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

[trakloader]

I worked at Sproat Lake in the Y & L back between 1976 & 1982 - when the big purge happened. I spent some time as a shop helper and used to load trailers on the HDX's during the evening shift, when I got tired of pushing a broom. The old mechanics didn't even care that I didn't have an air ticket, they just showed me how to fire them up and away I went. Different times they were. Does anyone have a list of what trucks were in that division during this era? How about the Yarders and Loaders? I spent much time working on the old J-87 Sparmatic as a rigging slinger - I've even got photos of it and the J-88 parked in a back road up by Hidden Lake just before they were scrapped. I managed to get the builders plate off the '87 and it now hangs proudly on my wall downstairs. Any old Sproat Laker's on this forum?

Well, don't just tease us, man! Post the pictures!

 

[jackd]

I started going through my photos last night - haven't looked at them in years. Nothing I have is scanned to computer and I'm just finishing off the last ink in my old printer/scanner before I drag out the new unit I bought. So be patient. I've got some shots of a Sparmatic laying on its side after toppling during a towering down gone wrong event. I can't believe these shots after from over 30 years ago. How hard is it to post pics to this forum?

 

[trakloader]

I started going through my photos last night - haven't looked at them in years. Nothing I have is scanned to computer and I'm just finishing off the last ink in my old printer/scanner before I drag out the new unit I bought. So be patient. I've got some shots of a Sparmatic laying on its side after toppling during a towering down gone wrong event. I can't believe these shots after from over 30 years ago. How hard is it to post pics to this forum?

Posting pictures is fairly easy, if you need help, let me know!

 

[Hayesno1]

Posting pictures is fairly easy, if you need help, let me know!

Let see those pictures - it is pretty easy to post pictures. Somewhere on this website I wrote "how to do". If you need help let us know

 

[jackd]

I scanned one last night just to keep you guys in your chairs, but it was in the wrong format - something called TIF - and it wouldn't upload. Even got my 17 year old involved and he threw his hands up in disgust and fled. It'll be awhile guys before this is all going to happen - my night shift work duties are taking priority.

 

[Hayesno1]

I scanned one last night just to keep you guys in your chairs, but it was in the wrong format - something called TIF - and it wouldn't upload. Even got my 17 year old involved and he threw his hands up in disgust and fled. It'll be awhile guys before this is all going to happen - my night shift work duties are taking priority.

Format "JPG" will do. Family has 1st; then work has 2nd priority - our "hobby" comes when we find spare time..

 

[jackd]

I'm having a hell of a time sizing my photos to upload to jpg format. I even went to the effort of installing a new printer on my computer this evening to make the process work. What I have is standard 6 x 4 photos and they scan outside the 640 x 640 limits set by the website. Any help out there would be appreciated - I can downsize them but I hate to lose some picture content. Hints please.

 

[King of Obsolete]

the easyst thing to do is email the pictures to yourself if you are using outlook express. it will shrink the pictures nice and small for posting plus you get an email so you feel loved, LOL.

that is all i have been doing since i bought the dumb computers for the last 7 years.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[jackd]

Gee... e-mailing myself - never thought of that. I'll give it a try.

 

[King of Obsolete]

yes click on the picture, then a little box will pop up on the left corner of your screen and ask if you want to make the pictures smaller, click yes and huge pictures are now reduced to the right size. then the email will appear on your screen and now go to the top left corner and click on file, then scoll down and to where it says save attachments. click on this and your pictures are now saved small. so you actually don't have to email yourself. i emailed myself for almost a year untill i got smarter then the dumb computer.

keep those logging pictures coming because i enjoy seeing and learning.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[jackd]

Here's one...

What you are seeing here are actually two old Sparmatics - the J87 & J88 after M & B disposed of them after many years of use. I worked on both and managed to scrounge the bronze plate off the J87. The picture was taken in the mid-90's. Both are now scrapped. The last owner parked them side to side and strung a tarp between them as a makeshift shop roof. I found a pile of time cards in the operating cab and found my name with many of my co-workers alongside - a remnant of 15 years previous. I kept it as a reminder.

 

[jackd]

J-73 Final Days at Sproat Lake

I decided to take my young son down to the old marshalling yard at Cous Creek - Sproat Lake Division back in the late '90's. I was surprised to see many of the old trucks of the '70s & early '80s still in the yard. There were still some of the guys who had stayed on, waiting to hop into their crummies to head out to do some afternoon shift duties. Some recognized me from 20 years previous and congratulated me on my change of careers. I remember when this yarder showed up in '77 - I was one of the first guys setting beads on it.

 

[jackd]

J-88 On Her Side

This happened in the early 80's during a towering down and no I wasn't there. These Sparmatics were telescoping towers and you had to slacken the guy lines to actually extend the tower, to allow you to unlock the dog which held the tower extended. When the dog is unlocked, the tower is lowered vertically inside itself to shorten it from its extended 120' length. What happened here was all was going well as they were bringing her down, but the operator still had to reel in the guy lines as you came down to take up the slack evenly around the machine. In this instance, one of the guy line drums would not disengage and that winch pulled her over. It supposedly happened real slow and the chaser was running in and out from under the machine trying to figure out which way to go as the machine slowly rose away from him and keeled over. No one hurt but the pipe was bent. M & B scrounged another pipe from another logging division and she was good to go quite soon.

 

[jackd]

Y27

This was my first experience working on a grapple yarder and it was a Washington on rubber. This was in 1979 and my guess is in Cous Division of the Sproat Lake operation. I saw this machine rolled over a few times when they were trying to move her. It was a line shortener set-up and it got the wood.

 

[jackd]

H -323

This came to Sproat Lake Division in 1976 - along with 324, 325 & 326 - all pre-loads and the only P16's we had on the claim at the time. They were the queens of the fleet and only driven by the most senior guys. I've seen pictures of this truck in other postings and I think it was sold on, repainted and re-numbered.

 

[jackd]

Y-35

Sorry for the angle shot but best shot of my new machine. This was a Madill 044 Grapple Yarder that came to Sproat in the spring of '79. I was the first chaser. Lots of problems with the Young grapples at first because they were tight and wouldn't always open up - bushed a bit on the small side. I remember the operator trying to smack them open by dropping them on top of boulders. This was a tag line machine which also went against the norm in that M & B mostly had line-shorteners at Sproat Lake.

 

[jackd]

J-157

Towering down up above Sproat Lake summer of '77. The '157 came to Sproat in the early '70s along with the 156, 158, 159, 160 & 161 - a whole batch of 009's on rubber. Supposedly they drove them from the Madill works to Port Alberni on the highway - minus their pipes - on early Saturday mornings. I wonder what happened to them...

 

[jackd]

Winter show around 1981 down the Alberni Canal - down toward the northeast side of Nahmint Lake. Lots of Madills and American loaders. We would know it was getting past 3:00 o'clock when the Lady Rose would come steaming by heading toward Port Alberni - another hour till quitting time.

 

[King of Obsolete]

great pictures, glad you got them resized.

keep them coming.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[jackd]

Getting good at this - I even quit e-mailing myself! Thanks for the hints and the compliments.