Steam Powered The Earliest Tracked Log Haulers

Steam Powered The Earliest Tracked Log Haulers TRACTORS Antiques While the Lombard Log Hauler was not the first tracked machine it became the most prominent during the early 20th century The story goes that a chance meeting in 1899 between E J Lawrence president of one of the largest lumber companies in Maine and Alvin Lombard a talented American inventor prompted the creation of the first steam-driven tracked log hauler On Thanksgiving Day in 1900 Lombard’s “Logging-Engine” affectionately dubbed “Mary Anne” steamed to life She weighed in at 15 tons and featured a horizontal fire tube locomotive-style boiler with a 400-gal water saddle tank Two horizontal cylinders rated at 100 hp drove connecting rods reaching back to a flywheel and crankshaft running a compensator gear acting as a differential in a car Jack shafts on each side propelled chain drive sprockets at the rear of the crawler bed The track system supported nearly 14 tons of the machine’s weight and extended from the lower surface of one of the driving wheels to the other Two rows of rollers linked together to form a chain making an endless belt around the two wheels Mary Anne sported a crude wooden cab at the rear and steerable skis in the front When running at 3 to 400 rpm’s she could produce 50 to 100 hp The top speed was 5 mph and 15 heavy sleds carrying 300 tons of logs could be pulled These earliest steam log haulers featured a four-person crew including an engineer fireman steersman and striker The engineer was responsible for the speed throttle forward and reverse quadrants and amount of steam emitted to the cylinders “If they needed heavy pulling they moved it all the way down so the steam was emitted for the full length of the piston stroke When the lever was pulled back it reversed the valves and ran in reverse ” says Terry Harper Maine Forest and Logging Museum volunteer and Lombard expert The fireman fed the wood-stoked fire and monitored the water level in the boiler The striker rode the logs and oversaw the hitching and unhitching of the trailing train of sleds The steersman had the toughest job of all as he perched near the front attempting to direct the skis by hanging onto a largely unresponsive heavy iron steering wheel Adding intrigue Mary Anne had no braking system although the engineer could work the reverser to some effect To improve braking crews would spread straw on the hillsides to increase friction and help slow the hauler The intent was to create enough friction to essentially pull the sleds down the hill rather than having their weight push the hauler This strategy wasn’t always successful and provided some wild rides and massive crashes “Steering was very low geared so the steersman needed to turn the wheel a lot to get the skis to move a little ” Harper says “The popular saying was ‘steer often and steer early ’” Since the crew couldn’t see or hear each other directly they used a series of whistle signals and bell ropes to convey stop forward or reverse commands Harper explains the early steam log haulers were made specifically for winter use In Maine the climate normally allowed a 90-day hauling season before the ice roads broke up in spring thaws so most of the log cutting was completed during the summer In the winter the log haulers ran 24 hours a day moving logs down the mountains to the streams or rivers that floated them to the mills Approximately 82 steam log haulers were built with the last one produced in 1917 The Maine Forest and Logging Museum is home to two of the three earliest operating Lombards known to exist and welcomes everyone to visit their exhibits Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Terry Harper Maine Forest and Logging Museum 262 Government Road Bradley Maine 04411 ph 207-974-6278; www maineforestandloggingmuseum org

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