Vancouver Island, BC. Logging at its Best!

[Murk100]

TD-25 backspar apx. 1978 CZ Nanaimo Lks. we used these before someone came up with the idea of using excavators...

 

[trakloader]

TD-25 backspar apx. 1978 CZ Nanaimo Lks. we used these before someone came up with the idea of using excavators...

Neat, I remember one of those being parked in the yard when I was a kid! It was on a D8H. Dad says they used it with the tower, too, in a couple of settings. I don't know what happened to the cat, but the pipe was still sitting in the boneyard a couple of years ago.

 

[Murk100]

The were quite the rig !!! not to good off the rd, a lot of weight hanging off the blade. In long yarding we us to take the winch line out, throw the bite around a stump and back too the top off the pipe(guyline), a bit off a pain but it kept her on the rd.
I remember leaving my lunch bucket on the track moving this thing and their it was completely crunched. $100 thermos wallet keys food....

 

[Iron Art]

A page or two back there were some pics of some old railroad Iron. Heres the web site for the Tacoma WA. Point Defiance park, Camp 6 display.
http://www.camp-6-museum.org/c6.html Enjoy, Fred

 

[Murk100]

A page or two back there were some pics of some old railroad Iron. Heres the web site for the Tacoma WA. Point Defiance park, Camp 6 display.
http://www.camp-6-museum.org/c6.html Enjoy, Fred

Thanks Freds!! I think that the one.

 

[Big Iron]

you guys might want to check out this web site from Vannatta bros logging. http://www.vannattabros.com/histlog.html
lots of OR WA logging history

 

[spitzair]

Well I went back to the Manitowoc yesterday and lo and behold it had moved! So I shot a few more pictures. Today I see it's working so I'll see if I can't find some time to go over and take a few more pictures of it in action! Until then here are the pictures I took yesterday!

 

[trakloader]

Still more to come...

I believe the yellow 5675 is Thompson Logging's machine, later M&B L-18, the same rusted out looking one in some of my pics.

 

[Murk100]

I saw a few pics of the Madill 6280 in here somewhere. I'm not positive on this! but this is how I think it played out. The 6280 was traded in on a new 124 from a company in Chetwynd BC here they are. I believe Ted Leroy Truckings 6280 went swimming with the Wales at Robson Bite allthough he may have had more than one 6280:my2c

 

[Coleman396]

Fat trucks galore!.

Thanks to all that have been posting all those great pics of the "Fat Trucks" I love the picture of Steve in the IPL H-17.
Here I am hauling ****** little Pine Beetle killed wood with a lousy little highway logger! Western Star at that.
Kind of makes me home sick to see all the old Saunders trucks! Those were the days! Gone but not forgotten.

 

[Hayesno1]

Howdy again.
Nice to get some more info on those Macks although it varies somewhat with time and place it seems. I had coffee with Tom Turner yesterday and we talked a bit about them too. He remembered you visiting he claimed.
We both think that only 26 were built and while originally 12 went to M&B Menzies they later got another one so had 13. Husby had six when I worked for him in 1986. Irving Olson had two, Thompson had one and Tom wasn't sure who had the others. He rebuilt three of them for MB at his place when they were changing the cabs on them. I remember Tom and MB Master Mechanic Ron Gunn going roundy-round on those things too. MB Menzies had two or three different types of cabs built on them over the years as I recall. One CL-350 fell off the road somewhere over near Zeballos and remains there to this day Tom recalled and another was wrecked elsewhere. He thought the one Butch Carrol has is an old MB truck but wasn't sure.
I should tell you that Tom and I go back nearly 48 years now as we met in 1962. His brother Len (RIP) used to date one of my sisters way back when.
Anyway, while I did work a number of different places I never thought to take pics of them and the machines I bought parts for so it's really a treat to see all the neat ones you guys post here.
I'm not an avid fan of heavy equipment in the same way some of you obviously are but I always enjoyed watching them work and had lots of respect for the men who operated them too.
Some guys just seemed to have a natural talent and I remember a guy named Mel Schimenoski who went from being a Greaser in the shop at Gold River to operating the new Skagit SST grapple yarder (Side 6) when it arrived in 1968. It was different from the old towers with their levers and frictions and all that and Mel just had the right feel for it. Later, when we bought a Washington Skylok tension yarder which was operated totally in a different manner than the old friction machines, the rep who came with the machine told us that it was easier to train a green guy to run that machine than to take an old operator and convert him. The old operators kept looking for pedals and frictions that weren't there he said.
Anyway, I wish I'd paid more attention to some of the machines I saw but the nature of the job of Warehouseman means you learn and/or know a little bit about a lot of different things rather than being an expert in any one thing.....for the most part.
I can still recite most of the part numbers for a lot of truck parts off the top of my head though so it did help to have a decent memory and a good head for numbers I guess.
Nowadays my wife claims I forget everything.
Dunno why that is though. LOL

Thanks again for your pics and vids.
I really dig them.

Take care.

