With our NPORS training we obviously want all of our students to be competent and safe in the handling of their chosen machinery. However, there are some people who have gone from a plant training school to beating World Records. For a bit of fun, here are some of those records. Who knows, maybe one day it can be your name in the Guinness book of World Records.
Excavator Records
With our fantastic plant training school you might be able to beat one of these incredible records:
Longest journey in an excavator – Between the 11th of January and the 13th of February 2019, Norman Bartie from Australia travelled an incredible 3,510.39 miles from Brisbane to the capital city of Canberra.
Fastest time to remove 6 caps – One of the more dangerous World Records that we don’t recommend you trying too soon was broken on the 13th of January 2015. Zhu Fei of China managed to remove 6 baseball caps from the heads of 6 people in just 21 seconds. He went head to head (no pun intended) with another competitor and beat him by an incredible 28 seconds.
Most balloons popped in one minute using an excavator bucket – Japanese construction machinery wholesaler, Shima Kikai Co., Ltd, organised an event to celebrate the company’s 75th anniversary. Day two of the event involved people trying to break World Records. Akira Kawasaki of Japan set a new World record for popping balloons in one minute by bursting an incredible 47 on the 30th of October 2022.
Telehandler Record
There is only one World Record on the Guinness World Records website for telehandlers. Maybe someone from our plant training school could be the person to set a few more!
The telehandler World Record was set by a team of Americans from the Caterpillar Incorporated plant machinery company on the 11th of December 2013. Using 5 of their machines they managed to build the world’s largest board game!
The game in question was Jenga, and according to Guinness it was “made out of solid pine that was waxed to make it more slippery, each of the 27 blocks measured 96 inches (8 feet; 243.8 centimetres) long, 32 inches (81.2 centimetres) wide and 16.25 inches (41.2 centimetres) high. The tower began with nine layers and ended with 13 after a total of 16 blocks were added”.
I wouldn’t want to be underneath those Jenga blocks when they collapsed!
Dumper World Records
There are two really impressive World Records that have been set using dumpers. With skills learnt at the plant training school, there’s no reason why you couldn’t set a few more!
Heaviest battery powered vehicle – Our sister company, EVision Electric Vehicles, would be proud of this amazing World Record. In 2019, Swiss company Kuhn Schweiz AG built an eDumper that weighed 40.82 Tonnes! What is even more incredible is that this dumper could carry and transport a load of 58.96 tonnes!
Largest parade of dumper trucks – This World Record was set by Dumper Team Näser, a team from Germany. There were 56 dumpers in total in the parade. Little information is given on the Guinness World Records website, but it must have been quite a sight to behold.
When the Chairman Breaks Records
The Chairman of the Plant Training School and Diggerland, Hugh Edeleanu, has himself been known for World Record attempts. Here are three of his successes!
Fastest journey in a JCB digger from Lands End to John O’Groats – This is a World record that was broken not once, but twice! On the 14th of April 1989, Hugh managed to make the journey in a time of 34 hours and 15 minutes. This Record was broken a little time later and Hugh was determined to recapture his glory. So in 1997 the adventure began once again. This time our Chairman was able to absolutely smash the World Record in a time of 22 hours, 10 minutes and 30 seconds!
First Komatsu digger to operate underwater – in 2012 at the 40th anniversary celebrations of H. E. Services, Mr Edeleanu drove a Komatsu digger completely underwater, returning the machine back to dry land and operational.
Longest tightrope walk in a mini digger without safety harness – This is definitely one to add to the “do not try at home” list. In 2022 at the 50th anniversary of H. E. Services, Hugh drove a mini digger across a tightrope measuring 30 metres in length whilst not wearing a safety harness. The crowd held their breath until Hugh made it safely to the other side.
