A few pics of logging to come
Nice We always like pics!!! Welcome to HEF!!!!
A few more
Mack and Model 6
Launching a bridge with a Madill tower and a TL 6. There were better logs in that area than what you see on that truck.
Same area. Different result.
LOL!!, needed a few more feet of fill
End of an era. Old shovel leaving replaced with 245
A friend of mine is a mechanic who works for Erickson Air Crane, he has spent time up there supporting the helicopter when they are logging. Those are impressive birds! Great pics, thanks for sharing.
Heading out to do some repairs on some logging junk one night. Air Crane was in the area so we were not allowed through on the road until they finished, would be about 10 min or so. They stopped us at the service landing, brought myself and my apprentice into the trailer to wait it out. Nicest group of guys you could ever meet. Gave the kid the full tour of the trailer, then one of the guys closed the door and said HANG ON. Trailer shook around a bit, you could hear the big bird setting down. Guys said to just hang on for a bit more. The door opened and the flight crew came in. Shook hands and took the young fellow for a complete tour of the big bird. I have been through one before so stayed in the trailer and had a doughnut and coffee with the guys. The young guy could not wipe the smile off of his face when he came back. Yup great group of guys.
More heli-log
That is a pretty neat operation. How do they pencil out the cot of the Sky Crane though? That has to be in $2-3k/hour rage. Is that special, higher value timber?
On the web it says $5000/hr. A Sky Crane was used to carry a Lancaster bomber to a museum.
At $5000/hour I bet those guys live like dirt movers at the end of summer year around! My $2-3k/hour guess was off a little off. I am only dangerous with a gernade
What's a gernade?
I think like a FBH?
What’s an FBH? I am allowed not to spell. I am from MS. I am not sure why the “spill check” did not catch that though.
Got about 1,200 hours in the front seat of the A models, all military. It is an exceptionally forgiving aircraft. I understand that Erickson has reopened their line to build additional ones. So glad the apprentice got a peek in the cockpit. It has a lot of gauges, but when everything is "normal," it only takes about a half second to do a cross-check. The "B" models have dual rear wheels; the "A," singles.
Your computer has the missississippi version of spill check ger-nade is proper spelling
BFH=FBH (big sledge hammer). It was just a thing from another thread I was just reading and got a kick out of.
must be in missilippi only
Info. The heli pics were from an operation between Tahsis Inlet and Tlupana Inlet on the west side of Vancouver Island. The Model 6 and new Mack truck ( Husby truck) and the old shovel and 245 were from Rennell Sound Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) and the bridge was from Naden Harbour (Davidson Creek Div.) also Haida Gwaii
Ger-nade, or gerrr-nade is how it is pronounced here anyway Used to be a National Guard? wing of sky cranes just south of I-20 in Meridian, MS until they got decommissioned. I think that is right. Maybe someone knows if the military has any sky cranes anymore. Anyways, the sky cranes left and they have had Chinooks for maybe ten years now. I still want to know why they are hauling wood this way. That still has me stumped. .....oh look! I made a pun or something!
They still harvest christmas trees that way in some areas...although they do'nt use a skycrane use little cheap choppers.. if there is such a thing!!! all comes down to how much wood can you move in an hour and how much road building(if at all possible) wood it take plus all the other mech stuff... hi lines, shovels, skidders,etc...
fwiw. I was told a few years ago by some folks from up in that part of the world that choppering logs out was the only way to get them out. because they simply would not allow road building into those areas and would not allow skidding either
Reason for heli-logging- cost of roads to access timber; small isolated areas of high value timber and also has been used around streams to lessen harm to area. The big choppers can move high volumes per day.
My dad knew somebody who was allowed to ride on one during a logging operation. He said it was all right until they dumped the first load on the landing at which point the birds shoots straight upwards because the power is still on but the load is not. The passenger turned straight green as they quickly dove away for another turn, and of course was not allowed to disembark until the fuel ran low because time is money. He would not do that again.
Another factor for Heli Logging is market driven . If the cutting permits are in place and the market is rising for a high grade specie , that product can be harvested quicker by Heli Logging before the market falls . Than to build a road and yard by conventional logging methods .
