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JCB Mk1 Excavator


Guest Jack Benson
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Guest Jack Benson

As a side issue to the Front Loader discussion, a bit of digging (sorry) into JCB's history revealed that In 1953, the first backhoe loader was launched, and the JCB logo appeared for the first time. This pretty much dates the origins of the excellent Oxford 76ML1001 Mk1 but did JCB first offer the machine without the backhoe? It was not until 1957, that  the firm launched the "hydra-digga", incorporating the combined excavator and the major loader as a single all-purpose tool useful for the agricultural and construction industries. No date can be found for the adoption of JCB's house colour but 'construction yellow' had been a generic scheme in the US before WW2 whilst European schemes seem to have been mostly green/blue/red or any combination.

 

76ml1001.jpg.1982f7c305b52fb7f676c327dab16a23.jpg

 

Cheers and Stay Safe

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Jack Benson said:

did JCB first offer the machine without the backhoe?

Yes, sort of. The Major Loader was created in 1948/9 to fit on both Nuffield Universal and Fordson Major tractors, but I don't know whether JCB supplied the whole machine or just the loader. The backhoe was intorduced in 1952/3 to fit on the Fordson New Major, and was intended to be paired with a Major Loader but it seems that a number of combinations were available, and that you could buy, for example, just a backhoe with a counterweight on the front or have a comressor on the front instead of the loader. There is an excellent picture of the latter here:

http://www.classicmachinery.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11748&start=10

 

I presume that during this time in the early-mid 1950s you could still buy just the Major Loader without the backhoe.

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Back in the 50's there were several large plant and machinery operators in the vicinity of where I lived. Mostly involved with gravel extraction. They were usually in corporate colours, usually a single colour such as grey or green.

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Rather akin to "Hell Drivers" there was a fleet of Fordson ET6 short wheelbase tippers used by Wimpey in their corporate dark yellow which ran through my home village almost as an all day convoy in the late 1950s. The load was chalk excavated at Dover and being delivered to the construction site of Richborough power station. At the time there was no speed limit through the village so the convoy moved very quickly. Our cat, Sandy, used to stroll out to the main road to meet my Dad coming home on the bus from a morning shift. Although he knew his Highway Code, one day the convoy clipped him and my dad carried the cat's body home. 

 

A few years later main drainage was installed which in my road required some extremely deep trenches. The starting machine was an ex-war Department John Allen Trencher, but it could not reach the required depth. I then had my first encounter with with a JCB shovel and backhoe - a JCB 3 I think resplendent in yellow. It was driven by a very tall man who had the distinction of being the tallest fireman in the Kent Fire Brigade at the time, and he turned out regularly as a retained fireman in the village brigade.

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On 10/08/2020 at 19:50, PhilJ W said:

If modelling 1960 onwards the Airfix/Dapol JCB is ideal. In fact I saw one still in use in about 1985.

 

More recent than that - two of the volunteers on the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway own one (minus cab) which occasionally comes down when we have a 'job' on.

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8 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

If you want a kit of  7mm scale JCB3, Radley Models sell one. 

It makes a pretty realistic model.

 

 

DSC_0001.JPG

 

Nice model but the rear stabiliser legs were never on the outside of the mudguards, that really would have caused some damage on site !

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On 14/08/2020 at 22:49, Arun Sharma said:

If you want a kit of  7mm scale JCB3, Radley Models sell one. 

It makes a pretty realistic model.

 

 

DSC_0001.JPG

It is a lovely kit but not a cheap one, £91 for the base model and £30 for the backhoe means as much as I would love one, I can't justify it at that price sadly.

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