BC logging equipment left to rust

[Hayesno1]

Found this in Northern BC. Not sure of make?

 

[075]

Found this in Northern BC. Not sure of make?

Washington TL6 or TL15 Fairly early machine . Has hook rollers and not a mono-race like later machines .I would put my money on a TL6

 

[525isx]

Washington TL6 or TL15 Fairly early machine . Has hook rollers and not a mono-race like later machines .I would put my money on a TL6

picture reminded me of a question I have. What are the differences between a TL-6 and TL-15 ? obviously 15 is a bigger machine,but what about line capacity /, weight of machine ? always wondered.
525

 

[BDFT]

I think he meant TL5. One size smaller machine.
Didn`t the TL5s have a three axle carrier. Never had much to do with them.

 

[Len Burton]

I found this old equipment in the bush above Cassel Lake falls in Teakern Arm a few years ago. It must early vintage yarder of some kind. When I pulled into Teakern Arm on my boat there was an old BC Ferry at the bottom of the inlet. It was the old BC ferry Queen of Tswassen. They were using it as a base for heilocopter logging above Cassel Lake.

 

[Hayesno1]

075; Thanx for information. I am a novice on that kind of equipment. I think I do a little better on trucks.

 

[075]

I think he meant TL5. One size smaller machine.
Didn`t the TL5s have a three axle carrier. Never had much to do with them.

The cab on a TL5 was on the right hand side,and had hyd swing. They all had three axle, and four axle carriers. and some were also on tracks. And the TL25's were on log barges

 

[Vigilant]

I think he meant TL5. One size smaller machine.
Didn`t the TL5s have a three axle carrier. Never had much to do with them.

Did Washington make a cable version of the TL5? The only TL5 I was aware of was the TL5H, the hydraulic version.

 

[075]

Yes they did Rayonier had several up here and I ran one I Zeballos ,off and on over the years. They were fairly quick in the line speed and you put the trans in reverse to load. It had two forward speeds and one reverse with a steering wheel to steer instead of a leaver. The swing was HDY and was a bit week but worked fairly well for its time.The only problem I found with it was when the mechanics came out on night shift to fix something and decided to be loader operator. They always seemed to put the trans in 1st gear and back spooled all the drums, words were said lol.And the ones that I was around also had Jimmy V6's in them not sure if they were 71's though.

 

[Vigilant]

Yes they did Rayonier had several up here and I ran one I Zeballos ,off and on over the years. They were fairly quick in the line speed and you put the trans in reverse to load. It had two forward speeds and one reverse with a steering wheel to steer instead of a leaver. The swing was HDY and was a bit week but worked fairly well for its time.The only problem I found with it was when the mechanics came out on night shift to fix something and decided to be loader operator. They always seemed to put the trans in 1st gear and back spooled all the drums, words were said lol.And the ones that I was around also had Jimmy V6's in them not sure if they were 71's though.

TH5H had the 6V71, so I assume the TL5 did as well.

I have mentioned here before that my father did the T&E on one of the original prototype TL5H shovels, and possibly the first made, at Vail. I spent a little time around it back then, and am grateful for the memories. Lots of issues with that machine in the beginning, many of which came, as I recall, from the maze of hydraulic lines.

 

[075]

T J John Logging had A TL5H for awhile back about 75 or so in Zeballos. They did not keep it very long, If I remember right, it was lacking in reach and you always had to pick up the jacks to reach wood.And if you ever ran TL you know that could take a few minutes if every thing worked right, longer if the jack boxes were bent in,or the sequencing valves or flag arms were out of ajustment.

 

[skadill]

Camoflaged yarder

Taken and shared by an equipment friend. Mid coast BC pics

 

[Vigilant]

Is that an old military truck it's sitting on?

 

[Len Burton]

Here is a side picture.

 

[trakloader]

Is that an old military truck it's sitting on?

Kind of looks like a big old Mack, but hard to tell.... Looking closely, it almost looks like one of the Macks that Norrie Bros. modified, it has the small cab like they used. Tower looks like a Rosedale product.