My buddy told me a story about when he was in BC working on the helicopter and they did something to the engine that needed to be tested. He got in the lower rear facing cockpit with his instruments and off they went. Once he verified all was well he said he was ready to go back. The pilot said he would have to wait until they needed fuel. He tried to ride it out but when he told them they would have a real mess to clean up back there if they kept logging they took him back right away!
I can imagine that would be a ride. What sort of payload are things dropping? I have a couple crop dusting friends. They described the fire runs out west as being similar. You gain a bunch of lift all of the sudden when let all the water out. Helicopter logging would have to be a fascinating operation to behold! The only thing close that we get to see like that is the little Jet Rangers that spray trees.
The Air Cranes are lifting some wheres about 22,000 pounds .
Well if it's generating 20,000 pounds of lift more than the 20,000 pounds the aircraft weighs and you get rid of half the weight I suspect that additional 20,000 pounds of lift is gonna yank you a bit
Have a few more heli pics later. Here are a couple of truck pictures from Rennell Sound. Some pictures are of degraded quality from age and moving.
Great pictures! That is a whole new world up there. One day I need to get back up there for a visit sometime!
Great pictures, when were they taken? I did not know this was the color scheme for Husbys trucks. I have only seen Husby trucks painted yellow and top of hood was green. At Hanks truck web site - sadly closed now - there was a picture of two Mack CL350 ST with same color configuration as posted pictures.
I don't remember the exact year. The model 6 and truck probably 1980 or 81. The truck on the bridge 1983 or 84.
Husby Mack with 152m3 of logs at Rennell Sound, late 70's early 80's. I had a shot from the front but can't find it, more impressive picture. In the past Husby used a picture of this load from the front in his ads and promotion material. After finding this picture I believe that the picture with the model 6 and new Husby truck was probably 78 or 79, possibly 80.
Thank you for info. Husby got their 7 units in 1978-79. I wonder how many Husby has left now?
All CH-54 Sky Cranes were transferred about 1979 or 80 from the active Army to the Army National Guard. Alabama and, I think, Mississippi, got the "B" models (easy to distinguish as the "B's" had two wheels on each of the two landing gear and the "A" only one on each). Fifty-four "A" models built and, I think, 29 "B" models. If memory serves, the "A" had a max gross of 42k lbs and the "B" about 44,000 lbs. I do remember that with full tanks of fuel that we could only lift a load of about 9,000 lb, but then we burned about 500 gallons of JP-4 per hour, so sometimes we'd just fly around until we got light enough to carry our assigned load. When the CH-47 Chinooks were retrofitted to "D" models and allocated the Guard, the Cranes were given to the U.S.Army's Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, AL, which then traded them, wherever they were, for museum "stuff." They went to various users, including Evergreen, and an Italian firm. We had one that we'd never flown (brought from Ft. Eustus by barge and sling loaded from the dock on the Savannah River to Hunter) as we had no records for it, that was fighting fires in Italy at last report. Treated with respect, this was a very forgiving aircraft.
Thanks Tarhe Driver. That is some good information. I miss seeing the Sky Cranes. The Chinooks are pretty mundane and ever present. The Sky Cranes always made me slow down a little and look.
I remember when we got the first 245 s . Took guys off 750 Americans and gave them the 245 s. Broken sticks , boom base lugs . Even had one walk back to the shop half torn off the roteck,that was a fun one broken bolts and chunks of the mount ring torn off the bottom of the house. The 245s just didnt have that nice moan of the 671 working flat out on the tailshaft governor.
When I worked for Columbia I rode in the Vertol for a cycle. It was just as described but the views & sights from the port hole looking down that long line was awesome!!
More heli
Pictures of TL 15 on rubber and loaded Kenworth Holberg. The pics didn't age well. The TL 15 on rubber was a good loader, long boom makes it easy to load long and short logs without having to move the truck a lot, good lifting capacity and quite stable. 4 axle with front jacks behind the steering axles. An operator wanted to show me what happens when you go down a hill with the steering axles up the hill and the boom over the drivers facing down the hill. Part way down he applied the brakes hard, the steering axles came off the ground and the machine came to rest on the stabilizer jack pins. We got off the loader and you could just about walk under the steering axles. Got back on the machine, he swung the house around and brought the machine back down on all four axles. Holberg also had an older TL 15 on tracks which they put a straight wood boom on. Won't call it a long boom as it was shorter than normal which created some issues while loading. The Kenworth was probably loaded from the San Jo flats or the Stranby.
