Ransomes ITC Machines

[expeatfarmer]

Following on from the article by Patrick Knight with extra photos by the editor, I have two ITC Skimmer machines, one is complete ready to work, the other is mobile and has all major new old stock parts for a rebuild. Rarer still I have a new condition operation and parts manual for the skimmer from which measurements etc can be scaled to make up missing frame. Sadly I have disposed of most of my entire range collection due to ill health the machines I have are available if anyone is interested. The skimmers are unique machines based around an MG6 chassis but fitted with a second final drive gearbox driving the tracks working speed when skimming was 25ft per minute. Quite amazing machines that would travel, skim 1/2″ of sand over a 4ft width, elevate and break up the sand and then discharge at about 5ft off the ground into a dumper all from 1 600cc petrol engine. Being slightly lacking in power many waterboard machines were modified for bigger engines, one of my current machines was purchased in Devon with a brand new for Escort engine and gearbox fitted ( never run from new), another was fitted with a twin cylinder electric start engine.Both now have original type Ransomes petrol engines.
When I first set out to collect one of every model MG made the ITW ( wheeled model),Whitlock loading shovel WR8 were the Holy Grails of which there were thought to be very few remaining, Skimmers were known of but none seen, over the years many more Whitlocks and ITW machines have come to light as have a number of Skimmers. The search is now on to find out what happened to the ITW Barge Tractor which evolved over a number of prototypes the final model I believe was sold to Port of London so far never to be seen or heard of again, UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENT
Happy Christmas

[expeatfarmer]

The machine with the steering wheel is the final version sold I believe into Dockland.

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[franktonpaget]

I was sorry to see that you were parting with your collection and more so to read it was due to ill health.
However I think you can look back with pride to the Ransomes MG display you organised at Tractor World, a real master class in how to put on a display.
The article in the Cultivator by Patrick Knight together with the extra items added by the Editor was first class , in fact the whole publication was a very good read and a tribute to the editor and contributors at a very difficult time starved of normal public events.

Were the Whitlock Bros produced W8 shovel and W4 loader machines based on a ransome mg skid unit a development of the Ransomes ITC machine or seperately development by Whitlock ?
I am sure if you could find the time to tell the story of your MG with the back actor and how you traced the french firm who had manufactured them to meet a requirement in France.
I suppose it was to avoid import duties and to keep it competitive that the Ransomes MG French agent seemed to develop attachments to suit the French market like the hinged rear cultivator lifted by a cable drum on the pto shown on the attached advertisement

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[franktonpaget]

No doubt sewage treatment has developed since the Ransome MG based sand skimmers reached the end of there working lives but it seems there is still a need for filter bed sand skimmers and one machine is the skimmer based on a Morrish crawler built in Devon.
You could say it is the “grandson” of the Ransomes based unit but with a 3 cylinder kubota engine and hydrostatic drive to the rubber tracks and required attachments as shown on the attached photograph.
Morrish also produce bespoke green salad harvesters for use in the intensive salad industry in this country.
I realise Morrish crawlers may not be vintage but early ones are 30 years old now

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[will-haggle]

Thanks for the king words about the Cultivator. Sorry to see that you’re not so well Expeatfarmer, you did do some excellent displays, I particularly remember the one at Newbury.

[expeatfarmer]

Thank you for your kind words, the displays were good fun my friend Anthony Brennan played a major part in the set up for Malvern as did many other contributors and most of all the people who travelled from far and wide with MG machines. Healthwise I am told I should make a full recovery but having so many tractors and parts would have been a major issue to anyone but me having to clear them and it was frustrating to see them all just sitting there when as we see daily there are dozens of young enthusiasts desperate to get hold of crawlers I have really enjoyed meeting up with many of them and supplying parts to bring more machines back to life.
With regard to the WR4 and WR8 machines, Ransomes developed both machines and produced them for market for some time but then for some reason they passed production and marketing over to Whitlock, Whitlock were the taken over and production was stopped. The Morish skimmers produced today were I think directly derived from the Ransomes machines presumably because Ransomes failed to take development further. When you look at the MG crawlers which were developed to make the dumpers ,loaders and skimmers in the early 1960’s, how sad that it took many years before other companies build similar machines which went on to supply the world, Bobcat skidsteers, Kubota Karrier dumpers being prime examples. It seems that so many British companies produced superb machines but then failed to develop them and capitalise on their potential, was it poor financing lack of market initiative or what ? In the 1980’s I bought one of the first Bobcat Skidsteer loaders in UK fitted with tracks to work on the peat at Kirkbride.

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