plowhand

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While on Spring break and working a full day at the company i worked at in High school we were having lunch setting in the door way like we did on nice days while at the shop . back then everyday around noon the train that ran the little spur line would come by . We heard it coming and like always it stopped at the road crossing and the conductor walked up and lit to fusee's and stopped traffic on U S 224 and the train started past . Like usual it had some box cars a bunch of empty coal cars and one flat car , setting on the flat car was the biggest dozer any of us ever saw , a brand new Cat D 9 G with a cab , brush sweeps and ripper the blade lay on the deck of the car in pieces , the cab was also on the deck not installed and so was the brush sweeps . The company had the OLD D9's and every color dozer ever made but nothing like this . Willis the head shovel and crane man said my god who in there right mind would buy something that BIG . as the train pulled the slight grade headed south and went up over the top we heard it stop and the clanging and banging of cars being unhooked . There were several Business that had sidings and us being one of them . Sometimes when we would take on a job a long distance away we would use rail to move equipment to a siding close to the job site then truck the rest of the way . This was April of 1963 . The next thing we saw was the flat car and engine backing down our siding and at the same time the owner of the company comes flyen in in his pick up jumps out and starts barking orders , next five service trucks from the local Cat dealer show up . The dozer was shipped DRY, no fluids no batterys . Willis and Jessey were walking the 22 B Bucyers down along side the car to start unloading the stuff and help with assembly . Fluids were put in then the batterys . The owner told me to get up there and run it off . ME run that you got to be kidding me . So i go up and climb up on it and the one Cat guy starts telling me about the NEW Power Shift and the Direct electric start no more pony motors . This Power shift thing terrified me , i could run any one of the OLD dozer with the hand clutches like a pro BUT this Power shift thing and DECELERATOR had my pea brain in a tizzy . when everything was on the ground and now it was time to back this monster off onto the loading dock i was scared . My hands were shaking while i was perheating cracked the throttle and flipped the switch to start and the beast came to life . Watching the gauges come up and give her a couple min. before we lifted the park loc and pull the little lever into rev. with BOTH feet on the brake pedals i pulled the little lever to the left and back one notch and felt her come against the brakes . The mechanic kept telling me that just one brake was enough to hold her back and to put my right foot on the decelerator and open up the hand throttle and let up on the go pedal . Well i got it on the ground but still was not grasping this down to slow down thing . By 5:30 that day the monster was all together and setting next to one of the old 9's she was BIG . The next day we took it up back of the main shop into open field and started removing all that nice new yellow paint on the blade and tracks We all got some seat time on it . John my boss did not like it as he was having the same problmes with the decelerator thing , Willis kept sayen it was to BIG and jessey did not like the cab or the power shift kept sayen someone is going to get killed with this . . The owner told me Best get use to it as this is YOUR tractor NOW your the young one that can grasp this new stuff and there is a LOT MORE NEW STUFF COMING , New Pans with power shift , new road graders with power shift a whole new line of equipment of all colors and all the OLD stuff was history . It took me a good week to get comfortable with it and be able to cut grade and bump a pan with out ejecting the pan operator out of his seat and giving him whip lash. Even got to love the cab with the NEW A/C and Heat , not the cabs of today But it sure beat setting out in the sun or under and Umbrella or hunkered down in a heat houser on a cold windy day. Now the down side to all this bigness was cleaning the under carriage when it got packed with MUD .
 

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