Awesome photos!! Thank you
Almost made it to the beach.
I set chokers under one of those for Erickson aircrane probably 25 years ago
They call that the puke tank. When I was working for Erickson in northern California and southern Oregon you could ride in there on your day off as long as you wanted but you were committed to the full cycle
I've seen that situation 3 times . 1st time at BCFP Nekite River , I was at the dump when a loaded HDX pulled in behind me . The driver made a trip around his truck checking things over . He came up to me chuckling that there was no pin in the funnel and said it was a good thing he hadn't used his hand valve for the trailer brakes . The pin was found on the road several miles out from the dump . The next time I seen it happened , a friend was turning a corner on to a bridge with a P16 . With no pin in the funnel the trailer tracked to the left , rolling off a fill . Turning over and flipping the truck off the bridge into a shallow river . Made for one hell of a mess , but driver was okay . The third time was a highway truck , the Pintal Hitch came undone and reach started to swing out from under load . The driver spotted it and stopped . We used cinch extensions and cinch levers to pull reach back under load and hook it back up .
There was Heli-logging done here in 1989-90 in the national forest, after hurricane Hugo. Some real good friends of mine had a big conventional logging outfit and they got the contract to work under the helicopters. I went up and watched once, it was something to see, that's for sure.
At this site the small fuel truck caught on fire during a hot dry spell. Had an aluminum tank so let it burn out. Bucketed the area around the truck so the fire wouldn't spread to the bush. Didn't bucket the tanker as the fire was contained to the truck and water would have spread the fire rather put it out. A spare rotor blade was close to the fire and the pilot thought they would have to send it away to be checked as the heat would probably have weakened it.
The Island Forester (now the Seaspan Forester) log barge coming into Mahatta River in 1970. This is possibly the first trip for this barge as it was built in 1970. Prior to this the logs from Quatsino Sound, Neroutsas Inlet and Holberg Inlet were loaded from a wooden tree on shore from the water onto barges just past the log dump at Mahatta River.
Same barge, now the Seaspan Forester, coming into Rennell Sound late 70,s
I spent a year working in Vancouver in the 80's. Worked for Walkem and Wing Machinery. I spent most of that year working on the log barges. The old forester, we used to call it the biggest log barge in the universe. Oh and Rennel sound is one of my favorite places in the whole world. Bonanza beach. Sigh. Must make it back up there one day.
Wrench here are a few pics of Rennell Sound.
Northwest model 6, Madill 009, HDX. Rennell Sound
Found the picture from the front of the load.
Now 'That's' what I call a load!!!!!
Great pics VI TL . Looks like the Seaspan Comadore pulling the Forester ?
It is the Seaspan Commodore pulling the Forest
During the low summer tides at Rennell and with the build up of debris had to cold deck the loads. The boomman would come in at high tide later, good thing for long days when you are that far north and west, and would break down the pile. Risky business at times. He would look for key logs that would let the pile collapse. He was great at this.
Building cold deck
More
Last
Cleaning out in front of the A-frame with a 7220. Orange peel would be better, even a three point grapple but you use what you have.
More 7220
More Rennell
Madill grapple yarder on top road, 075 loader on rubber, 075 super snorkel on tracks and a hoe chucker.
Love the photos, VI TL Do you have any other shots of that 245 Cat?
Madill grapple yarder on top road, 075 loader on rubber, 075 super snorkel on tracks and a hoe chucker.[/QUOTE] I always like how many photos were taken on beautiful days. What few photos I took were also on gorgeous days. Sunny, a light breeze to keep the bugs away, big wood and up in the air, no choker holes to dig, just wonderful. Very few of us took photos where we were up to our azz in mud and snow with half rain half snow running down the back of our necks. And, when you opened your lunch, ice water ran out of your sandwich bag. All wrapped up with an 1-1/4x60' kinky choker. I definitely like the sunny photos in my "elder" years. Always brings back the good memories, happy hookers, happy side rods all with straight chokers.
Raining. Creates big trees.
