Post by Muleskinner on Dec 30, 2011 19:21:43 GMT -8
Since I made the posting of Mr. Dolbeer and his first steam donkey, I decided to post the Willamette model which I built of a unit at the North Bend, Oregon Museum. The difference between the dolbeer and mine is the dolbeer is a horizontal capstan model and my model is a horizontal spool model which came later. These machine did not completely make horses and mules obsolete in the woods as they still required a horse to run out the line to a turn so the choker setters then could attach it to a log for the donkey to line in. The horse or mule and muleskinner would follow the log back in and then run it out to another turn. Slow but still easier to maintain than two or three teams of Horses, Mules or oxen which required the extra expense of feeding.. Whereas the steam Donkey only required the feeding of wood which all around and cost nothing. They also cut down on the scrap wood laying around the site area. What they didn't use the Lokies (Shay, Climax and others) used to fire their boilers for the long train hauls to the dump point.
Everything on this Model is scratch built of wood, Plastic and brass, except the Boiler which is a Transformer from the AMT Lowboy as well as the spool that the hay wire is on. The Haywire is made of surveying cord, stained to represent well used Haywire.
The model is heavily weathered right down to the Cork boot (caulks to the novice) scraps and holes in the wood sledding. One thing I might add here is these machines were not moved by animal teams when it came to moving along to another site. They simply played out all the haywire as far as they could get it and then started reeling it back pulling the donkey forward with it. They crew would keep doing this until the unit was in the next area. It could pull it self uphill and slack line itself down hill with the help of a few set blocks and it could ford small to medium depth creeks or shallow rivers if need be, just by running the line to the other side and then laying out a up river Tag line on the side it was starting from, and then pulling the donkey onto a raft of logs to float it, thus forming a small ferry system. Crude but effective.
Everything on this Model is scratch built of wood, Plastic and brass, except the Boiler which is a Transformer from the AMT Lowboy as well as the spool that the hay wire is on. The Haywire is made of surveying cord, stained to represent well used Haywire.
The model is heavily weathered right down to the Cork boot (caulks to the novice) scraps and holes in the wood sledding. One thing I might add here is these machines were not moved by animal teams when it came to moving along to another site. They simply played out all the haywire as far as they could get it and then started reeling it back pulling the donkey forward with it. They crew would keep doing this until the unit was in the next area. It could pull it self uphill and slack line itself down hill with the help of a few set blocks and it could ford small to medium depth creeks or shallow rivers if need be, just by running the line to the other side and then laying out a up river Tag line on the side it was starting from, and then pulling the donkey onto a raft of logs to float it, thus forming a small ferry system. Crude but effective.