Melroe M870 Buffalo Coal Dozer

Randy Westrum

on August 18, 2023 10:58 PM

I remember as a boy climbing around on one of these at its factory (Melroe Multi-Wheel) in Longmont Colorado sometime in the late “60s”. My dad and grandfather had a custom tractor cab manufacturing plant north across the street. This was fortunate as WW Engineering was contracted to build the cabs and exterior sheet metal on the early models. Back then there were coal strip mining operations in Louisville and Lafayette Colorado. One time riding around with grandpa my uncle and some cousins, gramps stopped off at one of these strip minds, well gramps knew where the keys were stashed and took us on a short joy ride. Another point of interest was a performance test at Pendleton Equipment Company again in Longmont Co. . I remember standing in front of a large crowd of people, at least halve a dozen men in traditional Arab dress we’re standing alongside. In the yard men were chaining up an M880 Pusher to a D12 Cat for a tug of war. It was truly a battle of the titans, though the M880 Pusher won the contest. I remember afterwards looking over at my grandfather standing next to Fay Garner engineer and brainchild of the M880 Pusher,, both had cheek to cheek grins. Somewhere I’ve got an old snapshot of me standing in a front end loader accessory for this tractor, it would hold at least 3 Ford F-350s side by side.