Rain and a long time to grow.
that is some big wood. many years in the making
1969. Grapple yarding with a TL6 at Mahatta River. Used the strawline to open the grapple, no extensions, all one line. 400 feet was maximum yarding distance usually less. Logged corners and short yarding. Never just logged the first 400 feet of spar settings. This never works, poor morale for spar crews and you never get optimum production. Some days change roads over 10 times, hooker barely had time to move block and strap to new road before the last road was finished. No mobile backspars in those days. If you’re lucky walk off a corner and don’t change roads all day. Communication between operator and hooker was hand signals, no radio or whistle (Challenger Electro Bug, which is what Rayonier used, or Talkie Tooter). I’m sure WorkSafe would be happy with that system in this era.
Rennell Sound
What a sad demise. They were good loaders.
They were one of the worst designed misbegotten pieces of crap I've ever had the misfortune to put a wrench to. They were cheap to fit a market segment. Even so I hate to see something burned up as completely as that machine is.
2 Clark 175’s were bought, 1 for the drysort being built and 1 to load rock and be a backup for the sort machine. Both had Cummins engines and both had repeated fuel pump issues. In a short time the booms were rubbing on the tires. The fuel pump issue was solved after quite a few failures. The booms were fixed. Clark admitted that there was a problem with treating the steel after fabrication. After this machine burned it was replaced with another 175 with a Jimmy and tires better suited for the dry sort so it became the sort machine and performed reasonably well, certainly a lot better than the first machine. The Cat 980B was a decent machine for its time. The 980C I thought was not a very nimble machine, good for large wood.
Gold River
Head of Knight Inlet 1975
Looks a little jumbled up. How would that be to set chokers in?
Well, most look to be up in the air, so not too bad. No choker holes to dig, that looks real good
Didnt you guys order your choker holes in by the 50lb bag ? Great pictures ! Can you imagine trying build one of those lift off dumps today with log A sticks and spliced guy lines ? I wonder if anyone out there is building a wood A frame today?
In 1974 I ran an Insley line loader on rubber, 4 axles, at Port Douglas at Little Harrison Lake at the head of Harrison Lake. It was old, not sure how old. It took 3 days for the apprentice mechanic and me to get it operational and even then the first try to take it from the beach to the setting we had to stop part way up the hill out of camp to work on it again. When we got the loader to the setting and loading there was never a problem, no breakdowns. The jacks were metal boxes on hinges which you unchained and dropped them to the ground and you backed up onto them to stabilize the loader, 2 on the back corner behind the drivers and 2 just behind steering wheels. There was a hinged metal arm with a piece that dropped into a slot on the box to hold it in place while loading. Everything was twisted and bent so I was hesitant to use this as I thought that we may have problems releasing this to move the loader, so while at the beach I had the boomman bring over a couple of boomsticks so I could try out the machine. Amazingly this old machine had no problems handling these logs and since I didn’t dog the so called jacks if I pulled on a log in front of the machine it pulled the loader off the jacks. But you could swing a heeled boomstick 360 degrees without the loader tipping even when off the jacks, so I never dogged them. If while loading, the machine came off the jacks I just finished the load and then drove back on them. There were 13 or 14 switchbacks up to the settings. The owner told me that I would be loading from the small tower they had and did not expect a lot of production. This was true at the beginning; the tower was logging small wood and had a cold deck when I finally got the loader up the hill. Thankfully could load over the cab. Of course later they wanted to move the other loader, a Skagit if my memory serves me, to load R/W so I was told to go up the hill to the other yarder which was a new Madill 009 in a perfect Fir show. The setting dropped away from the landing then after 2 to 300 feet rose up for another 4 to 500 feet. They had 4 highway logging trucks, 2 with 8 foot bunks and 2 with 10 foot bunks. Since the other loader had to have trucks I was not able to load out all the wood that was already in the landing when I arrived plus the ongoing production. The first day the foreman asked me if I could load after the our regular shift so naturally said yes and I was expecting to load trucks after the yarding crew went in but instead he said we go in, have supper and then go back out and load the trucks. Did this for a couple of days til we caught up to the yarder. Visibility was lousy, the gantry and boom blocked a lot of the view on the left. First and only time loading highway trucks. Drivers didn’t want me to put boomsticks or long wood over the cab, they wanted more weight on the trailer. One time we left just ahead of a loaded truck and we had to fly to keep ahead of the log truck on the way down the hill. Only worked there for a couple of months in the summer but it was a good outfit to work for. One day at supper there was beer that the owner brought from town on his plane. Sorry, no pics, wish I had some.
Just curious , who were you working for at Rennel Sound and Port Douglas ?
