This is the first of three clips . Of the Campinspecter getting paid to have FUN! The load being loaded will be transferred onto a railway car for the second half of its trip to tide water . Because this is a rail-car load the maximum length of any log or total length of the load can not exceed 44 feet . The length of the rail-car .The logging railway has many sharper than normal corners so if any of the logs stick out to far and interlock with a log on another car it will cause a derailment .The logging railway steel is also very light 100 lb rail or yard steel . Maximum load weight was 50 tons which I could usually judge by eye to within plus or minus by about 2 tons . The heavier logs had to be at the bottom of the load so as not to make the load top heavy,on the light rail bed this would get car rocking and lead to it the jumping off the tracks . I also did what was called splicing the loads , that means to put the shorter logs end to end in the middle of the load . It was best to put the heavier big short logs at the front of the load and the smaller chunks at the back , if the smaller lighter logs were put at the front and later you tried to slide a bigger heavier log ahead on top of the lighter the smaller logs ,the smaller logs would slide ahead at the same time ,not good . It was a fun job but in the initial years challenging to learn . The completion of the load will be in part 2. Enjoy!
This one was all firewood! These were the fun loads. True off highway and it was all you could pile on. This one was around 105 tons.
Did you want the loader or the wood or BOTH! The dinosaurs like me that could run these have become extinct so the loaders can be had for next to nothing in relative terms.
Great video, Allan! I would LOVE to have worked at a logging operation like that...... You run that machine like it's an extension of your body.....
Between loader operators and truck drivers there were always lots of hijinks. Two of my favorites; the first one was when early in the load to watch the driver's mirror so just as the driver put the coffee cup to his mouth, if you timed things just perfect, was to whack the top of the stake and send his coffee cup flying with predictable results. The second; if the ditch was water or mud filled was to drop just the end of the log into the ditch and spray water in through the driver's open window. (they never learned)! For the few years that I drove there was a silent law that if none of these jokes were played on me ,I would occasionally spell the operator of by putting on load myself . The only time I would see a woods foreman at the side was if I asked for one .
