Vancouver Island, BC. Logging at its Best!

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More from the Archives

I have tons.

 

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Parbuckle Dump, Continued......

And more........

 

[Bumpsteer]

Excellent pics.
Keep 'em coming!

Ed

 

[Hayesno1]

Husby Mack CL350 ST

Having stumbled upon some pics posted at another site by "Alaskan Logger" I discovered he was a regular here and contributed many photos to this thread as well. So, I introduced myself over there with the following, modified somewhat to accomodate this venue. My history....more or less...

So I came to this site and was blown away by the variety of pics of machines I used to buy parts for as well as the guys I know in the industry who were mentioned in the pages I've read...so far.
I started in logging in 1969 when I became the Warehouseman for Tahsis Co. Ltd. at their Gold River Logging Division. I spent four years there and watched the evolution of yarding change from high lead to grapple yarding right before my eyes. When I started we ran six sides but soon bought a couple more yarders (Washington Skylok was one) and then we double-shifted four grapple yarding sides so we were essentially producing 12 sides worth of production by 1972 or so. The best one day production back then was 42 loads to the beach, most carried on P-16s or HDX's although we did have a few smaller Pacifics that ran 4640 Timkens and 1200x24 tires rather than 91000 Clarks and 1400x25 tires. Loaders included a TL-5, a TL-6, a TL-15, a Bucyrus 30-B and another American we called the "Fair Harbor American" which was an electric over air over hydraulic set-up with a centre tube that had about 20 electrical connections on it, each of which controlled air valves that then activated the hydraulics. Naturally I may be slightly off in my recollections so feel free to correct me on technical details but that's how I remember that machine. It came to us from Fair Harbour and was a project we worked on in the shop at Gold River one winter.
Lots of other machines there of interest but like most people I didn't take pics or think it would ever end. We had the first SST Skagit Grapple Yarder ever built, serial #1001 there (Side 6) as well as a Sparmatic, some Madills and a Washington Skylok Hydraulic Tension Yarder.
Can't remember what else we had for yarders and loaders etc. 'cause it was a long time ago.
Some of you might know a fellow named Bob Bagley, mechanic for Trican for many years. He was an apprentice mechanic at Gold River Logging when I worked there, some 41 years ago.
From there I went working for a small gyppo in Campbell River for a few months then went to Juskatla for MacMillan Bloedel as the Warehouse Supervisor there. Pretty standardized fleet there with mostly all 90' Madills and American loaders. P-16 log trucks as I recall. No Cats bigger than a D-7 and much shovel and pad work building roads up there too.
From there I went to BCFP Ltd. at the Renfrew Logging Division as their Warehouseman/Buyer. I spent eight years there and it was much the same as most logging camps back then. They had Skagit SST Grapple Yarder serial #10003 and I think Chum Carley from that area had serial #10002.
Those Skagits mostly ended up at Lemare Lake Logging in Port McNeill where they served a variety of functions for the Duke and his boys many years later.
I got caught in the squeeze of the '80's and was bumped off in 1984 from BCFP and barely survived the next year or so before going to work for Dave Husby at Eden Lake in the Charlottes in 1986. He had six of those Mack CL350-ST logging trucks working as well as a couple of Pacifics and a Hayes.
MB at Menzies Bay had 13 of those Macks as I recall. There were only 26 ever made and I think they all came to BC. He also had a fleet of International dump trucks that had originally been built to work in the desert but were part of the embargo on stuff gpoing to the Middle East during the Reagan years so became available here. Designed to work in the desert and ended up in one of the wettest places in BC. I always thought that was ironic for some reason.
From there I went to work for Island Mack Truck Sales out of Nanaimo and opened a one man store at Sandspit in the Charlottes selling heavy duty truck parts and stuff to MB, Crown, Alliford Bay Logging, Frank Beban, (I was there when he died), Edwards and Associates and a few other small contractors there.
In 1990 we shut that store down (South Moresby Lyell Island diminished market etc.) and I moved to Campbell River where I still live.
I spent four years on the road for Island Mack all around the northern Vancouver Island area and knew many of the loggers/contractors during that time. Sold lots of parts to Butch Carrol, Dennis Dystant, Borer Trucking/Logging, MB Menzies, Canfor at Woss and others too.

Thanks a lot for posting your pics here, those of you that have them. Brings back a lot of memories from the '60's right through to 2000 of my time in and around the industry.
I appreciate your efforts.



Take care.

