Hello Catsilver,great to hear from you.The 951 at Bristol must be the Stoke Gifford machine.The machines I got involved with were based at Maesglas tip in Newport and Cardiff Cathays.I have got some photos of them,trying to find them. scan them and post on bb.They also had a D6 at Newport.And we also had a RB10 face shovel based at Cardiff Cathays depot.On my travels I have found a side tip bucket in Herefordshire,looks to have never been used but has been dumpped there for a long time.
Next time I am at Barton Hill depot in Bristol,will have a closer look at the 951 its been there since the late 70's.
Been down at Finning Llantrisant last week on the 125,nearly ready to move it to give it a bit of work to do.They have been great at that depot.

heres a couple of scans of some brochures i have ,the firm my dad worked for ran alot of these machines cheers graham

Hi D4C,

Many thanks for the Priestman Excavator scans, they are very much appreciated.

I used to operate one of those 108S machines for Wimpeys on a site in Waterloovile Hants, I think it was round about 1979.

I just wish I had taken photos all the way through my career as a plant operator, these days I have my "Digi" with me all the time on every job!!

Thanks again

Nick:)

<span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS">Hi Nick,

One on e-bay for you..... </span>

cgi.ebay.co.uk/PRIESTMAN-108-EXCAVATOR-D...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hello Richard,hope you are keeping well.I am working all this weekend,maybe crossing the Severn on a job in the Bristol area.Will be taking a photo of the ex BR 951 if time permits.There is also a ship comming in to Newport docks on Saturday,so I might be on the unloading gang to commision two locos.Did not have the camera last time.The ship is fitted with two 250 tonne cranes.It makes the 130tonne locos look small.

Hello Nick
What were the 108's like to operate?
When I was learning to drive I got a run on one (about July 1983) from memory it was slow and easy to drive for learners!!! No comments tc!!

Neil

<span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS">Hi Martyn,

Everything is going well for me, back at work now so a long way from the green fields and shipwrecked scenery of the Homeland - Devon.

Spoke with Uncle over Christmas out BTD6s, he didn't really have anything to add other than what we already knew, but he's getting out of the vintage circles a bit now, doesn't do the match ploughing and all that - thats what comes of being 75 yrs old.

Have a good weekend</span>

Went to Bristol today,the Cat 951 is gone,been told its been cut up. It must have had low hours as these machines were only used 20 hours per week on track maintenance work on weekends.
Been busy servicing locos for the weekend enginnering trains

&quot;Neil wrote:

Hello Nick
What were the 108's like to operate?
When I was learning to drive I got a run on one (about July 1983) from memory it was slow and easy to drive for learners!!! No comments tc!!

Neil

Hi Neil,

I have to be honest I thought they were a great machine to operate, I prefered them to the Hymacs of the day, unfortunately they seemed to live in the shadow of the Hymac product, I think mainly because people had not had a lot of choice at that time.

Wimpeys had an older one in the southern region I think it was on an S plate that one was quite leaky and had a lot of wear in the control linkages which meant you had to have the cab door open if you wanted to slew left!!

The Mustang 220 was an even better machine, I used to do a few Saturday morning shifts on one of these when I was 13yrs old, that machine was owned by Oldham based firm Queghan Construction who were working in my hometown of Southampton, the paddys who were working there were always worse for wear on Saturday mornings so I grabbed the chance to get my hand in!! Our good old HSE would pull their hair out these days!!

Regards

Nick:)

Nick,
I started off in 1976 as a trainee civil engineering technician with the Water Service in N Ireland and it seemed to me that Hymacs were cheap and cheerfull but the Priestmans were more advanced with a price tag to suit.
Its a pity Priestmans went down-I spotted a Sanderson built 108 before christmas in the local autotrader but didn't have time unfortunately to go and look

neil