QC Timber at Rennell Sound, had their own quota but before them it may have been BCFP wood. Jay-Vee Logging at Port Douglas, contract for BCFP.
I remember BCFP purchased Cattermole - Trethewey in the early 1970's Rennel Sound and Port Douglas were part of the sale . Rennel Sound didn't fit their plans and was sold . Nekite River , Wakeman Sound , Narrows Inlet , and Silver River were operated as BCFP Divisions , several others were Contracted out .
999 When I worked at Port Douglas for Jay-Vee Logging they had contract highway trucks that were used when they logged in the Maple Ridge area, some on the UBC forest, and came with them when they moved to Port Douglas. Looks like they had their own trucks later. Norm Jacobsen owned the company, he later became a cabinet minister.
More Rennell - some over mature hemlock
Rennell
When Jay-Vee took one shift off for holidays John Reid phoned me, his loader operator quit so I went off to Southgate River in Bute Inlet. I warned him that I was only available until Jay-Vee went back. The machine was a fairly new Lorraine line loader on a hydraulic undercarriage. The cab was on the left and for the first few days had to keep reminding myself that long logs heeled on the boom outriggers had to be on the right and also make sure I didn’t whack the cab when handling logs. One truck hauling, a Euclid that the driver told me had limited braking on the tractor so he had to be careful when turning around if there was a drop off at the turn around. I believe the truck had a 3 speed automatic. The yarder was a Sparmatic 110 feet tall. John told me it was 1 of only 2 built. Must have been a prototype as all the other Sparmatics I worked around were 120 feet. John worked for Cattermole-Trethewey so the Euclid and Sparmatic may have come from them. I believe that when BCFP bought Cattermole he went to them and then contracted for them. He was also logging at Orford Bay on Bute Inlet. One day at supper John said it was getting hotter and drier so we would go on early shift the next day. The next day they were still yarding at 2 o’clock. The truck came back and I asked the driver what was going on, he said oh we just work longer hours on early shift. I enjoyed working there, John and the crew were great to work with. John asked me to stay but I thought I wanted to stay closer to the Fraser Valley so went back to Jay-Vee. Within a few weeks I ended up at Knight Inlet for Percy. What?
Rennell
Husby Hayes pulling empty lowbed at Rennell Sound1980
Rennell Sound before dry sort was built. Logs dumped loose and bagged for barge loading. A MOF scaler would come from QC City to scale on the water.
Madill 052 at Mahatta River in 1969. Before this machine arrived there was a Madill 052 prototype running the same carriage. Here is what I understand how it worked. It was an 009 with a slackpuller drum run by a small diesel engine. No interlock, the operator had 2 throttles: 1 for the regular winch and the other for the slackpuller. There was a quad type control; push ahead for haulback, 1 side for main, other side for slackpuller and pulled back for both main and slackpuller for yarding in. Used the big block (250 lbs.? break down to 3 pieces) for the tailhold and 2 - 416’s (120 lbs.) up the backspar. I worked on the back end a few times and pulled tong line on the last setting before the machine went high leading when the 052 came. It was awhile ago so this is my best recollection, but I know for sure that the blocks were heavy. Rayonier always used heavy rigging on the big machines. I hooked on this machine when it went high lead. 1 3/8 main, 1 3/8 guylines, 15/16 haulback and 416 tail blocks and I know that they weigh 120 lbs.
Heli
Gold River
M&B trucks Juskatla Operation south end heading to Queen Charlotte City dry sort.
End of A-Frame at Rennell Sound
Seaspan Forester at Rennell Sound
Recent pictures? If I recall correctly, this tug and barge picked up logs here in Alaska sometime in the '90s. Quite the barge, very impressive how it handled loading cargo.
These pictures from the late '70s.
Mighty Mite at Rennell Sound. Had one of these at all company camps. Used for bridge ties and planks, for projects around camp and for shovel mats in the old days.
Pushing loads off with FE loader after A-frame lowered and dry sort construction not completed.
Building dry sort at Rennell Sound. Rock was hauled from a blasted quarry less than a mile away. This rock was used to make the outer walls of the sort. Shale rock, which was on site, was pushed in by dozer to make the inside of the sort and the surface. The shale made a great surface and when it was needed to redo the surface only had scrape off the top and push on another layer of shale. There was shale everywhere near the beach and up the adjoining hills. A lot of the mainline was capped with shale and in the summer created a smooth fast road if it was graded before it got too hard. During the oil crisis in the 70’s there was talk of getting oil from the shale. Never happened.
