One of JCB’s longest-standing customers restored a vintage backhoe loader to its former glory to mark the digger maker’s approaching 75th anniversary. Lincolnshire, U.K.-based Eric Carnaby & Son has been a customer since 1959 and has purchased over 150 JCB machines over six decades. JCB has said thank you to the firm for its loyalty by restoring the Carnaby family’s 1964 JCB I backhoe.
The project was kept a secret until George Bamford—grandson of JCB Founder Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE—sprung the restoration surprise during a visit to the company’s base in Immingham, near Grimsby, to collect the machine.
George Bamford said: “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.”
Founded by Eric Carnaby in 1946, the plant hire and road haulage firm is now run by father-and-son team Roland Carnaby Senior and Roland Carnaby Junior. The company’s first JCB purchase was a JCB 4 backhoe in 1959. The company’s most recent purchase was the latest X Series excavator.
