Our Caterpillar collection has for too long been a quiet and fairly modest part of our overall Heritage programme.
We do not like to prioritise any one category of machinery as being better than another. Our Steam Heritage department is obviously well organised and well equipped. The same applies to the Agricultural machinery side, and of course we have an excellent cross-section of Military vehicles.
One of the unsung heroes though is our growing collection of Caterpillar machinery which comprises a very good cross-section of working Caterpillar tractors from the D2 right through to the D9 of various vintages. We will be featuring an article on the complete collection quite soon.
In the meantime, we are making great progress with regard to the restoration of the bigger machines. Our D7 and D8 are now fully restored and in working order and our D9 is running but is obviously in need of a cosmetic upgrade. The pictures below show the three machines being moved. Obviously the D9 is the biggest of the three.
As a result of a big re-organisation of the Sandstone Heritage Trust assets at Sandstone Estates, these machines have now been given their own bespoke area which is outside of the main complex due to the fact that with their heavy tracks they cannot be moved very easily, and as a result of this re-organisation they can now be sent directly to the field to remove alien tree populations etc.
Our HET (Heavy Equipment Transporter) has been out to play with the Cats to get them to their new home!
Again, very much part of the Sandstone philosophy ‘Don’t just create a thing of beauty but put it to work as well’.
The fully restored Cat D8 on the move!
The yet to be restored D9 climbs aboard the HET, it weighs nearly 40 tons!
The D7 almost on board.