On the Job – American Auger and Ditching Co.

Two days ago I was heading home from work when I passed the International you see below while it was heading in the opposite direction. At the time there was a large steel pipe strapped on the back. I thought to myself “Gee, I wonder where that is heading?” and then I promptly moved on and forgot about it. The next morning I was taking a walk before work when I happened to stumble across the International and its buddy the Versa-Drill.

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Versa-Drill – Click to Enlarge

Drilling through a city street that has seen some sort of human development for over two centuries must be one hell of complicated job. I can only imagine the maze of old pipes, utilities and other detritus that lay beneath the surface.

Update

I Took a stroll during lunch today and came across the AA&D crew now working on the backside of the Pike Block Building referenced in the earlier version of this story. This time I was able to get as close to the machine as I wanted without having to peer through a fence in the middle of Salina Street.

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Click to Enlarge

I was able to watch of a few minutes of the drilling process. There is an automated arm on the boom that sweeps in and grabs a new section of pipe when needed. Effortless.

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On the Job – Mack Dump Trucks

This past February there was a large water main break in a part of downtown Syracuse known as Armory Square. For some reason the local media latched on to this story and rode it into the earth with stories of crumbling infrastructure and businesses dying on the vine due to lack of water. While people wrung their hands in fear I smiled internally knowing that come spring the streets would have to be repaired meaning dump trucks and other heavy equipment in full force. Ooooh yeah. Welcome to how my mind works.

The permanent repair work started this Monday with the removal of the patch work that was placed in February. Three dump trucks were on hand to haul away the material.

Mack Truck – Click to Enlarge

Two days later finds half of the street and sidewalks ready for replacement. As of this morning concrete work was finishing up and the pavers were on hand waiting to pounce. Dual stacks on this Vogele.

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Vogele Paver – Click to Enlarge

The other half of the street still awaits repair so maybe next week I’ll have some footage of the paver in action. I also grabbed some video of the Cat backhoe in action as well as the Mack dump truck from above. Stay tuned! If you haven’t clicked on the video link at the top page yet please do so. I think you will enjoy what you find.

 

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Snow Plows at Auction

Last week we enjoyed some great footage of Brockway and Autocar snow plows from an auction I recently attended. As mentioned before there was an amazing selection of late model trucks and heavy equipment. Below is a gallery of some of the machines that caught my eye. Believe me, there were plenty of rigs worthy of photographing but after awhile you become shell shocked. Not shown are row after row of pickups that were available. With recent budget problems you have to wonder how local governments can afford to let two year old pickups hit the auction block. I’m talking about trucks that have less than 65k on the odometer and look near brand new. Insanity.


This 1991 Autocar may not look like much but it sure did sound good. A Cummins (unknown variety) resides under the hood while your standard workhorse 8LL transmission pours the power to the ground. Being a single axle I imagine this truck would scoot around pretty good. It even has a jake and only 46k odometer. Not bad at all. I can’t say I care for this era of Autocar (too much Volvo in the recipe) but this truck really started to grow on me. If I had money to throw around I probably would have bid on it. Later inspection of the auction program revealed this truck once belonged to the Town of Clay, NY.

Fans of the Ford “L-Series” I hope you have a towel nearby because this ’97 L-9000 will make you drool. With an odometer that reads 169K you would expect to find rusted doors, a mutilated dash, and rocker panels that simply have faded away but yet this truck has none of those scars. I was hard pressed to even find dents or scrapes. This Ford is packing a Cat C-15 3406 capable of producing 425HP. Once again a 8LL transmission is employed to spin the tires. This was a really great looking truck and it sounded even better. I only wish I had throttled the engine a little more. The former owner was listed as the Town of Sparta. I tip my hat to their maintenance program.

UPDATE 5/24/13  This truck has shown up for sale Brookside Equipment Sales in MA for $17,500.

After visiting this auction and spending some time observing the selling prices (very high) I have to wonder if there is more money to be made by collecting equipment and selling in one large group rather than selling it piecemeal through the internet.

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On the Job – Costello Cat CT660

FINALLY! A Cat CT660 in the wild! I’ve seen more than enough at trade shows and the dealer lot but never one on the mean streets of life. Belonging to Costello Blacktop Paving this truck was one of three (Mack and Freightliner) working to pave the bottom floor of a new parking garage. Yes, that very parking garage we watched rise from the earth two short months ago.

