Decatur Facility Puts Two Retired Cat Machines on Display

By: Valerie Wells
Source: Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill. (TNS)

DECATUR—The Caterpillar large wheel loader now on permanent display outside the CAT facility in Decatur used to belong to David Duff and logged 82,000 hours in the family’s coal mining operation in Chavies, Kentucky.

Magnus, a model 994 large wheel loader that served the Duff family’s coal mining company in Chavies, Kentucky, for over 20 years, returned home to CAT on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, during Family Day, where it will spend retirement on display.

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The machine, nicknamed “Magnus” and now in its retirement, is built in the Decatur plant, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary as the greater company celebrates its 100th year in business.

At Caterpillar’s annual Family Day on Saturday, both Magnus and the wheeled tractor scraper “Kelly,” also built in Decatur and retired to display after a full career, were unveiled in their new permanent parking spots. They join the big mining dump truck that has been on display for several years now.

Kelly is a wheeled tractor scraper built in Decatur, Illinois.

The nicknames were chosen by CAT employees in a just-for-fun contest.

“We loaded this truck right here, two shifts a day, so it would run from 7 to 5; we’d shut it down for an hour and it would run from from 6 to 6,” said Ryan Duff, who attended the unveiling of the new displays on the grounds of Caterpillar Inc. on Saturday. Magnus kept up that pace from 1990 to 2012, every day around the clock, he said.

His late father’s nickname was “44,” and both of the younger Duff’s sons use No. 44 in their respective sports. The reason for the nickname was that David Duff and his employees all had two-way radios to keep in contact during the work day, and the radios were numbered. The elder Duff’s radio was actually number 444, Ryan Duff said, but immediately got shortened to “44,” and that number is even on his tombstone.

David Duff had several big CAT machines, but Magnus was his favorite, his son said.

Miles Bryant has worked for CAT since high school, when he was on a work/study program, and is a fabrication specialist—a welder—who helped build the frame of the giant mining dump truck that is displayed near the building. He’s also a built-in quality coordinator.

“That’s what I weld on every day,” Bryant said, indicating the big dump truck. “When I bring people by (the plant) and say, ‘That’s what we build here in Decatur,’ they’re blown away. So that’s cool.”

Facility manager Gaurav Pareek said the employees at CAT take great pride in their work and in the large machines, even the ones who aren’t directly involved in their manufacture. Having the big yellow machines outside allows employees to point to them when driving by with friends and family and say “that’s what we do,” he said.

That’s also the point of Family Day, when employees can bring friends and family to the plant for kids activities, tours and more.

Eric Bishop worked for CAT for 11 years and always attended Family Day until moving out of the area some years ago.

“We moved back (to the area) and we came to show (the kids) where I grew up and where Dad used to work,” Bishop said.