One of JCB’s longest-standing customers has received a unique gift from the manufacturer – a vintage JCB 1 backhoe loader restored to its former glory.
The restoration project was tackled by JCB to help mark the company approaching 75th anniversary.
The United Kingdom-based Eric Carnaby & Son has been a JCB customer since 1959. Since then, the contractor has purchased more than 150 JCB machines. Now JCB has said ‘thank you’ to the firm for its loyalty by restoring the Carnaby family’s cherished 1964 JCB 1 backhoe.
The project was kept a secret until George Bamford, grandson of JCB founder Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE, announced the restoration during a visit to the company’s base in Immingham to collect the machine.
“My family and I are over the moon with the restoration. Our JCB 1 is precious to us and we’ve been meaning to restore it for some time, but you know how it is – a business to run, and all that,” said Roland Carnaby Junior, director of Eric Carnaby & Son.
Now six months later, the backhoe has been handed back to the company after a team at JCB’s world headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire spent hundreds of hours lovingly restoring it.
“It has been amazing to see an old machine brought back to life by the JCB team. It looks just as it would have done on the day it came off the production line in 1964,” George Bamford said.
More vintage heavy equipment
- Toronto’s Yonge Street subway
- Wabco Haulpak 85-C haul truck
- Caterpillar Sixty handling a Russell pull grader
The company’s first JCB purchase was a JCB 4 backhoe in 1959 and it was the JCB backhoe loader that formed the backbone of the Eric Carnaby & Son fleet for many years to come – with up to 12 in operation during the 1970s and 1980s.
The company’s most recent purchase was the latest X Series excavator. The two family businesses have been strongly intertwined throughout the 61-year period, with 95p per cent of the Eric Carnaby & Son fleet now made up of JCB equipment. JCB will mark its 75th birthday on Oct. 23.
