The Komatsu FB10R-1 reach truck

Komatsu Forklift has donated a 36-year-old reach truck to the National Fork Truck Heritage Centre in Derbyshire, UK.

The FB10R-1 reach truck that rolled off Komatsu's plant in May 1971 will arrive in the UK in early September and an official hand-over ceremony will be held on September 14.

Komatsu European division general manager Eiji Fukuda and head of commercial operations Rory Harvey-Kelly from Milan, Italy, will present the forklift to the museum's founder and curator, James Brindley.

Brindley, 63, tells Forkliftaction.com News the Komatsu reach truck is one of the Japanese manufacturer's early products and will be the museum's first Asian forklift exhibit.

He explains the main criterion for his museum's exhibits is their age.

"[I] also take into account the date the manufacturer first started forklift production and the different models or types the company is producing. Major style changes come into the equation, as do any changes in safety or environmental features."

He adds that he also weighs up the machines' "interest factor" to the general public.

Brindley is a former BT Rolatruc service engineer and Fork Lift Truck Association director. He personally restores old forklifts and displays them in a room at the Midland Railway Centre.

Brindley says the success of the museum since its official opening in October 2006 has presented him with a problem (Forkliftaction.com News #281).

"We have no more room for exhibits in the present facility."

He plans to build an extension to the current museum, doubling its exhibition space and to incorporate a mezzanine floor for a library and archive.

The project is estimated to cost GBP80,000 (USD161,456), with labour undertaken by volunteers.

Companies that donate to the project will be acknowledged on the museum's "honours board".

Brindley says the new extension could be named after a generous benefactor.

Among the museum's exhibits are a 1926 Yale forklift believed to be the world's oldest "surviving" forklift and a 1946 prototype of the Coventry Climax Godiva truck ET199.

Anyone interested in supporting the expansion can contact www.forkliftaction.com.