Westlake Publishing Forums

Nice wagon. Where's the model?
Absolutely beautiful.

How come you never have a horse/team?

MJinTN

Scratchbuilt 12th scale Light Farm Truck that converts to a Log Waggon

Made from the drawing published in "The Coach and Motor Builder, Dec 1918".

This vehicle was built as a dual purpose vehicle, as it could be converted into a Log Waggon, by removing the body from the under-carriage.
The body is only held in place by 4 bolts at the front and rear bolsters, then when they are removed and the body lifted away from the under-carriage, it then becomes a Log Waggon.

Normal construction methods used, so nothing special other than the body being made removable.

That's a really lovely little model with plenty of charm. I like it!

Bernhard

Thanks very much for that link, Rick. Actually, I haven't seen the video yet; it seems to be fairly new as well. Very interesting, especially as it also describes the whole context surrounding the machines.

Bernhard

The metal flashing is spot-on. Nice work Volker.

QuoteIntroduced in the 1920's the arch with Athey tracked wheels and fair-lead system literally took over the log yarding duties on the West Coast in the Pine, Fir and Redwood forests.

There was also an export market for these arches – here's one working in the Pureora Forest in New Zealand in 1961.

That is a wonderful and very unusual model. Most satisfactory. -- Russ

The first ten seconds of the video answers the question, "How did the arch work?" -- Russ

Now we come to the tracked arch, the subject of this build. Introduced in the 1920's the arch with Athey tracked wheels and fair-lead system literally took over the log yarding duties on the West Coast in the Pine, Fir and Redwood forests.


The final evolution of the tracked fairlead logging arch on the 1930's.

Using these tracked arches became, in a few years, a concern to the government Forest Service because of the major "stand damage" they caused while yarding in multiple logs at a time, that dragging from several directions at once would destroy younger and smaller trees, the future forest.

The only further development of these arches was the introduction of the rubber tired fair-lead arch that was gentler on the forest floor. Harvesting then moved to the multitask log handling equipment that we see in use today. Understand that the equipment in use today would be totally useless in an "old growth" forest because of the huge size of the trees.


The final step the rubber tired arch.

Now finally, the subject of our build. Photographed and measured at Collier State Park Logging Museum.

The extra metal welded on above the fairleads is something added in later years for whatever reason and was not part of the original machine.

Here is a short video of the tracked arch in operation and if you watch closely you can see why they were so destructive to the stand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWYDFr0Djhk


A further note or two.

Of all the wheeled and tracked log moving systems used through the years the Forest Service and the logging industry agree that the Big Wheels pulled by horse teams was the least intrusive and damaging method of yarding logs in the forest. But they also agree that it was not an economical system when compared to the more modern machines available.

Again I want to stress that this brief history is just that, a very brief and far from comprehensive look at the use of wheels to move logs in the forest.

Finally on to the build.

So at last I have finished a model that I started about 4 years ago. Somewhere here is the original description /
But building Australian Heritage on a scale of 1/35 to 1/32.
The Akland coal loader, Queensland, Australia,
Now a very handysize 160 mm by 160 mm and 260 mm high,
It breaks down into 3 pieces
Cheers