ON A RECENT DAY OUT TO RUSHDEN HISTORICAL TRANSPORT SOCIETYS RESSURECTED RUSHDEN TO HIGHAM FERRERS RAILWAY LINE, ONE OF OUR NUMBER WAS GOING AROUND THE EXHIBITORS WHEN HE CAME ACROSS MR D.L.CORBRIDGE, OF KETTERING.
Now Mr Corbridge is in his 80`s, if not 90`s now, a little frail, but still able to demonstrate his marvellous model.
That marvellous model being an exact replica of the first Rapier W1800 Walking Dragline ## which was built at Stewarts & Lloyds (Minerals) Ltd at their Corby site from 1949 to 1952, and where many Euclid & Terex, plus BH engineers, worked in latter years under that boom !!
Mr Corbridge was part of the crew of the W1800, our correspondent is not sure now whether he said he actually drove it, but whichever, his model making was superb, and below, we proudly show you an image of the model……..
………the dragline was, at the point of building, the largest excavator the world had seen, even the Yanks hadnt got anything that big then, and if you cant read the notice, it says the boom was 282 feet long, and it was fitted with a 30 cu yard bucket……some baby today, never mind in those far off days.
One other shot from Mr Corbridge`s exhibit is of his other item there on the day, the much smaller, but none the less impressive for that, model of the slightly more conventional, although this one did run on rail tracks, Rapier Type 5360 Stripping Shovel, with 104 foot boom, and a mere 9 cu yard bucket. Again a machine that would have been gazed upon by BH personnel on their visits to site……
…..so we would like to thank Mr Corbridge for allowing us to publish these shots, and hope he continues to exhibit them for many years to come.
## The reason we were very pleased to receive these shots, is because the DVD which so many have been waiting for, for so long, comprises mainly of BH & Terex promo films, but will also include a selection of other muckshifting subjects, mostly Euclid, but one also covering the building of the W1800 at Corby almost 60 years ago, all supplied FOC from a Dutch contributor ##
** In addition, we also have a short vidoe of the W1800 model working, and one day, when we are sharp enough to work out how to add it to this entry, we will do so !! **
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