The lokie Is done to my knowledge and I knew of Carl Fagerness as his sons owned a cutting compani I believe and he worked with my Grandpa. Most of the old timers from the heydays at vail are gone but not forgotten. I knew alot of the men by face but couldn't remember names as I would go with grandpa on the weekends when they were cutting by pleasant valley for years.
Do you know about the Don McCune library? You might remember him as Captain Puget.
http://donmccunelibrary.com/catalog....6557EA2DFE76A2
The first film is about Vail, the second was filmed around Morton, and includes the 1971 Loggers' Jubilee.
Do you remember the reload at Vail, between the Mulqueen Junction and the shop? There is quite a story behind that.
They left the fruit trees when they leveled the town, and I picked a lot of apples, plums, etc. there in the summers.
I would give my eye teeth to be able to take my dad back to the Chuck, and fish it one more time. I loved that river.
Illegitimi non carborundum
I will have to check that out!! I have hung many a skyline across the 'chuck and will be fishing it again in a month or so. I never saw the reload but heard alot about it.
How about the St.Regis camp outside morton and Ladd mountain with the wooden spar still rigged as it caught fire and the guylines were supposedly crystalized by the heat so the siderod said leave it stand and do not derig it. It was still there in the mid 80's.
There is some footage on St. Regis in Morton on the McCune documentary of Morton. One scene shows them finishing up on loading a brand new Kenworth 848.
I found a complete roster of all the Vail/Pe Ell lokies somewhere. I'll post the link here when time permits. There is a lot of footage on the Vail documentary of Jim Barrett on Engine 776, a GP38. My dad had 493 while we were there, but I heard the engineer on 684 over in Pe Ell on the radio quite often.
I still recall the radio repeater codes for Vail and Pe Ell. Vail was KOA424, PE Ell was KOB393.
Last edited by Vigilant; 06-09-2011 at 09:24 PM.
Illegitimi non carborundum
More on the Chehalis Western lokies. You'll like this:
http://www.trainweb.org/cwwr/cw-roster.html
I believe 684 survived, and is now on display at a museum in Fife. The Lidgerwood skidder at the Camp 6 musuem came from Vail. Carl McGinnis, aka Skinny McGinnis, worked on that beast as a young lad. That skidder spent many years on display at Longview before it was moved to Point Defiance.
Illegitimi non carborundum
Looks like Weyco is still FCC licensed with those two at KO Peak and BawFaw Peak. But I disgress, cool history!Originally Posted by Vigilant
Yeah, for now, until the MBAs at Weinerhoser find a way to screw it up.
Illegitimi non carborundum
Engine 684 in her golden years at the Fife museum:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphot...=329588&nseq=1
Illegitimi non carborundum
Mr. Filla's obituary:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...FsnZgAf2qpSzDQ
I still recall his trucks, with his name in cursive writing on the door.
Illegitimi non carborundum
It '77 or '78 my dad got a whole new side when he worked for Roy. New tyee,link belt shovel,tail cat and even landing push cat. Roy gave him a blank check to go get a crewbus and it had to be a chevy according to Mr. Filla. Dad and I went to Gootee Chevrolet in chehalis and bought a new full load black crewcab 4x4. The only thing Roy complained about was that the bus was black and not "Filla issue" colors......lol
He was a hell of a man for sure.
Sounds like Mr. Filla broke the mold in that regard. Most of the Gyppo sides I recall ran older equipment. I get the feeling that Mr. Filla knew the importance of motivation and morale. Too bad he was not able to refine his taste in pickups and go the Ford route.
Illegitimi non carborundum
Hey Hallback: Remember that GREAT big pair of blue jeans hanging on the wall in the work clothes department at Yard Birds?
Remember the radio station KIXI, 96 FM? When everyone else my age was listening to rock & roll, I was listening to KIXI, because that was what my dad and I listened to in his company pickup.
I loved it at Vail, with all my heart. I spent every day I possibly could there with my dad. And now, when he is old and frail and living in a rest home, I do my best to pick him up every Saturday, and take him riding in my pickup. To this day, my dad is still my hero, and he knows it.
There is something else you might have seen ay Vail, Hallback. Do you recall seeing a large mount Stihl rollernose bar about 8 feet long, that was welded together in pieces? When they cut that 14 foot diameter Sitka Spruce in about 1971, they had to cut the back off of one 16" rollernose bar and the tip off another, and weld both long sections together to come up with a bar long enough to fall the tree. They dropped the tree with an 090G, and loaded it with the tower onto off-highway trucks.
Illegitimi non carborundum
I do remember that bar well. I was trying to get it when the sawshop closed but it was gone already. I remember the overalls well at Yardbirds also..."If you can fit 'em you can have 'em"......
I wish I could turn back the clock to the early/mid 70's and be a cutter/logger then but it wasn't meant to be for me and I will have to continue to do it now and enjoy the memories.
I have an 075 I am restoring right now that will hang above my fireplace. It is with that saw that I fell my first trees when I was 9-10 and hooked for life.
I too wish I could have turned back the clock and logged in the PNW in the Sixties and Seventies, but I came close enough. I still got to see it as a young whippersnapper. I believe the saw shop you recall was on the side of the gravel toward the Vail Cutoff. That was my dad's Superintendent's Shack when we were there. Back then, Gene Sherwood had his saw shop out in the middle of the lot, out in front of my dad's office. They also had a fuel island out there.
I bought my first saw at age 12, from Ford Bentley, the Cutting Crew Supervisor. It was a Homelite 5-30N in mint condition, with two 34" bars that came with it. I bought an 041 from Weyco about a year later. The 050s/051s were just hitting the market when we came to Vail, and they made quite a splash. Nobody wanted to touch those heavy, slow 090Gs, and they ended up selling off a bunch of them, for $25.00 each.
I used to just about drool when I was in that saw shop. I liked the 051s, but my all-time favorite saw back then was the Homelite 850 and 870, which were basically the same saw.
And in the morning, when we left the shop and headed for the woods, on a clear day, you could see Mount Rainier out ahead in all its splendor.
So now you know where that long bar came from. Small world, eh?
Illegitimi non carborundum
Very small world yet very damn good. I loved the days going out with my grandpa when they were falling old growth in the 70's and 80's. I will never forget those days.
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