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

[Blk prince]

BTC,back on post 900 you asked about L-326. Well last week there was a L-326 at the auction out at Duke Point,it was a 7280 American according to an operator from BCFP. Auction was on Mar 10 and by Wed. Nite machine was gone on a barge. Could we be talking about the same machine,on rubber?

 

[DBDLS]

The L-326 is in Campbell River now. It is actually a T-Mar TMM 850. Very similar in appearance to a Cypress 7230 line loader as they both had the same designer. It has a Detroit Diesel 50 Series engine with the rads positioned over the top of the the engine compartment and air movement provided by a hydraulically driven fan. Interesting configuration and leaves a nice open engine compartment.

 

[Blk prince]

L326, so this machine was barged down to Duke Point and back again? Do you think it is going to work up that way or perhaps going on another barge ride? Thanks for info.

 

[callingtheshop]

I'm so old I remember the L-326 as an American 700 with a long boom and a great guy named Doug operating it in Franklin River.
What was the newer L-326?
I've saved the best photo I have of Kelsey Bay for the last. The "A" Team, no question in my mind ever. Too bad the whole group isn't on this.

 

[BTC]

These Apple I phones are very good at so many things. Not very good in a poorly lit room in camp on a stormy night

I can see John Ingihau ( poor spelling) Barry rusch. Dan Fear. Little Wally. Tireman Keith. John rainbow. Tony Hoffman the welder. Fixed my Raleigh bike frame lol Karl Huber. Kerry shiminick
Norm Mclellan. Mike smith Ray Murray. Dale Lewis. ----!Davidson. Terry B and. Mr T. Where is Laverne ???

That must be taken around 1986. I would have been 8. I recognize a few more faces. But can't put names to them. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in an M+B camp a ton of history. When you come west this fall. CALLING THE SHOP. please stop by. HDX has my contact info. I have a few items you may like to see.

 

[Ben A Round]

What an impressive site to see. It must have taken a lot of cooperation from the woods loader operators to keep the load lengths to where they wouldn't interfere with the load in front or the load behind.
Awesome pictures HDX. Thanks for sharing.

 

[wornout wrench]

Callingtheshop.

That is one good picture. Brings back some good memories.
I just wish I could blow it up some more, cant make out all the faces.
I swear Barry is wearing the same clothes today, his hat is looking a little rough around the edges, tireman Keith bought him a new one, but he wants to stay with the one he has.

That was a great crew.

I never got back to the division until 88 so missed being in this pic.

 

[HDX]

Ben A Round We did have the odd problem with that, so Jack James fixed it for us , He found an old SP 125 McCulloch Power Saw with the compression release on it. I think he swiped it from where it was stashed away in the old power saw shop. What would happen was , whenever Trev fired it up some of the old timers in camp would be down there in a flash with their old pick ups and would haul away the blocks faster than Trev could cut them. That was not all because once they were down there he had to get rid of them. It was an excuse for them to stand around and BS.

 

[Blk prince]

Did the 208 have sticks in her? Not the best for pulling trains around

 

[HDX]

8V71N with 4&4 originally then the shop put in a 8553 Main trans so with the 5&4 it worked very well. We had a 3 inch rope off a tug about 20 feet long that we could give her a little tug backwards when she would try and pull a big load forward and down off its legs. By doing this we could get the legs up and dog down the fifth wheel. She would hook up a dolly to the front bumper, hook up two air lines one for the fifth wheel and one for the service brakes. We had the front wheel brake hand valve re-plumbed so we would flip it on and it would fill the two air bags under the fifth wheel to lift it to the height of the loaded trailer while you were driving ahead. This way you were watching how high the 5th wheel actually was With the brakes released on the dolly you could push her around backwards and into a load standing on its legs. There was only enough pressure in the air bags to lift an empty trailer, enough to get the legs down. All you could do was get the fifth wheel hooked up on the loaded trailer . Then you would walk around and hook up the service and emergency air lines on the loaded trailer. This would release the brakes on it, and it would roll back just a little, enough to be able to pull the two leg pins. Stow away the third air line (5th wheel lift air line) into the dolly reach and walk around and pull both leg pins. Get back in the 208 and back her up till the loaded trailer came ahead and sat down onto the dolly. Just dog the fifth wheel deck on the dolly in the down position and unhook the 208 and back away. Then the next loaded truck,if you had time would just back his load into that dolly hook it up then stand it up on its legs. Then do the same again with the next dolly. This was putting train loads together. If you need a better explanation I can get into it. Will post some of the pictures of the dolly I managed to save. Then you can see what im talking about a little better.