Great reading - you have been around and seen a lot. I have visit many of the places(my holidays in Canada) but most places operation had been shot down. To bad. I really like to visit QCI some day. Re. Mack CL350 ST 27 were made. They were build in Canada and all were sold in BC. MB got 12 starting with #H435 and last got unit no #H446. Husby got 7. The rest were sold to small contractors. Today many are still in operation. Last I heard Husby still had 5 or 6 going strong, BenWest logging got 6. Olympic Forest Products got 3(2 of them are old MB unit #H441 and H444). There is a local contractor in Holberg that has one - old Butch Carroll truck. MB #H443 is still operating North of Campbell River, but I guess you have seen her. Clyak had no. #7 for sale in 2006/2007 at Tom Turners place, but I don't know who bought her or if she was scrapped. I know that MB units H437 and H438 are scrapped/gone. In 2005 I took some pictures of a CL350 North of Campbell River - I think it is a Husby truck but you can maybe identify if she is a Husby truck. The blue truck is the Butch Carroll truck. Take care. Cheers!

 

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Cypress 7230R Log Loader

Crossing the bridge for the last time, I believe it was transferred from QC Division to Northwest Bay.
YouTube - LOGGING MACHINERY ON THE MOVE! CYPRESS 72-30R

 

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American 5675 Log Loader

Loading a Hayes HDX in 1978.

YouTube - LOG LOADER IN ACTION, 1978

 

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More Log Loading in 1978.

5675 operated by The Black Swede, one of the best operators of the day.

YouTube - LOG LOADER IN ACTION, AMERICAN 5675, 1978

 

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5675 on its way to a new setting, 1978

This was the first rubber mounted American at M&B's Queen Charlotte Division.

YouTube - LOGGING MACHINERY ON THE MOVE, AMERICAN 5675 LOG LOADER,1978

 

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Up in the Cab, Loading Logs in 1978

6-71 roaring away, loading logs.

YouTube - LOG LOADER, INSIDE CAB, 1978

 

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More in the cab Action, 1978

The good old days.

YouTube - LOG LOADER IN ACTION, IN THE CAB WITH OLD FRITZ!

 

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Tyee K-166 and American 5675 at Work, 1978

Yarding and loading some nice spruce logs.

YouTube - LOGGING! YARDING AND LOADING BIG SPRUCE, 1978

 

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Landing a Turn, 1978

Tyee K-166 landing a turn, that 12V71 really had to work on this setting!

YouTube - YARDING, LANDING A TURN, 1978

 

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Moving a Heavy Spruce Log

Looks pretty heavy, they were just dislodging the log so they could get the choker around it.

YouTube - MOVING HUGE SPRUCE, 1978

 

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Loading Logs, 1978

Loading with a wooden long boom, I believe they were called a "Luckhurst boom".

YouTube - LOADING A LOGGING TRUCK, 1978

 

[Dave Hadden]

Great reading - you have been around and seen a lot. I have visit many of the places(my holidays in Canada) but most places operation had been shot down. To bad. I really like to visit QCI some day. Re. Mack CL350 ST 27 were made. They were build in Canada and all were sold in BC. MB got 12 starting with #H435 and last got unit no #H446. Husby got 7. The rest were sold to small contractors. Today many are still in operation. Last I heard Husby still had 5 or 6 going strong, BenWest logging got 6. Olympic Forest Products got 3(2 of them are old MB unit #H441 and H444). There is a local contractor in Holberg that has one - old Butch Carroll truck. MB #H443 is still operating North of Campbell River, but I guess you have seen her. Clyak had no. #7 for sale in 2006/2007 at Tom Turners place, but I don't know who bought her or if she was scrapped. I know that MB units H437 and H438 are scrapped/gone. In 2005 I took some pictures of a CL350 North of Campbell River - I think it is a Husby truck but you can maybe identify if she is a Husby truck. The blue truck is the Butch Carroll truck. Take care. Cheers!

Howdy again.
Nice to get some more info on those Macks although it varies somewhat with time and place it seems. I had coffee with Tom Turner yesterday and we talked a bit about them too. He remembered you visiting he claimed.
We both think that only 26 were built and while originally 12 went to M&B Menzies they later got another one so had 13. Husby had six when I worked for him in 1986. Irving Olson had two, Thompson had one and Tom wasn't sure who had the others. He rebuilt three of them for MB at his place when they were changing the cabs on them. I remember Tom and MB Master Mechanic Ron Gunn going roundy-round on those things too. MB Menzies had two or three different types of cabs built on them over the years as I recall. One CL-350 fell off the road somewhere over near Zeballos and remains there to this day Tom recalled and another was wrecked elsewhere. He thought the one Butch Carrol has is an old MB truck but wasn't sure.
I should tell you that Tom and I go back nearly 48 years now as we met in 1962. His brother Len (RIP) used to date one of my sisters way back when.
Anyway, while I did work a number of different places I never thought to take pics of them and the machines I bought parts for so it's really a treat to see all the neat ones you guys post here.
I'm not an avid fan of heavy equipment in the same way some of you obviously are but I always enjoyed watching them work and had lots of respect for the men who operated them too.
Some guys just seemed to have a natural talent and I remember a guy named Mel Schimenoski who went from being a Greaser in the shop at Gold River to operating the new Skagit SST grapple yarder (Side 6) when it arrived in 1968. It was different from the old towers with their levers and frictions and all that and Mel just had the right feel for it. Later, when we bought a Washington Skylok tension yarder which was operated totally in a different manner than the old friction machines, the rep who came with the machine told us that it was easier to train a green guy to run that machine than to take an old operator and convert him. The old operators kept looking for pedals and frictions that weren't there he said.
Anyway, I wish I'd paid more attention to some of the machines I saw but the nature of the job of Warehouseman means you learn and/or know a little bit about a lot of different things rather than being an expert in any one thing.....for the most part.
I can still recite most of the part numbers for a lot of truck parts off the top of my head though so it did help to have a decent memory and a good head for numbers I guess.
Nowadays my wife claims I forget everything.
Dunno why that is though. LOL