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Cat CT660 – Click to Enlarge

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The Heavy Iron – Dobbins Auto Parts

Today we have the heavier side of the Dobbins scrap yard. The gallery below contains trucks of all shapes and makes. I even added a few Walters that were lost in the avalanche of material. There are a more than a few unique vehicles to be found in the photos below. As far as the buses go I really like the looks of the old Henderson Central School rig and what appears to be a Ford wearing military paint and lettering. Finding a ’62 Chevy wearing a door that read Santaro-Taroson was a geek moment for me. I am familiar with the Santaro Trucking company from modern times but never realized there was once a partner in the business. On the second page of the gallery you will find a strange looking hood that once belonged to a White Truck, or least that is my guess. The paint scheme matches a nearby White cab but I get a Brockway way vibe when I first glance at the hood. The grab handle gives me a Hayes feel. What do you think?

 

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Excavator Line Up – Kennedy Square Demolition

Yes. That is snow in the background. No. This is not a recent photo. Thank God! I grabbed this photo back in March and forgot about it until now. Kobelco and Komatsu excavators of all shapes and sizes.

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Kobelco and Komatsu Excavators – Click to Enlarge

This equipment was participating in the demolition of Kennedy Square. A former public housing complex in downtown Syracuse. You may recall a Komatsu PCL600LC was used to slowly dismantle two multistory structures. Over the months I accumulated plenty of footage of the demolition. Now that the project is nearing a close it feels right to clean out the archives and publish what remains. Now about this Cat 345BL. A stocky looking machine.

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Cat 345BL Excavator – Click to Enlarge

Jumping back to more current times we have a few of the machines from above working to sort scrap and feed a concrete crusher.

Hopefully in the near future I will be able to grab footage of new construction on this very land courtesy of an ever expanding SUNY Upstate.

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Bomag and Marini Cold Planers

My wife happened to take some great shots of two different milling machines being hauled by two different Mack trucks. Below you see a NYSDOT Mack Granite hauling a Bomag 600/15 Cold Planer. According to photos on Bomag’s website this machine is nimble enough to mill a circle around a manhole opening.

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NYSDOT Bomag – Click to Enlarge

For the larger jobs we have this Marini MP-2100 miller owned by the Lan-Co Companies. I had never heard of Marini before seeing this photo so I did some searching. As it turns out they are owned by Fayat Group, a French company that just so happen to be the parent company to Bomag. Everything and everyone is connected!

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Marini Cold Planer – Click to Enlarge

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White Motor Company – Junk Yard Finds

Today we return to the junk yard to visit a trio of old White Trucks. All three were located at the now infamous Dobbins Auto Parts in Adams, NY. Like many of the other vehicles on this property they have been ravaged and savaged for decades. The White 9000 you see below once belonged to Super Motor Lines of Greensboro. The best I can tell this particular company went out of business in the early 90’s.

White 9000 – Click to Enlarge

 

Please enjoy a tour of the three by watching the video below.

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Mack RM Snow Plow

I feel like I have been neglecting the Mack truck fans over the past few weeks so please accept this mint RM as an apology.

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Mack RM Plow – Click to Enlarge

For those that are all about the details this truck is a 1987 RM6884X with a E-6 diesel (350HP) and a 9 speed Maxitorque transmission. Differential lock and 4WD included. The odometer only showed 97,000 miles.

As far as rust goes I couldn’t find any. Dents, smashes or dings? None. The interior was clean and well kept. There was neat plaque on the dash that read “Custom Built for the Town of Arcadia.” That being said I felt really cramped in this cab compared to the Internationals, Autocars and late model Macks at the auction. But that really doesn’t matter, this truck was awesome.

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Mack RM Plow Truck – Click to Enlarge

Here is a video of the Mack while running including a walk around and cab visit. At one point in the video I felt like I was at a carnival with all the low air buzzers, ringer and beepers going of in the trucks around me. Ahhhh, the auction lot.

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TMC Transportation

I thought this was an interesting catch considering the load was untarped. I’m guessing the rolls out back are aluminum that originated from mills in Oswego or Massena, NY. Just a guess.

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TMC Transporation – Click to Enlarge

Check back later this afternoon (5/14) for intense Mack truck action.

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