Barber-Greene Snow Loader clearing Toronto streets in 1942

Barber-Greene Snow Loader in Toronto in 1942

Pictured here, in the winter of 1942, is a Barber-Greene Snow Loader on street-clearing duty in Toronto, Ontario.

The snow loader had been delivered to the Toronto Public Works Department the previous spring.

Barber-Greene Ltd had begun manufacturing coal loaders and conveyors in 1917, with their lineup of bucket loaders coming shortly after.

By 1920, they had produced a snow loader which was an auger/conveyor system based configured on their bucket loader crawler base. It was powered by a 4 cylinder gas engine rated at 37.3 kW (50 hp) and it could load snow at a rate of 7.6 cubic meters (10 cu yds) per minute.

Based in Aurora, Illinois Barber-Greene had factories in South America, England, Europe and from the mid-1950s onward a Canadian facility in Don Mills, Ontario. In addition to wheel and crawler mounted bucket loaders they produced large ditching machines from the 1940s on.

However, they also focused on asphalt equipment. The Barber-Greene model 879 asphalt spreader/finisher was at the head of the class. Portable asphalt plants and Telsmith aggregate crushing plants came next. Always the innovators, B-G flourished in the 1950s & 60s era of the super highways construction both in America and Canada.

In 1987, the rival Astec Corporation purchased the Barber-Greene Company and its line of paving equipment.

By 1991, Caterpillar Inc. had made a $25 million deal with Astec for the former Barber-Greene paving line. So the B-G signature green paint was finally replaced by Caterpillar yellow!

HCEA Canada’s ‘Last Blast’ Event is on Saturday, October 15, 2022 at the Simcoe County Museum near Barrie, Ontario, where visitors can see more than 60 pieces of restored, vintage construction equipment in action.

HCEA Canada is a proud Heritage Partner of the Simcoe County Museum.

Please check HCEA Canada’s website for updates: www.hceacanada.org