Thunderbird Yarders, Loaders, and Etc from the Murray's in Eugene Oregon

[Roadswitcher]

TY 90 Track Mounts

Were there any TY-90 track mounts?

No. I have conflicting and incomplete records but the breakdown is roughly two T/Bird SP's, three Wash 208's, one Wash 158, eighteen Skajit SP's and eleven Skajit trailers - thirty five in total. Have no info on Y9055 or Y9068.

In time hope to rectify (#no's with pics where possible please everyone)

 

[Roadswitcher]

Post 616

PFS, on the subject of # no's are you are to get for the 255 and 6170 - beg and grovel if you have to.

 

[Rusty Grapple]

No. I have conflicting and incomplete records but the breakdown is roughly two T/Bird SP's, three Wash 208's, one Wash 158, eighteen Skajit SP's and eleven Skajit trailers - thirty five in total. Have no info on Y9055 or Y9068.

I have all the build lists, serial numbers, specs, (including many blueprints) etc from the Ross Corporation archives in my personal collection- right down to every grapple and carriage they built. The miserable part of that is that it's all in paper form (several big, big binders) and scanning the volumes is quite literally a boring nightmare... Eventually I will get it done and then the fellows can convert it to spreadsheets like they've done with the other records for easy searching.

There were originally really 3 (late 1970's- era) machines that formed the foundation of Ross's 'Thunderbird Yarder Line':

1. The TMY-45 mobile/mini yarder, built by Chapman Industries in several different configurations
2. The PSY-200 swing-yarder, built by Pierce in Portland, Oregon in several different configurations
3. The PTY-400 slackline yarder with 110' crawler-mounted telescoping tower, built by Pierce in Portland, Oregon. All came to Alaska.

The PTY-400 was a monster machine (hoist/drumset larger than a Skagit 739 winchset) and mounted on a tower/carrier with extended Caterpillar 245 hyd track frames. As everyone knows drum sizes/capacities on the Thunderbird TY-90 are closer to the Skagit BU-737 slackline winchset than anything else...

Later, in the mid-1980's, when Ross built thier 2 TT-90 sp towers, the tower/fairlead design was a similar to the PTY-400.

Many people dont realize that the Thunderbird TY-90 was sold as a hoist-only and with no carrier or tower. Skagit T-100 was the most common choice as a mounting, BUT several T-90 and T-110 applications were used as well. The Thunderbird TT-90 was a more expensive tower/carrier option, but ony 2 were ever built and sold.

Here are some old (poor scans) advertising pics from 1989 when TY-90 Y-9040 was still on it's Berger 110' Self-Propelled tower/carrier.
Ober Logging of Carson, Washington ordered this setup, as they already had several other Berger yowers and liked the Berger option best.
I have a batch of my own pictures of this machine but they are at home in Washington and I am in Alaska right now as I live here much of the year.

Roadswitcher: To answer your question regarding the missing Serial Numbers (9055 and 9068), these numbers were used on the 2 Thunderbird TT-90 tower/carrier sets:

Tower/Carrier Serial Number T-9055 (a TT-90 SP) was sold new to Hopkes Logging and had Y-9051 hoist mounted on it
Tower/Carrier Serial Number T-9068 (a TT-90 SP) was sold new to Papac Logging and had Y-9050 hoist mounted on it.

Also: Y-9040 was removed from the Berger and installed on a Skagit T-100 SP for Nygaard in 1993.

I have found that there is a constant stream of TY-90 pics/info on Facebook, as many are still working daily around the PNW.

I sure hope this helps!

 

[Rusty Grapple]

Pierce PTY-400 Tower Yarder

Built by Pierce and sold/supported by Ross Equipment, the PTY-400 was the big boy!
The 8-guyline, 110' tower and carrier with Caterpillar 245 crawlers is clearly visible.
The machine winchset was designed like a smaller version of a Skagit BU-199.

The PTY-400's were sold to Alaska Pulp Company at Sitka and Ketchikan Pulp Company at Ketchikan.

The KPC machine still exists (in pieces) and I'm working on aquiring a few of those pieces for my ever-growing collection.

