The Atlas 1304 is a wheeled excavator of the German Atlas range. The company behind it began as an agricultural machinery maker in Delmenhorst and became one of the leading builders of hydraulic excavators in the 1960s. Surviving machines carry the designations 1304 M and 1304 K.
Atlas 1304 at a glance
| Maker | Atlas GmbH, Ganderkesee; earlier Hinrich Weyhausen KG, Delmenhorst |
|---|---|
| Type | wheeled excavator (Radbagger) |
| Model | 1304; the 1304 M appears in the video |
| Also seen as | 1304 K, in the caption of a Prague photograph |
| Company founded | 1919, as Hinrich Weyhausen KG |
| Atlas trademark | 1936 |
| First fully hydraulic excavator | 1951 |
| Renamed Atlas Weyhausen GmbH | 1986 |
| Sold to Terex | 2001; renamed Atlas-Terex GmbH |
| Renamed Atlas GmbH | 2016 |
No Wikipedia article is dedicated to the 1304. This page is based on the English and German articles about Atlas GmbH; technical data for the model are not given in those sources.
History of the Atlas 1304
From farm machinery to excavators
The company began in 1919 as Hinrich Weyhausen KG in Delmenhorst, making agricultural machinery and conveyors. The Atlas trademark was created in 1936, and the first fully hydraulic excavator followed in 1951. Through the 1960s the firm took an internationally leading position in hydraulic excavator construction; in 1962 about 1,000 people worked at its plants in Vechta, Ganderkesee, Löningen and Blackwood in Scotland.
The 1304 among the Atlas excavators
Atlas built its programme around hydraulic excavators, including the wheeled machines to which the 1304 belongs. The company’s range has covered wheeled, crawler and two-way excavators, loading cranes and medium-sized wheel loaders. Photographs of surviving machines show the 1304 in Sweden, on a Prague building site as a 1304 K, and a 1304 M preserved by an enthusiast. No source consulted for this page gives the production years or technical data of the model.
The Terex years
In 1986 Hinrich Weyhausen KG was renamed Atlas Weyhausen GmbH. The company ran into financial difficulties in 1999 and was sold to EDER Handel und Beteiligungen, which passed it on in 2001 to the American construction equipment maker Terex of Westport; it then traded as Atlas-Terex GmbH. In 2010 the excavator business was sold to the investor Filip S. Filipov, who named it Atlas Maschinen GmbH. The name changed to Atlas GmbH in April 2016. Machines of the Terex period, such as the TW 190, therefore carry Terex-Atlas branding.
Design and features
- Wheeled excavator: the 1304 belongs to the road-going branch of the Atlas excavator programme.
- Model suffixes: the 1304 M and 1304 K designations appear on surviving machines.
- Atlas badge: the machine carries the trademark created in 1936, when the company was still an agricultural machinery maker.
- Terex-era link: the same company built the Terex-Atlas machines of the 2000s.
Atlas 1304 versions
- 1304: the basic designation, as it appears in photographs of a machine on Gotland, Sweden.
- 1304 M: the version shown in the video and in a photograph by Alf van Beem.
- 1304 K: a version recorded in the caption of a photograph taken during reconstruction work in Prague.
The smaller Atlas AR 65 is a wheel loader from the separate Atlas Weyhausen company, and the Atlas TW 190 is a later wheeled excavator. More machines are in the Atlas collection.
Video: Atlas 1304 M
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Atlas GmbH, English Wikipedia: history, Terex period, product range
- Atlas GmbH, German Wikipedia: founding, plants, renaming