 

[Len Burton]

I found this on West Redonda Island in Lewis Channel.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . hello fellers. I have asked the question before but missed out on any answers.

From half a world away it is difficult to comprehend the amount of effort money and ingenuity that went to develop the equipment and techniques to extract timber from such an inhospitable environment . . . so what went wrong?

Did the demand fade away, were the forests cut out, were political decisions made. There must have been factors not obvious to me to cause such a decline in a well established industry over what seems to be such a short span of years?

As I browse these pages, particularly the truck pages and see the record of what used to be I sometimes fancy I can hear the howl of those two-strokes pulling grade and for those who were involved and loved the machinery and way of life I can understand their loss.

If some could set me straight as to why the timber industry declined I would be much obliged.

Cheers,

 

[camptramp]

As the forests of the East Coast of North America were being depleted in the mid late 1800's , the forest companies and their crews started looking at the forests of the west coast of North America, which at that time were being settled by European Settler's. The forest's of the coastal strip of North America seemed endless ,and probably made the best lumber on our planet. Starting around the late 1800's loggers tackled the timber stands ,as loggers developed their equipment and rigging , they progressed from horse and oxen ,to steam powered yarders ,then to diesel power . What appeared to be an endless resource at the begining of the 1900's was starting to look to be coming to an end by the 2000's. Its not what we did ,but how we did it to the virgin stands of timber . We took to much to soon and there was to much waste. There is still Old Growth timber on the west coast of British Columbia but its tough and expensive to log . The best and easiest timber is gone. If you would like a more in depth look at how many large tracks of how our timber stands were litterally given away through Railroad Grants ,Timber Grants and Timber Claims, I recomened reading A History of British Columbia by Jean Barman , The Pacific Province A History Of British Columbia by Hugh J.M. Johnston and Three Men and A Forester by Ian Mahood And Ken Drushka.

 

[camptramp]

Great pictures Len keep them coming , did you ever run across a Pilot by the name of Les or Art Jone's out of Victoria in your travels on the BC coast?

 

[John C.]

Yair... The timber industry didn't really fade to nothing or suddenly stop. It is cyclical by nature. When it is hot there is a lot of money to get the trees down, out and processed. Everyone in the industry knows this and the rush is on to get as much as possible until the hot cycle ends. You see all kinds of innovation in a hurry. People are willing to risk money on building a bigger, more powerful and faster machine. When the cycle gets slow it does it in a hurry and people get laid off and a lot of machines just stopped and are waiting for the rust to pop out. The producers hope they haven't gone too far in debt and have enough iron paid off to make it to the next hot cycle. The thing is that it never completely stops. We have family operations and working people up here going on three generations of living this life. They keep the bank payments to only what is necessary and are continually looking forward for ways to keep going. There are always a lot of high flyers living on the edge who go broke or bankrupt.

Getting slow can happen for a lot of reasons. Local and world wide economies, government intervention, the eco industry, the courts and so on. When the economy took a hit in late 2007 and early 2008 the loggers held on for dear life, didn't buy any new iron and patched the old stuff till pretty thread bare. The market has picked back up in the last year and and some new iron is getting sold again. The stuff you see in the photos is in pretty remote locations and been sitting for so long that it is not economically feasible to try to get it running. When the cold cycle hit, there wasn't enough money left to haul it out for liquidation or disposal. Sometimes the company isn't making tax payments or employee insurance payments and when the word gets out that the pay checks are made of rubber, the iron gets parked where ever it is at and the workers walk away. Other times the iron you see in the photos here broke down and it just wasn't worth fixing so it got set in a clear spot and brush just grew over it. You also have to keep in mind that Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and California have been being logged for at least a hundred years. That's a lot of time for old derelict iron to accumulate.

As far as the timber being all gone that isn't the case. More trees are planted than are cut. What we have are tree plantations that don't look like what many people think of as plantations. The giants are left in patches in parks and private areas and for the most part left to keep growing. What is being logged in the US now days is usually between 18" and 24" in diameter.

Hope that explains a little.