Thanks for visiting the website of the Historical Construction Equipment Association, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserving for public education the history of the construction, dredging and surface mining equipment industries.

On this page, you can scroll down or review the [recent news] headings at right to find news stories about the HCEA and its activities. The Main Menu at left takes you to our other pages, of course, and you can learn more about us, what we do and how to join the HCEA.

Here are a few other highlights of the site:

• The Product Catalog, which also appears in our magazine Equipment Echoes, lists the wide range of books, videos and DVDs, scale models, apparel, collectibles and other items we sell to help fund our operations. It also includes information about our unique calendar, which features twelve photos of antique construction, dredging and surface mining machinery at work in the early to mid 1900s.
  
  
• Click on [Convention] to read about our annual International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition, a unique venue in which antique construction equipment is demonstrated for the public.
  
  
• [Chapters] gives you a directory of our chapters, a resource you can use to contact other people who are interested in historic construction equipment in a given area.
  
  
• The [Museum] page tells you all about our National Construction Equipment Museum and Archives in Bowling Green, Ohio.
  
  
• Don’t miss the [Web Links] page, a unique resource with over 600 links to sites for antique machinery, construction projects, museums, manufacturer and contractor histories, and much, much more. Feel free to submit more links!
  
  
• [Gallery] opens three photo galleries – one each for the National Construction Equipment Museum, our Conventions, and for site users to post their own photos of vintage construction and mining machinery.
  
  
• Finally, [Message Boards] takes you to our forums for buying and selling, sharing information, and general discussion.
  
  Dig in and enjoy our site!
  Posted by: HCEA Webmaster on Jul 06, 2007 - 08:43 AM
  

Every quarter we mail out over 1,000 first renewal notices. We wait approximately 45 days, and then we mail out the Final renewal notice to those who have not responded.

The HCEA could save $1,000 in postage if members would just respond to the first notice within the 45 days. The U.S. Postal Service has recently raised the cost of postage again, so please try to respond to your renewal notice as soon as it arrives to help us keep our costs down. For your convenience, you can renew online using Visa. Master Card, Discover or Paypal by clicking [RENEW] on the Main Menu at left.

Thank you for your help with this, and for your support.

Issue 85 of the HCEA's quarterly magazine Equipment Echoes has been mailed and is now available for ordering. In this issue, we are proud to present a study of the Golden Age of Construction Equipment, the 1920s. This was a period of unrivalled innovation in the construction equipment industry, and we examine several of these breakthroughs in detail: Internal combustion, crawler tractors, evolution of the cable excavator, and the use of industrial tractors to power equipment. We also present a Trade Directory of Late 1920s Construction Equipment, compiled from actual trade directories of the time and listing dozens of manufacturers and their products.

Other articles and features of this issue include . . .

We've added an informative page about the National Construction Equipment Museum and the HCEA Archives to the site! Click on [Museum] on the Main Menu at left to learn more about these very important aspects of our work, and to learn about visiting and making use of our collections.

Sign Up in Advance to Save Time and Money

Advance registration for the CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2008 and IFPE 2008 expositions is open as of July 9, 2007. Attendees will also be able to register in advance for the shows’ many educational opportunities as well as obtain housing accommodations.

CONEXPO-CON/AGG and the co-located IFPE 2008 will be held March 11-15, 2008 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, USA. The shows will be the international gathering place in 2008 for the construction and motion control industries.

One registration allows access to the exhibits of both shows, and advance registration saves money off the on-site fee.

Register online at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2008 , or IFPE 2008, or via fax or mail at the addresses below. Advance registration closes February 8, 2008.

Make plans now to attend the 22nd Annual HCEA International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition, to be held July 20th through 22nd, 2007 at the the Zagray Farm Museum on Route 85 1-1/2 miles north of Colchester, Connecticut. A map is available at the Zagray Farms site.

Issue 84 of the HCEA's quarterly magazine Equipment Echoes has been mailed and is now available for ordering. In this issue, we present our history of the Interstate Highways. The evolution of road construction in America, the Good Roads movement, and how the Interstate program impacted the construction equipment industry are all explored.

Other features of this issue include . . .

Scrapping of The Silver Spade began on Monday, January 15, 2007.

According to photos e-mailed to us by a member, the boom was dropped (by parting the support cables with small explosives charges) on Friday, February 9.

Issue 83 of the HCEA's quarterly magazine Equipment Echoes has been mailed and is now available for ordering. We are proud to present our first all-color issue, packed with photographs from our 21st Annual Convention and Old Equipment Exposition, which we held at our headquarters in Bowling Green, Ohio in September.

Other features of this issue include . . .

The effort to save the Silver Spade has ended. In early December, CONSOL Energy awarded a contract for the big shovel’s demolition. The Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park, which worked for years towards the Spade’s preservation, will receive her bucket.

The Silver Spade, one of two Bucyrus-Erie 1950B stripping shovels built, was the last “super stripper” to operate. She was shut down and retired in March after breaking down during movement to a stone pad that was to have been her final resting place.

The Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park wishes to thank everyone who participated in the effort to save the Silver Spade.