JCB’s Milestone Anniversary from a German Perspective (#throwbackthursday)

Our friend and new regular contributor Dirk Bömer has very kindly shared another batch of interesting historical photos which once again were originally taken by the late Heinz-Herbert Cohrs who was attending the event for a German machinery magazine back in the day.

The event was staged in 1995 to celebrate JCB’s 50^th anniversary and as is common for such prestigious milestones, members of the press and other invited guests were brought in from around the world, to see what the famous British manufacturer were launching into the market.

At this time JCB had high hopes for their newly formed hydraulic excavator joint venture with Sumitomo, and according to Dirk, they were especially keen to target the German market and to boost sales in the country.

With this in mind particular attention was paid to the wheeled excavators such as the JS130W and the JS150W which was demonstrated in the much-preferred European spec of a two-piece (TAB) boom and grab attachment.

Dirk confirmed that this configuration is very popular in Germany, and as we all know from experience, you don’t travel very far in both France and Germany without seeing these wheeled excavators, they are simply everywhere in Central Europe!

Of course, with it being a JCB event, the venerable backhoe loader was always going to make an appearance, with various models being paraded and demoed on the digging plot including, the new 1CX, 2CX, 3CX and the 4CX 4x4x4 Sitemaster, in addition to some American market centre-mount backhoe machines like the 215.

Commenting on the machines Dirk said, “Backhoe-loader sales never reached the numbers like in the UK or France. You saw them every now and then, especially in rural areas, but they almost totally disappeared with the advent of mini excavators”.

Also on display were examples from the "Robot" range of revolutionary skid steers which were first launched in 1992, and featured a single loader arm, enabling the operator to enter the cab via the side door, easily and safely, the one seen below is the 150 model running a chain trencher attachment. 

There was also a run out for the famous JCB GT which was then described as the fastest backhoe loader in the world. The machine was powered by a Chevrolet V8 and capable of reaching 160kph (100mph). It wowed the crowds when it made an appearance at the British Grand Prix in 1988.

The assembled guests were also treated to a product reveal of the latest wheeled loader to join the 400 series at the time, the 436 ZX model.

We thank Dirk for sharing these fantastic archive photos with us here on the Digger Man Blog.