Shared pictures of the machine, my own picture of the ID Tag-

Sadly, I once had the Owner's, Parts, and Service Manuals for these machines but due to a communication breakdown they were thrown away during a 'cleaning out the closet' incident at the Madill Kalama facility in 2004. I should have taken them home....

Not a 'Thunderbird' by name, but certainly an ancestor of the great Thunderbird line that would later develop.
If this doesn't fit in the TB thread, I'm not sure where it would fit better- BUT like everyone else here I am open to better ideas.

 

[furpo]

Bit more TY90 info

The other Sinton TY90 is infact Y9042 and I have some photos to follow. Just got to get onto the Olsen machine.

 

[Roadswitcher]

Post 624

Thanks CL for the TY 90 feedback. Interesting take of what Ross did re those two carriers, # no's, 9055 and 9068. I was beginning to think they were non builds. Anyhow that reduces the hoist numbers by two, back to thirty three. I still have a few minor detail gaps/confirmations for 44,45,52,63,64 and 67 to run by when you get settled up 'North to Alaska' (ah, what a great song by Johny Horton back in the 50's) Sorry, I digress - its a side effect of becoming less young. Anyhow as I've said before, I'm embarrassed now by the fact that I had all this kind of info at my fingertips ten years ago..............hmmm.

Regarding the Pierce builds - Observing from afar it appears they were certainly capable of knocking up a solid yarder. One wonders if they would have been tempted to take up full production in their own right when Berger, Skajit and Washington were going through the hoop - they certainly would have had the inside running. In hindsight, maybe they knew what they were doing. It also begs the question for discussion, would have Ross Corp, if left as it was, survived recent times. Personally, I think they would have as they were diverserfying into the trash handling area. Purely speculation now.

 

[Roadswitcher]

Bit more TY90 info

The other Sinton TY90 is infact Y9042 and I have some photos to follow. Just got to get onto the Olsen machine.

Any luck on that 'mystery' 90

 

[boardbysled]

Speaking of TY 90's, here is Neilsen Brothers Logging's (Bellingham, WA) TY90 in the back ground behind an old steam donkey.

 

[boardbysled]

More of the steam donkey.

 

[furpo]

Any luck on that 'mystery' 90

Ive asked around. Apparently one of the Rosewarne brothers has or had one.

 

[Roadswitcher]

Ive asked around. Apparently one of the Rosewarne brothers has or had one.

I was thinking Rosewarne too - where are our North Auckland contributers when you need them.

 

[JeremyM70]

Nice! A little old a little new, well new relatively speaking.

 

[HCF]

Here's a TSY 255 belongs to Wally Plikat. Only one ever with a high & wide UC.

On this setting they were out about 1000 feet. Had a cat for a tail stump and one for a guy stump. Looked like it was a green up unit with regen surrounding it.

 

[TorkelH]

Tsy-6140slr

Does anyone have some good measurements of TSY-6140 (specially width)? Or a user manual?

 

[loggout4realz]

The loggers that cut the trees down at whareata forest should feel ashamed of themselves as they are not the rightful owners of the land or forest. Your bill should be in the mail soon haha :tong

 

[kiwi450x]

Spam.... ^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Kiwi Logger]

The loggers that cut the trees down at whareata forest should feel ashamed of themselves as they are not the rightful owners of the land or forest. Your bill should be in the mail soon haha :tong

You are fairly missinformed as we harvest alot of timber in the Wharerata ( correct spelling) Forest on a daily basis for the forest owners and employ 23 good local loggers to do so.

 

[Scott S]

You are fairly missinformed as we harvest alot of timber in the Wharerata ( correct spelling) Forest on a daily basis for the forest owners and employ 23 good local loggers to do so.

Kiwi sorry you have the eco loons down under, need any more? We have plenty to spare.

 

[loggers son]

The loggers that cut the trees down at whareata forest should feel ashamed of themselves as they are not the rightful owners of the land or forest. Your bill should be in the mail soon haha :tong

his first post is to bag out people and a situation he knows very little about.......well done that man, shows just how low the level of the gene pool has sunk

 

[furpo]

Na we dont really have a problem over here with the greens as our timber comes from plantation forests. While some bag the hoops we jump through with the authorities generally it all works well.

I read recently Wharerata Forest is part of a Treaty Negotiation. Im guessing they are part of that and have no idea how contracting works.