Jim Carter has preserved a piece of military history with his 1972 Case Marine Corps 1150 track loader, and he enjoys showing it to the public.
“Most people have seen the civilian models, but they've never seen something set up the way the military would have had it,” says the retired nuclear-medicine technologist from Zionsville, Indiana, who collects vintage equipment and trucks.
At last year’s Historical Construction Equipment Association annual convention, he went all out, not only demonstrating the MC1150’s abilities but also getting in costume with military fatigues and helmet.
“It's just something kind of fun,” he says. “I figured I would look a lot better running the machine in that outfit than I would in T-shirt and shorts and sandals or something.”
(To watch him operate the loader, check out the video at the end of this story.)
He even placed a replica of an M16 rifle in the loader’s side rack to add to the authentic look. “That garnered a lot of interesting comments from people. If you're an equipment operator out in the battlefield, you want your firearm close by.”
Another thing that attracts the crowds is the engine’s loud roar, which doesn’t sound like the typical Case engine – and that’s because it’s not a Case.