 

[Blk prince]

We all had a different work horse. At Nitinat we used a rubber tired skidded with air hitch welded onto front blade. He put dolly under load and next truck put train together. At Nan Lakes they used a Ford 4x4 to move to Dolly's and put under trailers. No idea what was used on North Island.

 

[callingtheshop]

All my hats are gone, several had the foam rot out and others I gave away.
Geeze I actually bought a Peterbilt cap a few years ago and never wear it.
The Finning salesman got nick named "The Hat Man" at Franklin and when he showed up it was like crows at lunch time, the crews would be at him asking for a hat.
Somehow I retained the 50th Hayes medallion, the other goodies have long since disappeared, too many moves I guess.

 

[HDX]

I remember an ashtray someone had on their desk HHHMMMM

 

[callingtheshop]

Was it for those stinky little cigars that tasted like a little bit of heaven?
I'll run these Franklin River photos the way they got scanned, not in any order.
These are of a rebuild of a truck, HDX you might recognize the unit number of this one. I don't have a note anywhere on it.
I can't remember how many trucks got rebuilt but I do remember that #1 and #2 were the prototypes and from #3 on they were done very systematically and the costs, time of rebuild didn't change much after that. A good crew on them and it was fun. Proud times.

 

[Hank R]

Man O Man when they did a rebuild they did right. Thanks for the photos.

 

[HDX]

H111 Without a doubt The right hand front bumper was built by Fred . Testicles bent it when she was still under the lowbed Al Evans Fred Steinhauer Dennis Frazer Ron Mueller Doug Farrell Then in the back ground was H102(sand truck with 17 yard Smith box) H38 H48 H97 H102 were the first 4 sandtrucks equipped with the Smith box's Remember when somebody installed the mirror bracket on the door instead of the cab. Every time you closed the door the mirror would go out of adjustment. What a beautiful shop There was a sign up on the wall just before it was torn down that said something to the effect of "Thank You old friend You kept us warm and dry in the winter and cool and dry in the summer We will always remember you" Those few words meant a lot-- says a lot about the guys that worked in them

 

[Vigilant]

I never saw trucks rebuilt to that extent in Washington State back in the day. Not even the KW 848s. They would run 'em until they were "old enough to vote", or 21 years, and then either sell them or convert the better ones to fire trucks as needed. Once in a while, they would also kit one out.

 

[callingtheshop]

There was some sort of recession at the time and no one in M&B were allowed to purchase new equipment unless of some very special circumstances.
Most of the trucks we did were tired, usually over 10 years and had lots and lots of patch-ups on them, you know, keep it going for another week or so and we'll worry about fixing it right later on philosophy. Most, if not all fleet management does that but there comes a time to bite the bullet, to replace or rebuild. And a quickie rebuild doesn't last. I think the idea was to extend the prime function 10 more years and then replace the units? I don't remember the costs compared to new, but it was very competitive using our own labour. I also don't remember when the 3408 started to be incorporated into the rebuilds. The 12V DD just didn't last and a change was required. I hope it was worth it, any comments on that?

 

[HDX]

callingtheshop H17 got the first 3408 in Franklin Nov 1980 Remember the camshaft and timing gear thing! Kind of put a sudden end to the 12V71N. It was then that the decision was made to follow Mike Murphy's repower program. He used the 3408 PreCup where we used the 3408 Direct Injection. God what a beautiful engine I will post a picture of it when I can get it done. H316 above was one of the complete rebuilds with new 3408 engine. She was the first truck rebuilt with the oil cooler up inside the brush guard. This was pretty much what would happen. The truck was driven into the shop and torn down to just the frame sitting on pedestals. It was sandblasted . the welders would go over the entire frame looking for cracks or worn parts, such as the pictures above show. They have already replaced the rear cab mount cross member. Rear suspension was done then steering axle. While this was going on the cab and fenders ,hood etc was in the body shop being rebuilt, When time was right the cab would be re-installed and all the plumbing and electrical stuff was done. It was interesting to see the progress made each week. She remained a loyal mule right up till 2003 when Hayes Forest took us over They cut her up along with H90 H91. Although the "Hayes" script signs were long gone off her , I remember you putting on the "Caterpillar" yellow and black little signs on the hood skirts. I think Helgi Johnson might have been involved with them. I look at the tires and could just weep. If only!!!!!

 

[Vigilant]

How big a difference in fuel consumption was there between the direct and indirect versions of the 3408?

IDI never made any sense to me unless a natural engine was spec'd for some reason.