Volvo supports Historical Construction Equipment Association
The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) held its 26th annual International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition in early July, 2011. Hosted by the I & I Tractor Club at their Penfield, Illinois, showgrounds, the show featured products built by Cletrac and Oliver. Between construction equipment and related machines, over 140 exhibits from as far away as Alexandria, Virginia, joined hundreds of farm tractors shown by the I & I organization. Much of the construction equipment, which dated from throughout the early and mid 1900s, worked during the show in public demonstrations.
Several very rare machines were on hand, including: A Washington Scale Company crawler tractor; a 1951 Schield Bantam ABM51 truck backhoe that was built for military airborne service; a 1951 Ford 8N wheel tractor with a Dearborn motor grader conversion and berm leveler; and all three varieties of Cletrac’s raised-sprocket model F crawler tractor from the early 1920s.
The HCEA’s 27th Annual International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition will be held September 14 - 16, 2012 at the National Construction Equipment Museum in Bowling Green, Ohio. This will be a very special event, as the Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owner’s Club will also be holding its annual show in conjunction with the HCEA. Over seventy machines from the Museum’s collection will be on display, with many of them being demonstrated, and the public is welcome to attend and to bring additional equipment.
Volvo Construction Equipment and Taylor Machine Works have joined HCEA as Corporate Members.
Taylor Machine Works, Inc., located in Louisville, Mississippi, is arguably the only privately held industrial lift truck manufacturer operating in America today. Founded by W. A. Taylor, Sr., in 1927 as a small family-owned automotive and repair business, Taylor is now under the leadership of the third generation of the Taylor family, and its “Big Red” forklifts have made an impressive impact in the materials handling equipment industry worldwide. The American Heritage “Big Red” Fire Museum is also in Louisville; founded in 1989 by W. A. Taylor Jr., it houses over 100 vehicles and exhibits as old as the late 1700s.
Volvo Construction Equipment is one of the world’s oldest industrial firms engaged in construction equipment manufacturing, tracing its roots to a machine shop founded in Eskilstuna, Sweden by Johan Thefron Munktell in 1832. Today, it has plants in Sweden, Germany, France, Poland, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Korea, China and India, and its products and services are offered in more than 125 countries through proprietary or independent dealerships. Volvo has also acquired a number of other historic firms, including the Michigan product line from Clark, Champion motor graders, Akkerman excavators, Blaw-Knox paving machines, and Samsung excavators.
The National Construction Equipment Museum, operated by the HCEA in Bowling Green, Ohio, has two Michigan wheel loaders including the first one produced, and an MRS 150AGT wheel tractor in its collection, and its Archives house substantial collections of records from both companies. Volvo Construction Equipment donated one of the loaders and a sizeable volume of archival records directly to the HCEA.
Corporate members designate up to five of their officers and employees to receive the HCEA’s quarterly magazine, Equipment Echoes, and VIP passes to its annual International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition, to be held at its Bowling Green, Ohio, headquarters September 14th through 16th, 2012. They also receive links on the HCEA’s website at www.hcea.net, and are publicized in Equipment Echoes and in press releases to trade publications and websites.