Fifty Years of Yellow Blood: AMD Contract Services and Scotland's First JCB 420X

Posted On 13 August 2026

AMD Contract Services Ltd has taken delivery of the first JCB 420X tracked excavator in Scotland, a milestone that sits inside a much longer story. The Dumfries-based contractor now runs close to 150 machines across agriculture, forestry and construction work, but its relationship with JCB, and with Scot JCB, goes back more than fifty years.

How It All Started

AMD began life in 1967 as Dykes of Wallaceton, when Albert Munro Dykes started providing machinery services to farmers near Moniaive, cutting bracken in the hills and carrying out land drainage. “He started on his own, and built a small team with son Trevor joining in the late 1970s and son Fraser joining the business in 1987, and that went on until 1996,” said Fraser Dykes, Managing Director of AMD Contract Services Ltd. “My brother and I took over then, and that’s when it really started to grow. We went from around four machines back in 1996 to about 150 now, all different models.” In 1997 the business was renamed AMD Contract Services Ltd, and on 1 December 2016 Fraser took over as sole Managing Director following a share purchase from his brother, Trevor.

What began as agricultural work expanded into forestry in the late 1990s and, later, into construction. Today around 60% of AMD’s business is contracting, alongside its continuing forestry and agricultural services. The company employs around 80 staff including operators, office staff, and service engineers.

A Relationship Fifty Years in the Making

AMD’s history with JCB stretches back to 1973, when Fraser’s father bought the family’s first JCB, a 3C Mark II, from a then 23-year-old Steve Bryant. “I was a ten-year-old boy, and I went with them in Steve’s Mark 3 Cortina to Glasgow to buy the digger,” Fraser recalled. The business grew over the next two decades. “In 1999 we got the first ever brand-new machine I had, a JCB 130 HD,” Fraser said. “I’ve always had a great relationship with Steve and the boys, (Iain and Robin Bryant, Joint Managing Directors), David Donoghue (former Joint MD of Scot JCB) and now Michael (Robinson, Scot JCB Sales Engineer), and it’s gone from there.

Second to None Service from Scot JCB

For Fraser, the relationship with Scot JCB is about more than machinery. “Scot JCB’s got an abundance of customers with the same opinion as me. Their service is second to none, and their relationship building is second to none,” he said. “If you’ve seen what’s on the wall in Lord Bamford’s museum, ‘we are nothing without our customers’, you can see Steve drove that into his business from the start.”

“My Digger”: The JCB 131X

Ask Fraser which JCB machine means the most to him, and the answer comes quickly. “The 131X has been our best digger ever,” he said. “It’s been a servant for all sorts of jobs, compact, and problem-free to be honest. One of ours is on nine thousand hours now and been trouble free.” AMD uses its 131X fleet for spreading stone on sites and general contracting work, drawn by fuel economy of seven to eight litres an hour and a Stage V engine that needs no AdBlue. “Drivers think 74 horsepower sounds weak, but that’s not the point,” Fraser said. “For harder digging conditions use a heavier machine – for everything else the JCB 131X does the job.”

Scotland’s First JCB 420X

AMD’s newest arrival is the first JCB 420X tracked excavator sold in Scotland. “My background is as a digger driver; I drove them for nearly fifty years. The 420X has been beefed up in all the right places. The new undercarriage and the stability that it creates is fantastic.”

The 40-tonne class 420X pairs a Cummins L9 dual-certified engine producing 241kW (323hp) with a new 2.6 cubic metre heavy-duty bucket, giving 10% more capacity and 11% better lifting performance than the 370X. A wider, longer undercarriage adds stability, and the JCB UX cab’s 10-inch touchscreen lets operators store settings for up to 15 attachments. For AMD, replacing older machines to meet its contracting clients’ fleet age requirements, the 420X joins the fleet as a heavier partner for its day-to-day work. The fleet includes a substantial number of JCB machines, from mini and midi excavators now up to 40tonne tracked excavators. The company has also invested in the JCB e-tech range with electric mini diggers and dumpers added to the fleet.

Iain Bryant, Joint Managing Director at Scot JCB, said: “It’s fantastic to see the first 420X in Scotland go to a business with such a long-standing relationship with JCB. Fraser knows exactly what he needs from a machine, and the 420X’s strength and stability made it the right fit for AMD’s fleet.”

Backed by Parts, Finance and People

AMD also uses Scot JCB for genuine parts, and Fraser is quick to point out that fast availability keeps machines moving rather than sitting idle. The company uses JCB Finance for new purchases too, though for Fraser it's the relationship that matters most. 'John Bigland's been fantastic. Over the years he's become a good friend,' he said.