Coming from Wheels of Time

[Nato]

               Coming from Wheels of Time. 
                           

[basementcalling]

The shirt, shoes or sandals?

[Nato]

     None of the above. Side Boom Crawlers.

[EspeeGoldenState]

The shirt, shoes or sandals?

Are shoes and sandals the same thing?

The side booms are nice but a little old for me

[cfritschle]

I am confused.  The photo depicts a Cleveland "ditcher," some of which are still in use.  Wheels of Time released the AC HD 21 side boom crawler in February.     http://www.wheelsotime.com/hd-21-side-boom-n-scale/

[Gozer the Gozerian]

if he were really a Railwire guy he'd have white socks on too.   

[Nato]

          Yes he would, and you are correct that is a ditcher used in the Cane Fields in Hawaii . Lastly I did not know the side booms had released in February, I thought they were coming soon. Hutchler Eat your Hats. Nato.

[up1950s]

Is that a prehistoric turbocharger , or a lunch oven ?

[cfritschle]

Is that a prehistoric turbocharger , or a lunch oven ?

The "box" probably houses the air filter.  The piping appears to connect to an aspirator on the exhaust stack that would pull dust from the air cleaner housing and expel it with the exhaust from the engine.  Aspirator pre-cleaners are common on farm equipment, especially combines that generate a lot of dust.

A concrete irrigation ditch installer in southwestern Idaho uses a similar machine (it's red and may even be a Cleveland) to cut the "trench" in the ditch pad so the sled or boat (a concrete slipform made of steel) fits in the ditch/trench.  The boat/sled/slipform is continuously filled with concrete while being pulled by a tractor, or even the ditcher. 

Here is a link to a company in Utah that has a more modern looking and larger ditcher.  http://www.jonesditchlining.com/ditchdigging/ditchlining-products/ 

The typical concrete irrigation ditch designed for use with siphon tubes in southwestern Idaho has a 12 inch bottom with 1:1 slope sides, and is usually 14 or 16 inches deep.  Sorry for all the worthless trivia.   

[up1950s]

Thanks . I want some .

[fire5506]

That picture brings back memories. I spent many hours sitting on the seat of Cleveland trench diggers.
I ran model 92, 95 and I think 130 trenchers. That steel tractor seat was COLD in winter and hot in summer.

Richard Webster

[DMetz]

My father had a series of different Buckeye trench diggers, very similar to the Cleveland shown in the picture.  There was a fully tracked machine, a half track, and a full rubber wheel machine about 1979.  That last one had one of the first laser guidance system for this area.  The laser set the vertical height of the ditch to maintain a perfect grade.  I was about 6 years old when he got out of the business, but I have lots of good memories with that equipment.  Many drainage companies now are using large farm tractors with a single ripper type attachment to install drain pipe.

Dan M

[nkalanaga]

Trivia?  Yes, but not at all worthless, especially if one is modeling irrigated croplands.  Similar ditches, and siphons, were common in the Columbia Basin of Washington into the 80s, and probably still are.