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Oregon & Northwestern Railroad Log Loading Through the Years |
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One of the big challenges faced by logging concerns is lifting logs onto log flats at the landings. This chore was handled in the early years of Edward Hines operations by McGiffert loaders, which sat on the ties straddling the tracks. Empty log cars would then be pulled underneath the loader, and the McGiffert used a boom to lift the logs and place them on the cars. In the later years of the logging railroad the company used a couple of diesel powered cranes mounted on giant skids that would actually pull themselves from car to car, loading each car as they went. This type of loader was often referred to as the slide-back loader. Below are pictures of the various types of loaders in use in the woods. The following photographs are from the Harney County Historical Society collection and are courtesy of Martin Morisette. |
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An early landing, with a McGiffert loader to the right. |
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The business end of a McGiffert loader. |
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One of Hines' Diesel-powered McGifferts at work. One of the Shays is pulling the log cars underneath the loader. |
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Tractor and logging arch sets were used to skid the logs to the landing. |
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An early model of the slide back loader that skidded itself from car top to car top. |
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A closer view of one of the slide-back loaders at work. |
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One more shot of a slide-back loader, a Lorain shovel mounted on skids, at work at a landing. |
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