Very cool video of Lombard Steam crawlers logging

I thought this was a good video and thought others might be interested.
Lombard Steam Log haulers

Cool? Downright cold in all that snow. Thanks for sharing

Wow!

Now that's some power!

Looks like they were in the mountains, so somewhere they would have to do some down grade. Wonder how they controlled push out on the curves and runaway?

Nice to watch, but sure wouldn't want to be there!

Fascinating!

Oh, but if it had audio....

Dean

Someone would have to stay up all night and fire the boiler to keep it from freezing.
My Dad's first job when he was about 10 years old was hauling water for his uncle's steam engine on the uncle's saw mill. He would drive the team and wagon with the water tank out into the nearby lake until the water was up to the top of the wagon rack and then fill the tank. Could you imagine trying that today? The EPA would be there in an instant.

Re going down hills with sleighs with loads of logs, my Grandfather hauled many logs for logging companies with horses and sleighs. He said they used to sand the downhill slopes and the other thing they would do is wrap a logging chain around a sleigh runner before going downhill. On really steep hills they had a steam powered winch to assist the horses with the uphill pull and a winch with a brake to control the downhill ascent of the sleigh.

If anyone is ever up north in Canada there is good exhibit of early logging in Canada in Algonquin Park and there is a guide tour of an old logging camp and hauling trail.
My Great Grandfather would spend most of a winter in one of these logging camps while his wife and older children would look after the farm.

See Logging Trail link and scroll down the page for a short video.

I have also visit logging museums in Washington State where they harvested giant Douglas fir trees.
Logging Trail

hard to believe they could find enough traction to get all the sleds moving from a cold start.

Very nice video. Sure would hate to get that rig stuck. Will try to attach some pictures of a Lombard taken nine years ago in Maine. Notice that the tracks are quite different from most other crawlers.



Note that Lombard also made some gas engine powered tractors, and there is one always shown at the Rough and Tumble (Kinzers, PA) August show.

Slick rig. Those men that worked all winter in the bush logging were a tough crew. As I watched them loading logs at the landing, I couldn?t help but think of all the work men and horses had to do to get the logs to the logging road that the crawler could travel.

I remember my dad loading logs on to the the truck by hand from cribbing on a side hill. Here in the mountains you used to see that cribbing in many places along the roads and in the fields. All rotted away now. I also remember when he didn't have a forklift, all lumber moved by hand. He sawed grade hardwood and it was sold be the trailer load. All the lumber was graded then stacked on the trailer, by the end of the load you were tired and handing it up to the top of the load. It was all hands to help and a long day. Mom cooked a big lunch for everyone. I was sticker boy, collected all the stickers and stacked them in the 55 GMC pick up, they were then stacked inside dry and ready for new lumber.

They also have that Linn truck there. One of my dads friends had one and he also had a Knox????? Four wheel drive truck.He had to have all kinds of parts made for that thing but he got it running. What a spindly little four wheel machine it was.