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

[hiluxman]

look what this video game has a macblo hayes hdx lookalike [video=youtube;OslyI1GclbE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OslyI1GclbE[/video]

 

[TorkelH]

MacMillan Bloedell equipment number list

Here's an (incomplete) Excel speadsheet of MacMillan Bloedell equipment, made with info from this thread. Feel free to update!

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.asp...B65E7D5E9159A16C!344&authkey=!AFVOldc83bLq0EY

 

[HDX]

TorkelH How do we add names and info to this list????

 

[BTC]

Names

It would be nice to be able to put the names of the men who spent time on these machines.

 

[Hayesno1]

TorkelH; Thanks for sharing the MB list. Here is picture I got many years ago - sorry I can´t remember from whom. It looks like Franklin with those trucks(look at bumpers) - 3 preloads and 2 standard configuration. Not the best phote but maybe someone can identify some of the men

 

[TorkelH]

TorkelH How do we add names and info to this list????

HDX - If you open in "web-Excel" it should be an edit button on top of the page. Then make sure you go down after the last row (after I added your Squamish trucks it's 291) and just write. It should save automaticly. I have already added all the information from this thread.

BTC - it's a column for driver, and 2 for remarks, just put in all info you have (ex link to web, histories etc)

 

[HDX]

First truck in line is H317 and #4 is H319 and #5 is H17 will look at old pics taken about this time and try and remember what truck had the white stripes painted on backwards It seems to me that Cal Smith painted them on not long after he got on the H110 (third truck in line ) and the second truck im working on Picture was taken in about 1977 because that is when Karl (H317) got the twin turbo V12 GM engine installed note the hood side panel has been modified to allow for the turbos(first truck in the line) These were tourists posing on the trucks cause we never had any hairy drivers and no lady drivers although some were often called that due to driving habits

 

[TorkelH]

Amazing! Here's some video of MB Pacific's from Franklin div H55 and H65 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqqUkH9camc&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHpzsEmSUtA&feature=related

 

[HDX]

TorkelH That truck is/was actually H155 It looks like H55 but there is a "1" in front of there Funny that Jack Cote was driving it Must have been during a winter layoff because that was Al Coopers truck and the preload dumping behind him at the dryland was Al Horton with H232 P16 Both these drivers and H232 were from Cameron Division-- H155 was a Franklin River Division truck and part of Sarita was the winter show for Cameron Division. Cote usually drove the Mack highway truck at Cameron Division (H68)

 

[BTC]

So Al Cooper was a Cameron driver. When did the two divisions merge? Did you guys share china creek when you were two separate divisions? I remember falling in Walbran and Carmanah and the trucks all hauled to china creek. Must have been one trip per day, can't really remember.

 

[HDX]

BTC No Al was originally a Sarita driver Here's how it worked Franklin River was the main logging camp Sarita was a satellite camp down the Alberni Canal only way in and out was by boat In 1958 the decision was made to build the road and join the two camps together and then Franklin became the biggest logging camp . Sarita had no rail logging and it was all truck hauled M&B had already started pulling up all the rail track and converting over to all truck logging at Franklin -- There was a small trucking operation going on down in the Nitinat where they were reloading from the trucks to rail so all this was torn up and replaced with truck roads All hauling was done to Coleman Dump down on the canal 7 miles from Camp "B" In 1966 M&B started a new Division called Cameron only 5 miles from Port Alberni. M&B working with the IWA decided that Cameron would be also manned by Franklin employees so all the senior guys went to Cameron-- shorter day etc This was a nightmare for layoffs because then the senior guy would bump back and forth during layoffs and you never really knew where you would be working in the winter Cameron was opened up with the theory that it would be a 20 year camp and then it would be phased out because of log inventories. That was not to be In 1975 Sarita was again split apart from Franklin because the operating area of Franklin was just so big with the all new areas called Carmanah/Haddon/Walbran and Roseander opening up it was overpowering. Sarita built a new Dryland Sort and Mike Murphy built a new shop and they were in business. The Franklin equipment was split in half and so became Sarita Division. Things stayed good until the market downturns in1980 then Sarita was closed and came back together with Franklin. The dryland and shop remained however.Over time the logging was more in the Franklin /Carmannah area so Sarita kind of eased off. While Sarita was active as a division they got several new trucks (all P16s) H40 in 76-H64 H65--H66 in 77 and H67 with the new 3408 cat engine as well as some new equipment 988 cat stackers etc. It was during this period that Al Cooper started and broke in driving. In 1985 M&B management ( Dent Tuckey and Bob Findlay) decided to bring in ALL THE CONTRACTORS in TFL44 into Franklin and cream the long distance wood Carmanah Walbran Haddon. Then the strike of 1986 hit -After that was over all was fair game and in 1987 88 89 Coleman Dump averaged 10,000 loads a year with a load average of 120 meters per load We knew this because we had to nail a metal tag on every load that was numbered So in addition to all this wood Sarita was dumping and Spencer Dump was still dumping in the winter and so was China Creek Kind of puts in in perspective as to volume of logs per day over the browlog/deck Anyway in the late 90s Cameron was blended into the mix so to speak and we all became one big family (LOL) Management decided that they would close the Coleman Dump and haul direct to China Creek Dryland Sort (The Cameron Dryland) because of the added cost of dewatering the Coleman/ Sarita dumped wood.Jan 2003 was the end of Franklin when Weyerheauser sold the division to Hayes Forest Services of Duncan. This deal ended in Dec 2007 Now we are Island Pacific Logging and doing just fine. We did lose ALL of the Cameron Area to Northwest Bay Division in 2005 so we are bunched up down in Sarita Area again Funny how history repeats itself Long winded answer but there it is !!!