My only experience with shale was not good. A place called Lake Hannon near Monroe Washington about 1976 or so. The pit for rocking the road was all shale, razor sharp shale. we went through 3-4 tires a day on every single gravel truck out there. There was one day that the loader, all four gravel trucks and the tire truck were all laid up with flats. We finally got the road capped with some crushed and it held up pretty good. Later though, when I was hauling logs out of there, they grid rolled the road and turned up all the shale again. It is pretty discouraging to see the crummy, three log trucks and again the tire truck all laid up with flats. the foreman of the gravel trucks was not too bright and he got hauled over the coals for the stunt. Didn't get fired though, his dad was a well respected man (with good reason) and they didn't want to let him know he had sired a real dud.
That was a bad experience. The shale at Rennell was somewhat soft and did not hold sharp edges. Traffic created a lot of fines and that formed a hard surface on top when dry. Next best thing to paving or cement for the dry sort. Worked well on the roads also. No flats, at least not from the shale.
Shale / Slate rock formations can be a blessing or a curse . If its soft and rotten , it turns into ruts in the wheel tracks and grease under the tires to pull adverse grades in rainy season . if its hard at the point of turning into slate , it makes a good road base . If it turns into hard slate it makes a good road , but the tire bill goes through the roof ! I ran an American 599 at Sooke one Winter . The under carriage was getting pretty well worn out . The roads were in an area made of a shale rock formation , the ruts got so bad that when the weather turned cold and froze , to move from landing to the next landing we had to lowbed the loader as the tracks would not stay on it .
yes there is a sweet spot with shale. On the dam job, we had some rotten rock. It had too high a sulfur content. There were big veins of it we could dig with an excavator, and it was bad news on roads. We also had yellow pumice from the mountain that was like Captain Crunch cereal. Somehow it got trapped below a soil layer and when i got on it stripping, i could get it out clean. If you put it on a footpath it would always float to the top in winter and stay clean.
Dry sort in use. Clark FE loader, Husby truck. Water pooled in places but did not turn the sort into a mud pit.
7220 loading Husby Mack - Rennell Sound
My last time to the backend ( fingers crossed)
Best of luck in your retirement!
Rennell Sound
Pictures not great. Knight Inlet. Kyuquot Logging (Percy). Pacific truck, TL-6 and Sparmatic. At the head, the Klinaklini River, Percy had four spars. A Skagit tower with a Skagit winch, a Sparmatic with a Skagit winch, a Sparmatic mounted on a truck with a Berger winch if I remember correctly. No operator cab, old school, running board. Also, a Tyee tower with a Tyee winch. This was a great machine, interlock, fast, and the easiest and quickest telescoping tower to raise and lower. Just down the inlet at Sim Creek Percy had two Sparmatics both with the same Skagit winches. Can’t remember if they were IJ-80 or IJ-90. Interlock, three speeds forward and reverse. Good winch, lots of power and could easily rip tail hold stumps out of the ground. TL-6 at Sim. At the head, a TL-15 on tracks, a small American on tracks and a TL-6. Later got a TL-5 hydraulic. Best thing about that machine was that it could travel to settings fast. Pacific logging trucks and Pacific gravel trucks.
Dominion loader at Holberg, early 70's
Very cool pictures.
Looks like flat pads with hydraulic travel motors. Also looks like P&H colors. Love the photos, keep them coming. Any Link-Belt 98 or 108 shovels.
The loader is mechanically driven. What looks like hydraulic travel motors at the front of the tracks are travel brakes. A foot pedal releases the brakes when pressed. Originally, steering was done the normal way by disengaging the jaw clutch on one side and locking the track. It was decided to use the brakes to steer instead of locking the track mechanically. The controller for steering had 5 positions, in the middle both jaw clutches engaged, tracks not dogged, move one position either side would release the jaw clutch on one side and move it once more on that side would dog that track. When they changed to brake steering the way it was to work was to move the controller to disengage the jaw clutch and then take your foot off the brake pedal and that track would brake. I ended up running the machine right after the system was changed. A truck left the landing and a log slid forward so I went down, pulled the log back and on the way back up the hill I had to steer the machine, I moved the controller all the way to the lock position and the machine ran away back down the hill and fortunately ran into a bank. When I told the shop about this, they said to move the controller only one position. I thought they should fix whatever they did so it didn’t happen to someone else. A while later with another person running the machine, walking it up a hill with the assistant foreman behind in a pickup the machine ran away when the operator tried to steer. Foreman had to reverse in a hurry and the machine luckily ran into the bank and not over the side. Machine was fixed.