Thanks again for your pics and vids.
I really dig them.

Take care.

 

[Murk100]

Here is another neat machine. This is up the canyon just out of Chemainus, right on the mainline. I took it about 6 years ago. look at the train wheels that have been stacked together and the edges cut off.

I'm sure this is the same old beast... Copper Canyon

 

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I'm sure this is the same old beast... Copper Canyon

You just HAD to paint "Mettalica" on it, huh? Is that the one the museum wanted, but it was too heavy to move, or something like that? It looks to be in pretty nice condition, considering its age.

 

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Howdy again.
Nice to get some more info on those Macks although it varies somewhat with time and place it seems. I had coffee with Tom Turner yesterday and we talked a bit about them too. He remembered you visiting he claimed.
We both think that only 26 were built and while originally 12 went to M&B Menzies they later got another one so had 13. Husby had six when I worked for him in 1986. Irving Olson had two, Thompson had one and Tom wasn't sure who had the others. He rebuilt three of them for MB at his place when they were changing the cabs on them. I remember Tom and MB Master Mechanic Ron Gunn going roundy-round on those things too. MB Menzies had two or three different types of cabs built on them over the years as I recall. One CL-350 fell off the road somewhere over near Zeballos and remains there to this day Tom recalled and another was wrecked elsewhere. He thought the one Butch Carrol has is an old MB truck but wasn't sure.
I should tell you that Tom and I go back nearly 48 years now as we met in 1962. His brother Len (RIP) used to date one of my sisters way back when.
Anyway, while I did work a number of different places I never thought to take pics of them and the machines I bought parts for so it's really a treat to see all the neat ones you guys post here.
I'm not an avid fan of heavy equipment in the same way some of you obviously are but I always enjoyed watching them work and had lots of respect for the men who operated them too.
Some guys just seemed to have a natural talent and I remember a guy named Mel Schimenoski who went from being a Greaser in the shop at Gold River to operating the new Skagit SST grapple yarder (Side 6) when it arrived in 1968. It was different from the old towers with their levers and frictions and all that and Mel just had the right feel for it. Later, when we bought a Washington Skylok tension yarder which was operated totally in a different manner than the old friction machines, the rep who came with the machine told us that it was easier to train a green guy to run that machine than to take an old operator and convert him. The old operators kept looking for pedals and frictions that weren't there he said.
Anyway, I wish I'd paid more attention to some of the machines I saw but the nature of the job of Warehouseman means you learn and/or know a little bit about a lot of different things rather than being an expert in any one thing.....for the most part.
I can still recite most of the part numbers for a lot of truck parts off the top of my head though so it did help to have a decent memory and a good head for numbers I guess.
Nowadays my wife claims I forget everything.
Dunno why that is though. LOL

Thanks again for your pics and vids.
I really dig them.

Take care.

Somewhere, I know not where.... I have a good article on the M&B Menzies Bay Mack rebuilds from the "Westcoast Logger" magazine. I sure wish I could find the #$%& thing!!

 

[Murk100]

You just HAD to paint "Mettalica" on it, huh? Is that the one the museum wanted, but it was too heavy to move, or something like that? It looks to be in pretty nice condition, considering its age.

It wasn't me:spaz It would be nice to see it in the Duncan museum. I was on the I-5 a few years ago someware around Tacoma and went into a Foresty Museum, and low and behold there was one of these gargantuans all rigged up banjo head fairleads,loading boom,steam pot,on rails,no camera, awsome.
If someone out their has some pics.POSTM please:usa

 

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It wasn't me:spaz It would be nice to see it in the Duncan museum. I was on the I-5 a few years ago someware around Tacoma and went into a Foresty Museum, and low and behold there was one of these gargantuans all rigged up banjo head fairleads,loading boom,steam pot,on rails,no camera, awsome.
If someone out their has some pics.POSTM please:usa

I think I saw that on YouTube somewhere.... Can't remember where, though! :beatsme