Page 22 - Equipment Echoes Issue #137

History at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020

By National Director Keith Haddock, Images courtesy of the author

CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020 featured many modern innovations such as an electric drive loader/backhoe from Case,
to name only one. But there was history on hand as well. At least three vintage machines were on display, and other
exhibits included historic context or presentations.

Wain-Roy built an all-hydraulic tractor-mounted backhoe in 1947 claiming it as the: world’s The Woods Equipment celebration of Wain-Roy’s history included this explanatory sign.
first. This is the very first one.
Wain-Roy Inc. Owned by Woods Equipment, a Blount International brand, since 1997, Wain-Roy displayed its line of excavator buckets
and quick-coupler attachments in which they specialize today. Wain-Roy built an all-hydraulic tractor-mounted backhoe attachment in
1947, claiming it as the world’s first. The first machine was sold and patented the following year. This coincides exactly with the year
Poclain built its first tractor-towed all-hydraulic backhoe, so the dates claimed are not disputed. Wain-Roy’s very first backhoe, serial
number 1, was shown dismounted from a tractor; it was originally sold to Connecticut Light and Power for $1,090.

This is the third of five original Gradall excavators built in 1944 and 1945, before the Mounted on a Linn truck, this Gradall is believed to be the world’s first fully hydraulic excavator.
company was acquired by Warner & Swasey.
Gradall Industries Inc.: The Gradall display included the third of the five original Gradall excavators built in 1944 and 1945. These were
the first true hydraulic excavators in America and probably the world. In November 1945, the Warner & Swasey Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, saw
great potential in the machine and acquired the rights to manufacture and market it. On the introduction of the Gradall M2400 excavator
in 1947, four of the original five machines are recorded as scrapped leaving this one survivor. Mounted on a Linn half-track truck, the show
machine was discovered in 1964 in a scrap dealer’s yard and was purchased back by Warner & Swasey and restored. Since 2005 it has been
owned by Daryl Gushee, an equipment collector in Maine. Today Gradall, having been through several ownerships, is owned by the Alamo
Group and is America’s only excavator manufacturer to produce excavators only in America. Issue 93 presented a history of this company.

20 | Equipment Echoes Summer 2020 | #137