One of the Dominions was broke down and I went to move it down the hill to where it could be put on a lowbed. It was winter and the road had a thick layer of ice on most of the hill. Bolts were put through the tracks for traction in the winter but they were worn down. I put one track in the ditch and started down the hill, when I reached a corner the ditch ran out and I had to put both tracks on the road surface. The machine started sliding like a toboggan except it was not only sliding down the hill the whole machine was spinning, the tracks were doing 360’s down the hill. The machine came to an abrupt stop when the ice on the road ran out. Still on the hill with the machine facing up the hill with the tracks pointing straight down the hill it reared up came back down and I engaged the swingers the other way and backed the rest of the way down the hill. I wondered if the machine had hit the dry road with the tracks sideways to the hill whether it would have fell on its side. Luck it stayed on the road. 2 mechanics were following me down the road and when I parked the machine they came asked how I felt and I said that I was too busy trying to figure out how to get the loader under control to be scared. They told me that that they were scared. Later the rigging crew asked me what I was doing since they could only see the snorkel and part of the boom which was spinning as the machine was going down the hill. Those were the days.
I remember those brakes as Smith Brakes ,made in Vancouver by Charlie Smith Machine.A guy from Charlie Smiths Inspired me to figure out line boring after helping him do a 500 American for Frank Beban In Port Eliza . I helped install a set of Smith Brakes on a P&H log loader at Oconnor Log in Port Hardy in the mid 70s. I remember the P&H for its magnatorque swingers. I never was around Dominions much but one i looked at seemed similar to an American.Seems to me they were Canadian built to. Am i even close on that acount?
I don't know if they were made in Canada, it's possible with the name Dominion. Holberg had 3 Dominions and Mahatta River had 1 identical to Holberg’s and 1 that was mounted on a wheeled carrier and had a dipper stick with air tongs. They later put a heel boom on that machine with a regular line grapple. At Holberg it was usually 1 of the Dominions loading from the 052 when it came, 1 loading from 1 or 2 towers, sometimes 3. Most loaders at that time loaded from 2 towers. The other Dominion had a steel snorkel with a hinged piece at the end that took a wooden snorkel. Had guy lines on the top and sides and reached about 90 feet. No where near the later super snorkels reach of 150 feet or so. Normally used a Washington grapple on this loader to keep the weight down. The grapple was like one of those stickmen where you pull a string, and the arms and legs fly out. Hated that grapple to load with.
Building road Holberg.
Looks like a Northwest.
Yes, they were made in Canada, HECA Canada has info on them
Thanks Bccat, i figured they were. Ill have to dig thru my pictures ,we built a couple of 120' super snorkels mounted on 7220 s. I went up to the Western shop at Port Mcneil to get the lowdown on building them.Then we built a couple of Washington grapples.If they were a pain to use ,but they were as much of a pain to build to .There was more pins and links in those things that had to be just right. We built a few Young grapples which were comparatively easy to build. VI TL did you ever use the Acme grapples ? I spent a summer chasing at Pioneer Timber and they were running those on the TL 6 s.
The Acme grapple, something Wile E. Coyote would have ordered. I have used them, not a favorite of mine but some operators thought they were great. I liked Young grapples, maybe because they were the first I used. Also, Esco were good, and Micron made one that was okay. How did the 120 ft. snorkel work on the 7220? On the Madill 075 the 120 foot was more stable on the grapple yarder undercarriage than on the regular undercarriage.
TL 15 on tracks with Acme grapple, Knight Inlet. First setting across the new glulam bridge over the Klinaklini River. Late winter or early spring 1975.
The 120' snorkel worked ok on the 7220 ,but we also added counterweight 13000 lbs if i remember.It did go through swingers . I never operated them mind you, just built and repaired them in those days. We built young style grapples for straight loading. We developed a heavy spring loaded plunger for stops on them that worked well for the guys that liked to clang them shut a lot.
