For some years I have known that there was a large pre-hydraulic excavator in the woods south of my home town. I didn't know the exact location, but some light detective work pinned down the location to within a 500-600 meter radius. Shouldn't be too hard to find then, right? Wrong. Still a lot of rotten snow in the area that is also quite wet and marshy. After around an hour of fruitless searching and getting quite wet I was about to give up. Enter friendly natives. They indeed knew were «the monster of the woods» was located. Never mind the soggy shoes and a missus that probably was starting to feel that I was running empty on the man-time by then. (Even if I had dropped her off on a roadside cafe with enough reading material.)
With proper directions it took me just another ten minutes to locate this beauty:
image0.jpeg
Not to shabby after more than 60 years in the woods!
What a lovely beast with inspiration
Barney
If it was April I would think you were fooling us.
Either way she is quite nice!
MJinTN
Have you worked out how to get it home yet ?
Nick, go stand in the corner! -- Russ
No, I shan't and you can't make me. Ya Big Palooka.
Oh, my goodness!
Quote from: shropshire lad on March 25, 2026, 07:26:57 AMHave you worked out how to get it home yet ?
No, but I would be very thrilled to have that one on my front lawn!
Seriously, I think it is great that this machine has just been left in the wilderness were it broke down. Imagine just coming across this monster on a hike in the woods! Far more mindprovoking than encountering it in a technical museum. And in a museum it would most likely have been stripped of all that grittiness and beautiful weathering.
It does not tell the story, but it strongly suggests that there is a story to be found, if one is even slightly curious.
I wonder if there is a "story" it would be very colorfull.
MJinTN