heres a oldie

that would of worked wonders ..the TD18 had a aftermarket blade fitted with a massive tree pusher (much heavier than the standard blade ..i say those type of rippers would of worked wonders on the old girl

For a cable machine the CEK was OK but dangerous loading trucks as a cable break could be fatal

Drove a heap of face shoveles in my working life with greaser on a RB 54 Glenbourne dam about 52 last centuary thats where you started if you had a good driver he would let you have a drive each day breaking stuff out of the face then if you could handel it OK you got an hour loading trucks . You learned about the clutches & linkages how to ajust things so the leavers were finger tip to use that was how you learned the trade .
Last shovel i drove was a Cockams Lansverg all air controls Scanier Varbis power with twin disc torque converter 2 mt buckett it was a piece of crap but easy to drive & dug well 25mm hoist rope was replaced every 2 months otherwise it would snap & fly back at you .
Drove Buckeye/ Lima/ osgood /RB 24 / RB 30/ NGK Kohering I dont miss them or geting covered in black jack every day filling the grease gun each shift . Best machine was a Kohering with a 5 cylinder Gardener power plant fast strong with a good reach & clutches that stayed in ajustment when they got real hot .
You could get a good rythem going & keep the trucks away as all truckies love to bludge under the shovel & make you look bad when the boss arrives .
Good old days Naaaaar just loved my last Komatsu 25 tonn excavator with quick hitch I would spin the bulk buckett around & use it as a face shovel when I had slops to load out all good fun Air con sterio & cb to yap on all good . TC

nowadays theres almost as many excavators around your area as people ? !

there is an excavator wrecker at albury and when i was reading his sighn out the front he wrecked 16 brands of excavator