I actually remember the equipment when wandering around my Father's lab in Colorado Springs, in the late '50s. It was fascinating to this young lad. This was back in the days when knowing a good machinist was important. My Father built his own Triaxial setup, and most attachments for the misc. compression/tension testing and his first Hveem Compactor.
The disassembled remains of an old T&O concrete compression machine comes to mind. Actually, I think the consol equipment was also T&O, but a mind can be a frightful thing to put to use.
Actually, the old equipment consol was extremely versatile.
The present equipment is quite limited in how the tests are run and require some real thought if doing testing 'outside the box'. I have gotten back much of that versatility by going to automated consol and direct shear machines.