CLASSIC FORESTRY

Motor tractors arrive in the forest – an American International 8-16 Junior powers an early wood-framed saw-bench in Britain during the 1920s.

DOWN IN THE FOREST,

SOMETHING STIRRED…

Stuart Gibbard explains how early mechanisation in the forestry industry saw horses replaced by steam before the arrival of motor tractors brought about an even greater revolution in timber haulage

Above: Unloading an early horse-drawn timber wagon in the vast forests of Nebraska. Animal power remained the traditional method of hauling logs on both sides of the Atlantic well into the 20th century.

managing close to 1m acres and had become the largest landowner in Britain.

The growing importance of the forestry industry led to more efficient working practices and a greater reliance on mechanisation. The felling and cutting operations had become less back-breaking work from the 1920s onwards following the arrival of engine-driven drag-saws and petrol-powered chainsaws.

A NEW WAY

plundered for to make posts and planks for the trench fortifications in France. Following this, the Forestry Commission was formed to expand and renew the forests, and build a strategic timber reserve. Established as a government department by the Forestry Act of 1919, the Commission became responsible for managing forests in England, Scotland and Wales. Its brief was to promote forestry, develop afforestation and oversee the production of timber. During the 1920s, it concentrated on acquiring large amounts of former agricultural land to begin planting new forests. By 1934, it was Britain’s population of working horses was decimated by the ‘Great War’. Many were acquisitioned by the British Army, which had an estimated 869,931 on active service by 1917. The animals, particularly in the transport columns, were vulnerable to attack and great casualties were inflicted. During the war, the British Army lost a total of 225,856 horses, and even more were sold off across Europe to farmers or to be slaughtered for meat at the end of the conflict. Less than 100,000 returned to Britain. Even so, taking the military sacrifices aside, the use of the horse as a draught animal in Britain was already in decline due to the dominance of stream and the arrival of the motor tractor – and this was as evident in the forest as it was on the farms.

“THE GROWING One of the first

IMPORTANCE OF THE steamers to be FORESTRY INDUSTRY LED developed for forestry TO MORE EFFICIENT WORKING PRACTICES AND A GREATER RELIANCE ON work was the oil-fired Super-Sentinel steam tractor. Introduced in 1923 by the Sentinel

MECHANISATION” Waggon Works, it had a vertical boiler, a

Prior to World War One, there was no organised forestry industry in the UK, and the operations were not particularly mechanised. Trees were cut down using axes or two-man crosscut saws – known as ‘misery whips’ in the USA because a full day constantly pulling on one of the saw’s two wooden handles could be a wretched occupation.

The felled trees were trimmed with billhooks or hatchets, or perhaps cut into smaller sections using bucking saws. The logs were then extracted from the forest by animal power – oxen, horses or mules. One horse with a simple harness and chain attached to the log could skid quarter-ton on the flat and up to one ton downhill.

Early logging arches and timber wagons, or drugs as they were known in certain areas, increased the payload that the animals could handle.

World War One severely depleted

Britain’s woodlands as the timber was

The arrival of steam – a Super-Sentinel steam tractor uses its capstan winch to load a pole wagon during trials in 1923.

“ONE OF THE FIRST STEAMERS TO BE DEVELOPED FOR FORESTRY WORK WAS THE OIL-FIRED SUPER-SENTINEL STEAM TRACTOR”

horizontal twin-cylinder high-pressure engine developing 75hp, and a rearmounted capstan winch. A half-track version, conceived by Roadless Traction of Hounslow, was also exported to Africa.

The ‘Super’ series of machines were superseded in the late 1920s by the Sentinel ‘DG’ range of steam wagons. A number of the ‘DG’ models were built as timber tractors with 200hp winches fitted in an enclosed compartment behind the cab. These improved machines had an entirely new design of duplex engine that gave greater power and better economy with a saving in weight achieved by the use of high-tensile alloy-steel and aluminium components. Similar steam timber tractors were also produced by Fodens Ltd from its Elworth Works in Sandbach. The Foden ‘D’ Type was a popular and capable machine, especially when fitted with winching equipment.

