A friend of mine told me about this machine when I asked if he knew of any great old iron laying around. This is the same guy who took me into see the Doriston trucks...obviously the right fella to know.
This great old cat in a perfect setting is only a few feet from an active road ( a quiet road )
Before hydraulic excavators became the construction tool of choice, the push cat ruled the roost. With lots of low end torque and a heavily built frame, the cat would push great heaps of dirt, dig up stumps, and pull logs with it's winch. It was common not so long ago for a small cat to get dropped off at a work site to clear a lot for a house and dig the basement. ( this is done by cutting into the level ground and ramping down deeper on each pass. The material gets stockpiled outside the basement footprint. )
Cats are still a popular tool in mining and road building applications. These days of course they come with glassed in cabs, stereos and air conditioning and you operate the whole rig with a joy stick. Long gone are the days of starting the diesel engine with a gas pup motor ( that you may have to hand crank ) steering clutch levers three feet long and a rough ride that would shake your back teeth out.
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