of tree roots. We are unsure but the operator could once again be Les White. This machine is fitted with the legendary “Drott” 4-in-1 multi-purpose bucket.
And finally in this batch a shot of a not so familiar machine bearing the Whites livery, the Bristol Taurus. These small tracked loading shovels only had a short production run, having been launched in 1964, which is around the time this photo was taken. Production as the Bristol Taurus ended in 1967 when the company was taken over by Track Marshall and the model became the TM 1100.
If you have old shots you would like to see posted on the Digger Man Blog please don’t hesitate to contact me at nickydrew16 at btinternet.com using the usual @ email format.