 

[jackd]

That is quite the explanation, HDX - thanks for that. Sproat Division in my day was split up into Cous, Taylor and Ash subdivisions, with a common seniority list, but separate marshalling yards. They threw us into one operating group in '79 and that was what carried on until even after I left in '82. You know much more than I do about what happened afterwards.

Torkel - thanks for the list. I'm hoping to add some yarding equipment to the list when time allows - I'll send you an e-mail and you can plunk it in. Good to see some Mac & Blo postings on the site again.

 

[TorkelH]

Yes I found it was time to take up the thread again! Happy new year btw! And thank you HDX for giving the explanation about Franklin/Sarita/Cameron. Jackd, do you know if you had one of the tension skidders (huge, track mtd Madills) in Sproat? I know they must have had one or two in Franklin, but I never seen a picture of them.

 

[BTC]

Thank you for that HDX, it certainly is funny how history repeats. I first started working in that part of the world in the mid 90"s so the Cameron A-Sticks were still there but in active. I was always curious about Franklin as my grandfather started his working career as a faller when he returned from the Korean war in that division. I didn't realize that Squamish was even an M+B division prior to reading it on here. Had a really good cup of coffee with my old buddy this morning discussing it. Still has all his thoughts even at 94. Spent his entire working career working for what would be known as M+B. Franklin River as faller then woods foreman, Port Hardy Division as General Foreman, North West Bay as Manager,Camp 5, Kennedy Lake Division, Iron River Division, Then to retirement at Menzies Bay.
Has very interesting stories about how the operations were run. The managers used to be located in Vancouver and the GF's would be in the camps. When he became a manager he stayed at the operation. He wasn't much for the city he says. My father spent his entire career at M+B as well. Bullbucker in Queen Charlottes, Bullbucker at Kelsey Bay, Woods foreman at Kelsey, Eve River General Foreman, Back to Kelsey as GF, NorthWest Bay as Manager and retirement as Contract Manager at North Island Ops for Island Timberlands. They both really enjoyed their time at M+B. They both have incredible distain towards that "slimy green outfit" Something all of us EX M+B folks share I guess.

The Red and White was sure good to my family.

 

[jackd]

And a Happy New Year to you as well, Torkel.

If there were tension skidders at Sproat, it was way before my time. Some of the old settings that I saw from days gone by, might well have been taken out by machines of this nature. The only track mounted machines that I saw were two Madill 009's - the J-121 & the J-139. Supposedly the J-139 originally started its career at Cameron Division, and finished its days at Sproat Lake working out of the Cous Creek part of the operation.

 

[BTC]

HDX,

I was curious how long it took from areas like the ball park to china creek loaded. Has to be one of the longest off highway hauls anywhere.

 

[skadill]

Mack CL350

Taken last week.It's been shown before,but the leaves are off now,and its a bit easier to see.http://youtube.com/user/skadill

 

[HDX]

BTC 3 1/2-4 hours depending on how heavy the load was and the condition of the roads If the roads were bad you could add another 1/2 hr easily. That was like you said from the Ballpark to China Creek. We had to go back to Wall 1600 to clean up some wood in 2009 and it was all day from Sarita out there and back. And that is with the big power Cat engines that Al Waugh put in the trucks 90-100meters = 360 ltrs of supreme diesel per trip We used Supreme because we got better mileage LOL

 

[BTC]

That's a long way, once you get out of the ballpark not a ton of adverse if i remember correctly just one hell of a long way. Al Waugh was up working on our equipment over the christmas shutdown.

 

[HDX]

jackd Was talking to Pete Glasier on friday about you He is driving for us now Ring some bells ???