Thanks for your reply and vids. Yes there are a bit of confusion re. numbers of how many CL350 were built. They were all built at Oakville Plant, Ontario, Canada and according to Mack records 27 were made. I did not know about the 13th Mack sold to M&B. Menzies Bay changed the design of the cabs and fenders, replacing the original doors with Pacific (International) ones. They also separated the fenders and hood from the cab, mounting them directly to the frame. Eventually quite a few got new Challenger cab or Pacific cab. Husby got their trucks in 1978 and 1979. I know that Heinz and Mike Portmann, Campbell River got 2 CL350 ST from new. They went for operation in Loughborougt Inlet but that is all I know about those 2. Do you know anything about the Portmanns? Were their trucks green with yellow stripes? 1st Pic shows Thompsons Mack now Ben West truck(poor pic as truck was parked behind fence on Barge Road, N. of CR). 2nd. pic shows Mack with rebuilt cab and 3rd. pic shows a Mack with a Pacific cab. By the way are Clyak owned by Irving Olson? I am amazed that Tom remembers me. I only met him once (2005) - we had a quick chat as he was busy at the time. But he let me see his office. What an office with all those great pictures and stuff. I could have stayed there for several days. I've heard he shut down last year. I hope he saved all the stuff. Great guy - say Hi to him from me. I actually took a picture(Y2000) from his shop area, where you can see a M&B CL350 cab(original cab). That's all for now. Spring has arrived here in Denmark. Cheers and take care.

 

[Dave Hadden]

Hello Denmark,

Nice country. My wife was born there.

Anyway, to answer a couple of your questions:

I didn't know the Portmanns myself but knew of them. Heinz is now in Calgary I think but Mike (son) has a business or two around here still. Lots of Swiss money with those guys when they arrived here.
They bought out an outfit called R&N Logging which is how they came to get two Macks, along with a P-16. Now those trucks are owned by Bendickson Logging and they were originally yellow with green hoods, so you may have seen them.
Clyak was owned by Don Furnseth and Dan Blackburn who got Olsons old trucks somewhere along the line.
The Olson family owned several different companies over the years including a fishing lodge up the coast. Irvings son Tom is known as "Downtown Tommy" to many guys around here. He's got somewhat of a reputation for some dodgy schemes.......best not say any more on that topic though. LOL
Had another chat with Tom Turner today which is how I got some more info.
There may well have been 27 Mack CL-350's built too, although we've always thought there were only 26. Tom said he'd call the engineer who designed them except he's dead now, so that won't work.
If you have Tom's e-mail addy you could ask him any other questions you have as he's infinitely more knowledgeable about who had what and when and where than I am.
Alltrucks@telus.net should get you in touch with him.
He's not the most computer literate guy in the world but should be able to respond ok.

Hope this helps a bit.
In the meantime, enjoy Spring in Denmark.
Howling storm here today, not Springlike at all.

Take care.

 

[DBDLS]

I saw a few pics of the Madill 6280 in here somewhere. I'm not positive on this! but this is how I think it played out. The 6280 was traded in on a new 124 from a company in Chetwynd BC here they are. I believe Ted Leroy Truckings 6280 went swimming with the Wales at Robson Bite allthough he may have had more than one 6280:my2c

Murk100: Just thought you'd like to know that I had the chance to meet the brothers that owned the 124 in the picture. Some of the nicest people I've had the chance to meet. They loved that machine and I think it broke their hearts when the pine beetle forced them to put it in the auction. As far as I know they still own a Madill 120 and it is the last grapple yarder left in the northern interior. Keep those photos coming. I'm crazy for grapple yarders and line loaders. Too bad it took me so long to figure that out.

 

[tracksntreadslo]

"Logging at its best" Well mabey not at the moment ..On the upside the equipment is available to take photos ...these shots were taken near Campbell River ..Eight grapple yarders all within about a mile of each other.

 

[trakloader]

"Logging at its best" Well mabey not at the moment ..On the upside the equipment is available to take photos ...these shots were taken near Campbell River ..Eight grapple yarders all within about a mile of each other.

Gee, looks like nice equipment, too, certainly better than E&A's current fleet. Wonder if the owners would like to give them to a needy logger....

 

[jm89]

This is one of my favorit threads on the internet, Thanks for the awesome pics.

 

[grapple1]

"Logging at its best" Well mabey not at the moment ..On the upside the equipment is available to take photos ...these shots were taken near Campbell River ..Eight grapple yarders all within about a mile of each other.

no doubt there is a tonne of yarding power sitting in that one city block! the bulk of it is made up of a combinatin of Greg Main's gear (which apparently is all available for rent) and teh receiver selling off Kwatna Timbers assets. There are a few other random pieces up there that belong to others

 

[southview]

I saw a few pics of the Madill 6280 in here somewhere. I'm not positive on this! but this is how I think it played out. The 6280 was traded in on a new 124 from a company in Chetwynd BC here they are. I believe Ted Leroy Truckings 6280 went swimming with the Wales at Robson Bite allthough he may have had more than one 6280:my2c

This one?

 

[Murk100]

This one?

Great photos!! That answers that no 6280 swimming a 124 thanks!

 

[spitzair]

This one?

Just curious, how did that happen???