MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. Red & White Iron, Past and Present....

[TorkelH]

So TorkelH, who is that guy standing by the Yarder in the cardigan minus the hardhat - is it you? Those are some well used machines in those shots - even the lettering at the back of the Y-55 looks shoddy. Maybe this was the way it was at the end of the road for M & B. I still remember going into the paint shop at the Sproat shops looking at all the jobs underway - there was never a shortage of red paint to spray. When things got damaged, as working equipment would tend to do, the repairs were top notch and the red paint glistened.

He he, thats the Norwegian forest engineering professor and researcher Ivar Samset, He's 75 at that picture from 1993, and he's still going strong now at the age of 93. He and his associates did great developments in the scandinavian logging machinery and chain saw ergonomics during the fifties.

 

[jackd]

Sorry Torkel, Ivan looked so (how can I say it) European and so I naturally thought that this might be you. Going hard at it at 93 is he? Here's hoping that we have the same durability at he has. Me thinks my hard working body will not last me another 40 years.

 

[BTC]

Y-66

Y-66? Was this a Sproat Lake yarder?

 

[jackd]

TorkelH?

Hello Torkel! Is there any chance that you could post that manufacturer's list of Madill 044's that you posted a few months back - you did it in Excel format. I went back through the threads and found them but now they don't come up - I only get an error message. I'm curious at to BTC's question about the Y-66 and if it was a Sproat Lake machine - it might state it right in your list.

 

[BTC]

The reason i asked was because we are falling a yarder block and this is the machine that showed up. You can still see the Y-66 on it and obviously it has the old red and white faded paint. It has the same basic features as what i see from looking at Y-50

 

[jackd]

Any sign of the M & B logo or the smaller Sproat Lake Division name on it?

 

[TorkelH]

I have no pictures of Y-66, the list of 044's don't give any numbers of Franklin/Sproat yarders. BTC, is the yarder you are falling for a high rise cab? Is it a dbl main (easy to see, it have 2 big fairleads close to top of tower in addition to the haulback fairlead on top). I have pictures of 2 dbl mains from Franklin, Y-55 and one unknown. In addition I have picture of Y-50 which is a tag and at least 1 more unknown tag. From Sproat I have pictures of 2 dbl mains, Y-18, which I made hours of video of, and Y-02. Y-01 was a Cypress 7280, loader here was L124, a Cat 235. I have also videos and pic's of a spar, the former Kelsey Bay yarder J-20 (Skagit BU-98 sp). It was operating with a hydraulic loader L 38. By the way MMB had 30 -thirthy- 044's.

When first getting into numbers I have been able to decode some others: I have pic's of 3 046's taken in Franklin somewhere: J17paired with L26 (Cypress 7230 with boom), J133 (the one from the pic's eith carrier/yarder standing parallell to tower) paired with L161 (Cypress/American with boom) and J21 with a Madill 075 snorkel. That was the 3 046's operating in Franklin, the newest (I would guess J21) was purchased by MMB Cameron, the other 2 Franklin. MMB only had 4 046's but one burnt up.

Jackd, the list is in the dropbox, it's an Excel spread sheet, have been there all along. BTC - hope you can take some pic's of Y-66, or at least try getting the serial. It's on a plate under the cab or it also may be on the maintenance chart on the cab door inside.

 

[jackd]

Familiar Machines.

The Y-02 was an older double main drum machine from my time at Sproat Lake Division. It actually worked out of the Taylor Arm area and was several years older than my Y-35 and looked it. It eventually caught fire in around 1980/81 - I actually went out and had a look at it and I figured it was good for scrap. If you had the pleasure of seeing it at a later stage then it is my guess that they rebuilt it and put it back in service. The L-124 was a track equipped American with a long boom on it that they bought in around 1978 for cherry picking on right of ways. I've posted a picture of it previously. From my time there, the only other '044 was the Y-11 (if my memmory serves me right).

I found those Excell documents and they wouldn't open - I only got error messages.

 

[donkey doctor]

My partner & I loaded a burnt 044 or 144 out of a short spur in Kennedy Div years ago. Don't know if it was this machine. Didn't seem that long ago but time flies. It apparently caught fire when they were solvent spraying the engine and shorted something with the spray wand and the solvent mist went BOOM. It was quite a process to get it on the lowbed with no power. We put in new pots on the carrier brakes and external air to release maxies and apply service brakes. It was downhill to the lowbed so had a cat both pushing and snubbing to get it moving and keep it from running over the truck cab once it got on the smooth trailer deck. It went to Kennedy shop where we split it to go to Nanaimo. As I recall the machinery deck was all scraped as there was a lot of warpage in the winch frame and the floor of the deck. The carrier may have been salvaged I can't recall. I went thru my old service notes looking for a S/N but they are incomplete. I was so busy running my a$$ of in those days some things just never got logged in to my personal record book. Also who knew that someday other people would be interested in all this day to day stuff or there would be such an easy way to share it. Regards D.D.

 

[jackd]

Good story. I couldn't imagine trying to load a powerless Madill on a low bed. I still remember the hair raising moments of watching the operator unloading the Y-35 from the low-bed in the dark with only a few flashlights held in the hands of trembling people to mark his path. This was when we moved it from the Ash River valley down to the winter show in Macktush Creek - it took all day to get there and we arrived after dark in the winter. I can still see that monster doing its bit...

From what I remember, the Y-02 burnt out Taylor River right around where the Tofino highway crosses the river somewhere on Br. 500 or there abouts. She was an oily old pig and must have made pretty colours when she went up in flames. My guess would be that both Sproat Lake & Kennedy Lake each had the honour of burning one up. My guess is that if you have warpage in the major structural components, it must have been pretty close to a write off. But maybe in those days these machines were more valuable than now.

 

[TorkelH]

Jackd, I will post some more pictures of Y-02 tomorrow, it looks pretty well in 1997 so it might or might not be the same machine. When it comes to the Excel sheet I will make a text file and put in the dropbox, it may be easier to read.

The Y-18 may have been one of the last one built because of the design of the gauges inside the cab, then it came to Sproat after you left.

 

[jackd]

The Y-02 was solid M & B red back in the day. It never had the white cab which they usually put on most of their machines.

Maybe you could post the link to the drop box again - thanks for doing this.

 

[TorkelH]

Y02

Here's the Y02 i have pictures of, from Sproat Lake

 

[TorkelH]

L129, H160 and H114

At the same place, first and fourth pic shows H160 - Challenger the other is H114.

 

[TorkelH]

More L129

more..

 

[TorkelH]

Sproat Lake Y18

This is the same yarder as in my Youtube videos from Taylor arm

 

[TorkelH]

Y01 and L124

I'm pretty sure this pictures was taken in Sproat. I'm not sure about the 7280, MMB didn't have too many of those... Loader is a Caterpillar

 

[TorkelH]

Some more Sproat Lake pics

H325, H324, some guys, H66 and H325 again

 

[DBDLS]

Way to go Torkel. I knew you had more pictures hidden away. Sure like those L129 pictures. I think the super snorkel was one of the most innovative inventions that loggers ever thought of, besides the grapple yarder that is. DBDLS.

 

[TorkelH]

The Franklin 046's

I have pictures of 3 Madill 046's at Franklin: First J133 and L161, J17 and L26 and
J21 and unknown 075 Loader