Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

23rd May 2006

The synergy between Sandstone Estates as a farming unit and the Sandstone Heritage Trust collection is always being explored and enhanced. The company has now sold its 120H CAT Grader, which was responsible for most of the work relating to railway line construction, road maintenance etc. Its place has been taken by a 1953 CAT 12 Grader that was fully restored some years back by Charles Terry for the Sandstone Heritage Trust. This machine is capable of doing all the work carried out by the CAT 120H. Although it has no hydraulics and is a tougher machine to drive our operators are up to the challenge.

This Grader was acquired and restored for less than R50,000. A new replacement for a machine like this would cost the company in excess of R850,000. Therefore the use of heritage assets in practical and realistic applications has a huge impact on company profitability and is part of an intelligent asset management strategy.

Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

4th August 2006

As part of its policy of putting older equipment to work Sandstone Estates has disposed off its Caterpillar 120H Grader which has done a lot of the railway construction work on behalf of the Sandstone Heritage Trust. The workload has dropped and we have therefore commissioned our CAT 12 Grader. Dating back to the 1950's this Grader is in excellent condition. It was originally fully rebuilt by Charles Terry, a Caterpillar engineer of great experience. Here are some pictures of the work been done by Charles. More recently the machine was serviced in-depth by Zach van Staden & Associates, also a professional Earth Moving organisation with considerable experience on the older CAT machines. The machine now takes its rightful place as the number one road grader at Sandstone Estates. This programme of replacing the new with the old will continue.

Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

13th August 2006

The Sandstone Heritage Trust collection of old machines is fascinating because so many of them have never seen the light of day when it comes to international publicity. Our (+/- 1955) Model 105 Eimco is no exception. This unique design of an American made "Rocker" shovel designed specifically for use in tunneling, canal work and where turning is restricted or limited is in full running order and has been in the collection for nearly 10-years. It is one of the many machines that may never be restored because its condition is sound and it is in its true working clothes. Various heights of rockers (the half wheels either side of the cab attached to the bucket) were available to accomodate various truck and tunnel ceiling heights. It is equipped with a 90 HP 3 - 71 GM 2 stroke diesel engine and the 2 cu m bucket makes for very fast loading even by today's standards i.e. 3 loads to 2 of a similar sized current conventional front end loader which has to make at least two turns per cycle. One of the reasons why the Sandstone Heritage Trust staff are somewhat weary of the machine is that they had a reputation for being dangerous. As our pictures show the machine has a fierce mechanical motion which enables the machine to drive straight into a rock face, fill the bucket, and then virtually catapult the material over the top into a truck standing at the back. The only entrance to the cab is via the roof, and so should the bucket (which is returned by impuls spring and gravity) become jammed in a vertical position the operator has the dilemma of getting out while hoping that nothing changes and he does not get sliced in two! Sadly this had been known to happen on a number of occasions. Anyway, looking on the bright side this machine will be treated with great circumspection and we hope to have it working in a quarry on Sandstone Estates quite soon.

Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

18th August 2006

We werent kidding when we sold our 5 year old 120H Road Grader with the intention of bringing an elderly machine out of retirement.

Here is our 51 year old CAT 12 working hard upgrading the roads at Sandstone Estates.

Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

15th September 2006

Sandstone Estates has commenced a programme whereby it is beginning to sell modern equipment but only if we have an item in our heritage collection which is of similar specification. This programme has been extremely successful. Nearly R10 million worth of capital equipment has been disposed of and has been replaced in all cases by vintage items which cost in total probably less than R200,000.

Obviously maintenance was necessary on the old items but they are working hard. Since we are not contractors we are not working to deadlines, and so if we have a road to grade or a dam to build we
are not under any particular deadline. Certainly the big improvement in the cash flow resulting from the implementation in this policy has been a positive move for the business and indicates a very improved level of asset management. Our photograph shows our CAT 120H leaving Sandstone Estates.

All its work functions have been replaced by our CAT 12 Grader seen working below.

Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

10th October 2006

A late model D6R Dozer that has worked at Sandstone Estates, particularly on the railway construction, has been disposed off in favour of its classic 1950's D8 Dozer which is capable of doing similar work. This policy of selling off late model expensive items and replacing them with low value items of similar technical specification improves our cash flow but more importantly enhances our reputation as a classic heritage centre.

Below: The D6R being loaded onto the flatbed.

Sandstone Heritage Trust - News

24th January 2007

Something interesting from Kerry Young in New Zealand is a picture of a Allen Trencher spotted at the Plains Railway Ashburton, South of Christchurch, New Zealand. This unit is identical to the one which has been restored by the Sandstone Heritage Trust and which will be operating during the Kelsey tour over the weekend of 18th February.

Heritage - News

7th October (updated 26th October / 2nd November - see below)

A family in the Northern Cape have donated this interesting and valuable 10RB to the Sandstone Heritage Trust. We already have one but this 10RB is older than the one in stock. In addition the other 10RB is a face shovel whereas this is a back hoe. If we could locate a dragline, a skimmer and a crane boom we would end up with all the attachments. The back hoe is particularly effective for trenching and digs well even in heavy material.