The machine concept was a standard base to each model on which optional front-end equipment could be mounted with appropriate counterbalances, crawler track frames and minimal additional machinery.

The model size, an elusively defined number, was possibly the standard face shovel capacity in cubic feet.

The company also manufactured walking draglines, which were very large capacity machines, model 5W the most common, with the upper machinery deck (on all excavators known as the revolving frame) mounted upon a circular tub with motion provided by overhanging cams with paddle feet which, when rotated, lifted the entire machine and produced individual steps of forward motion, a waddling action somewhat like a duck as the end of the boom would raise and lower.

In the early days of RB, they also produced a few other products including a range of lorry-mounted drilling rigs, primarily used for water bore holes.

In the 1960s, there used to be a bridge over the High Street in Lincoln stating that Ruston Bucyrus was the largest Excavator manufacturer in the World.

The factory ran the length of Beevor Street, about 900m, apart from a short piece on the north side where a drivebelt manufacturing business was based.

[1] Production of existing Ruston-Bucyrus designed cable excavator/crane models from the 22RB to the 71RB continued at the Lincoln factory with 'Improved Crane Dragline' versions also offered.

From 1985 onwards, all new machines carried the 'RB' name instead of 'Ruston-Bucyrus', and in 1987, a new mechanical/hydraulic powered 51–60 model developed from the 38-RB was offered for use as a crane or dragline excavator[1] In 1990, RB bought from its rival Priestman, the design and manufacturing rights to Priestman's Variable Counterbalance hydraulic/cable long reach excavator range and its extensive range of Grabs.

In 1996, R-B changed ownership in a buy-in management buy out,[3] but in 2000, R-B International entered voluntary administration as a tough trading environment including a strong Pound and stiff competition from overseas competitors meant it could no longer continue as a going concern without a significant injection of capital.

A day earlier on 21 December 2000, Langley Holdings plc had acquired the material-handling division of Rolls-Royce PLC which became the Clarke Chapman Group comprising Cowans Sheldon, RB Cranes, Stothert & Pitt, Wellman Booth as its principal subsidiary companies.