Never saw spring loaded stops. Some outfits tried different material put on the stops to soften the blow when closing. Any that I saw only worked for a short time before they wore off or fell off.
Your right on those pads ,we tried nylon and it fell off quickly. Had the spring shop roll up heavy coils ,5/8" material ,about 6" long. Then we made a shouldered pin that fit the 2" id .of the coil . This was boxed in where those gusseted plate stops were so you just had the pin sticking out to hit the stop on the other jaw. By all reports they worked well and stood up. All old news now, i guess we should have been perfecting juice grapples back then.
Rennell Sound
Model 6 and Madill
Not all of us have juice and a valve everywhere, so I appreciate the mechanical solutions ever so much. Ingenious little things like the rotating selector on a jersey barrier grapple, for example.
Holberg
On Cape Scott trail between Holberg and San Josef Bay, near Ronning’s Garden.
Rennell Sound
Rennell Sound
Dry sort
Rennell Sound
Interesting wreck . A road lightly covered with snow , trucks are probably not using water to keep brakes cool . Did truck get going to fast , brakes to hot and fade ? Corner is turning to left . Truck couldn't make corner and drifted to right , should have upset to right side . Right tire tracks ran over stump roots , was it enough to throw weight of load to left and spill load on road ? Looks like some damage to front differential and truck rear suspension .
The accident happened late 70’s early 80’s and I don’t remember everything that happened. The truck did go up onto the stump and debris which caused the truck to roll over onto the left side, good thing or it would have gone over the bank down into the fell and bucked. You are right, the trucks were not using water. You can see that other trucks had been on the road. This trucks tracks, by looking at the picture, seems like the tires were not sliding but were turning. What caused the truck to leave the road? I can’t recall. Could have been going to fast. Steering tires may have lost grip and couldn’t make the corner.
I think your correct , the first trucks down a frosty road with a dusting of snow gets a little traction . The following trucks get to travel on the compact icy surface . If you look real hard at the front steering tires , they don't show an awful lot of tread . Get a little bunk bound , no bite for the steering tires and things go wrong in a hurry . I hope the driver didn't get injured , the truck went over on his side .
Driver was OK
TL-6 with Esco grapple loading from Sparmatic. Knight Inlet, across new glulam bridge. 1975
Rennell Sound
It doesn't take to many logs like that Spruce to make a picture load , if they are long enough to "Bunk" . Nice pictures !
Love seeing butt rigging!
Holberg 1971-72. Wooden tree winch. V 12 Cummins, air start. A lot of power and speed. First time I ran it, first turn, the rigging disappeared over the bank, when the crew blew go ahead, I thought they had hooked up a small turn, you could not see the rigging until it hit the landing. Yarding uphill, the turn appeared with three large hemlocks. The yarder did not slow down even with that turn on. Couple days later I familiarized another operator on the machine. A few days after that the machine broke down with a turn hooked on. As it was close to lunch the crew came into the landing. The mechanic fixed the machine and the operator started yarding the turn in. He noticed that the lines were going slack, so he peered up at the tree through the opening above the drums. The wooden spar had broken below the guy lines near the blocks. The spar fell over, and all eight guy lines hit the ground. Luckily, with the crew in the landing, no one was hurt. Some of the crew dove under the machine. One guy line hit the mechanics truck and caused some damage. The spar fell away from the machine and crew and the top with guy lines came straight down. I don’t think they ever found out what caused it, but some one said that they had not swung the blocks in time. Not sure if that would cause it. Missed that by a few days, not the only time I missed a spar coming down by a couple of days.
Never saw one logging as the last wooden spar around here was 76/77ish and they were rare after 70.
You bet not swinging the blocks would cause it. I helped the bull gang rig trees and hang guy lines. that also would bring a top down. Bull gang hooker said that was the best part of a steel tube; having a fairlead in the top of the tube.
Reading the Holberg story 1971-72, post 150, how many people are left that worked a cold deck machine and helped move sled rigs? I'm 70, and I set chokers on a cold deck machine, and we moved 3 or 4 times summer of 71. The next spring, the remaining sled rigs were cut up for scrap and everything was tubes from then on. There has to be a bunch still around, I hope...
Thanks for that info. Probably that is what brought the tree down. Only 50 years for me to find out.