May 2018 | $7.20
ISSN 1176-0397
t a c r e g i Big T a s a e l nimb t a o G n i Mounta
World’s forest engineers descend on NZ
Full steam ahead! Puffing haulers
iron test
t a c r e g i T o t n i s n r tu n i a t n u o m a t a o g Story & Photos: John Ellegard
I’ve seen some strange sights in the forest but few of them compare to an outsized Tigercat forwarder behaving like a spritely mountain goat on a steep slope.
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EST 1909 EST 1909 BANNER 1 THE SUPPLIER TO THE NEW ZEALAND HEAVY NEW INDUSTRY EALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY THE SUPPLIER TO ZEALA SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEA 22 NZ LOGGER | May 2018
EST 1909
THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY
Above: The Tigercat 1085C at work on a steep slope in Southland blue gum.
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EST 1909 EST 1909 EST 1909 BANNER 1 THE SUPPLIER TO NEW WWW SHAWS OTHE NZ ZEALAND 0SUPPLIER 00 HEAVY SHAWSINDUSTRY EALAND INDUSTRY W ZEALANDHEAVY HEAVY INDUSTRY TO NEW ZEA May 2018 | NZ LOGGER 23
EST 1909
THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY
breaking out
This steam-driven traction engine, adapted for use as a hauler, is seen here in Mangapehi, in the King Country, in 1903.
Story: Trevor Coker Photos: Abundant Past Ltd
How steam haulers opened up the bush T
ODAY WE TAKE MECHANISATION FOR GRANTED IN forestry, but it wasn’t always like that. Once New Zealand’s forests started to be exploited for their timber pioneer loggers soon came up against a problem that seemed insurmountable – how to move a log weighing several tonnes to where it could be transported to a mill for sawing into timber. Early efforts used bullocks, driving dams and waterways. In many cases the best timber was hard to access due to steep terrain, deep gorges and other areas where bullocks could not be used, and logs could not be moved into waterways to be held behind dams and flushed downstream by water when the dam was tripped. Dams were often used to transport Kauri logs, which float unlike some native timber.
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The first mechanical steps Mechanical haulage began with a ‘whim’ – not the sort of whim you might be thinking of, as the harvesting-type of whim was a vertical drum set in a stout timber frame in the ground. The whim was made entirely from wood strengthened with steel bands and held together by a few bolts. Usually the barrel taken from a suitable round tree trunk was used as the drum. A typical barrel would be made from timber that measured six feet long by four feet wide. Bars were set in the drum and harnessed to horses or bullocks, which walked in a circle to turn the drum and wind in the rope which was attached to the log, much like a capstan pulling up an anchor on a ship. Horses soon became used to this work and learned to step over the rope each time as they wound in the whim. The use of the
whim in the New Zealand bush was pioneered by the Bohemian settlers of Puhoi. They were used in the Warkworth Kauri bush from 1900 onwards. The arrival of steam power Early attempts were made to harness the useful power of steam to move logs. These early winches were soon developed in into a highly efficient machine that could, in final form, be considered the ‘grandfather’ of present day Madills and other makes of yarder. In America in 1881, John Dolbeer, a founding partner of the Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Company in Eureka, California, invented a steam-powered winch or hauler called a steam donkey. All the basic parts found in later generation steam haulers were present in this pioneer machine with one exception. Gypsy heads (a horizontally mounted spool) were placed on the ends of the main driven shaft and the hauling medium was 150 feet of 4½ inch manila rope. To pull a log, several turns of the rope was wrapped around the gypsy head. Although wire rope had been invented 50 years before, it was not at a sufficient stage of development to be used on winch drums. Modern wire rope was invented by a German engineer, Wilhelm Albert, between 1831 and 1834 and was originally used in the mining industry in the Harz Mountains in north Germany. In America, wire rope was first manufactured by John A Roebling, who designed the famous Brooklyn Bridge, the first suspension bridge. However, this early rope was made from wrought iron, not steel as now. Early steam haulers Early steam haulers consisted of three main units; a boiler, either vertical or horizontal; a one- or two-cylinder steam engine;
and a winch drum driven by gears. Later models had as many as three drums, which all worked different diameters of wire rope and had various functions. For example, there was a main hauling rope and a lighter rope (straw line) to pull the main rope back out around the hauling circuit once logs had been pulled in to the landing – both are now common on modern haulers/yarders. The first steam haulers in New Zealand The earliest record documenting the use of steam haulers in New Zealand is dated August 24, 1885. This, according to the Marine Department Register of Boiler Inspections, refers to the inspection of the boiler fitted to a log hauler belonging to the Kare Kare Sawmilling Company of Piha. However, there might have been some working in the bush earlier, as the Inspection of Machinery Act 1882 amended the 1874 Act to include the compulsory annual inspections of boilers for the first time, so there may well have been log haulers operating prior to 1885. The boiler used in the Kare Kare hauler was made by Fraser and Innies of Auckland in 1870. In later years, this firm was renamed Geo. Fraser and Sons, which went on to make many steam haulers for the industry. Some haulers were even adapted from steamdriven traction engines. Steam powered haulers continued to be used for a period of 84 years in the New Zealand bush, with the last one dousing its fires and being retired in 1969. Steam-powered machinery was well understood throughout this period in the forestry industry, as everything from the logging tramway to the sawmill was run by steam and there was always someone in the workforce who could make the often-needed
Rex Smith’s Diamond T, with a complete hauler, boiler and winch at Ruamata, in the Bay of Plenty, circa 1937/1938.
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