ADAPT AND OVERCOME

Steam boilers often powered the mills that processed the wood, and the steam tractors were popular with timber contractors for haulage, but had their limitations for forest extraction. There were problems with weight and a lack of manoeuvrability and traction, and sparks from the chimney and glowing embers from the firebox were

An International 10-20 industrial model converted into a timber tractor with a massive double-drum winch. The machine was operating deep in the Chiltern Forest during the 1930s. Above: Still at work in 1950, this Sentinel ‘DG’ timber tractor, No. 8756, was built in 1932. The machine was operated by a Shropshire contractor. Above: A Foden ‘D’ Type steam timber tractor dating from 1927. The machine, operated by a Northamptonshire contractor, was still in use in 1947.

Above: A Caterpillar Sixty ‘Logging Cruiser’ hauling timber out of the forest to the railhead at Hudson in Ontario, Canada. Introduced in 1924 as the best Sixty, the crawler remained in production until 1931.

not ideal in a forestry environment.

The vast timber operations in North America were quick to adopt crawler tractors for ‘snaking’ logs out of the forest. ‘Snaking’ was the term commonly used in America for hauling or skidding bunches of logs along the trails using animal or tractor power. Specialised tracked loghaulers, first steam- and later gasolinepowered, were developed in the USA in the early years of the 20th century. Eventually, most of the American crawler manufacturers, such as Holt (later Caterpillar), Allis-Chalmers and Cletrac, were offering timber tractors as part of their product line.

Back in the UK, wheeled motor tractors were being adapted for timber

extraction. The machines were light, manoeuvrable and affordable. During the depression that befell British agriculture and industry during the late 1920s and early 30s, the tractor manufacturers looked to the burgeoning forestry industry as an outlet for its products. The tractors, usually converted industrial models, were offered with a variety of equipment including traction aids, winches, sprags, anchors and guards. The most popular makes were Fordson and International Harvester. More specialised machines included Latil 4x4 forestry tractors imported from France.

SEASONED VETERANS ARRIVE

World War Two put huge demands on Britain’s forests to produce enough timber for the war effort, particularly pit props for the coal industry. Large areas of mature woodland, specifically in the New Forest and the Forest of Dean, were cleared, but it wasn’t all felling. More than 100,000 acres were planted and another 130,000 acres acquired for forestry during the conflict. Those involved in the forestry industry during the war, including the ‘Lumber Jills’ of the Women’s Timber Corps, a division of the Women’s Land Army, used a variety of specialised equipment. Bulldozers were pressed into service for tree felling and land clearance, while much of the hauling and extraction was done by the ubiquitous Fordson tractors fitted with winches and some equipped with Roadless half-tracks.

To help with the effort on the forestry front, military trucks and 4x4 vehicles were also loaned from various branches of the armed services. After the war, many of the demobbed military trucks coming onto the market were purchased by the timber trade, working alongside more specialised machines such as Unipower forestry tractors and the French Latils, which remained popular into the 1950s. The post-war years saw a rapid expansion in the demand for timber, and dramatic surges in production and output with timber sales topping the £2m mark by the 1950s. With new levels of investment in the industry, and greater research into forestry establishment techniques, which revealed that major advantages could be gained from cultivations and drainage, there was greater emphasis on mechanisation.

For a time, converted agricultural tractors remained the mainstay of the industry as an economical and practical method of extracting logs from the forest. However, times were changing and the industry was clamouring for the development of more sophisticated forestry equipment, heralding the arrival of specialised timber skidders and forwarders – but that’s another story.

Many ex-military vehicles were pressed into service for forestry work during and after the Second World War. This RAF Crossley ‘Q’ Type truck was converted into an articulated unit for timber haulage.

“DURING THE DEPRESSION THAT BEFELL BRITISH AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY DURING THE LATE 1920S AND EARLY 30S, THE TRACTOR MANUFACTURERS LOOKED TO THE BURGEONING FORESTRY INDUSTRY AS AN OUTLET FOR ITS PRODUCTS”

A Marshall Model ‘M’ fitted with a heavy-duty winch and driver’s canopy on demonstration in the forest hooked up to a timber-wagon. The tractor was in production from 1938 to 1945.