ABC Wednesday – “C” is for Construction Equipment

It has been a while since I have participated in ABC Wednesday. It used to be one of my favorite meme’s and then life and instagram kind of got in the way. This week’s letter is C so I decided on Construction Equipment.

DSCN1988 — A small “trackhoe” out in front of our office last year. I’d love to have one of these of my own.

Once upon a time I used to be involved in construction. As a project engineer I built pipelines, compressor stations, gas processing plants and other pipeline related facilities. I loved construction. It’s basically a scheduling issue: getting your land, permits, materials, and a contractor coordinated.

A trackhoe is basically a backhoe only with treads instead of tires. They are the workhorse of construction.

A trackhoe with a view.

A big trackhoe doubling as a road block.

A regular backhoe. I have seen backhoe operators do some amazing things like moving across a swamp with just the hoe and front blade and the wheels not touching the ground.

A little cultural difference. Growing up in the mountain west I always heard of this as a Grader. I moved to Texas and they call it a Maintainer.

Pipeline construction is not too exciting. These are called sidebooms and are used to move a pipeline after it is welded into a ditch. They have counterweights to keep the equipment balanced as it extends the boom out to place the pipeline in the ditch. I have come to find out that the railroad industry uses similar equipment.

Anyway there you have it. Come join the fun at ABC Wednesday

7 thoughts on “ABC Wednesday – “C” is for Construction Equipment”

A ShutterBug Explores January 23, 2019 at 10:24 am

Creative choice and photos for C ~ construction equipment ~

Happy Day to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Lea's Menagerie January 23, 2019 at 8:11 pm

I see Trackhoes here, but was not sure of the proper name for them until now – Thanks!
I have always known those ‘maintainers’ as Road Graders. I grew up on a dirt road that was graded regularly, so it would take me awhile to get used to the new name.

Roger Green January 23, 2019 at 9:21 pm

I love heavy machinery1

Su-sieee! Mac January 24, 2019 at 1:19 am

Lucky you, getting to drive these handsome machines. Once upon a time I thought I wanted to work in construction.

Mama Pajama January 24, 2019 at 10:19 pm

great post – I now know the difference between a backhoe and a trackhoe! and in Vermont, we called those ‘graders’, too. heavy machinery is big fun…I’d love to drive any of those, sometime!