Isachsen Cable Crane - Glen Nevis
John Dodds from Caol sorting the timber on the pulp stack. He and Dougie Stansfield operated this machine which was hauling timber out on a very steep section of the forest. All the timber was cut into pulp for the then relatively new mill at Corpach. The winch on the Fergie 35 tractor had not long been developed by Chaplehall from a simple highlead system with a range of 50-100m to this skyline system with a range of 300m. It was a real chore to haul all the top spar and support gear manually up the steep 300m racks. When a pulp lorry arrived to clear the stacked out winches the skyline was slackened off and the tractor driven forward until the rear wheels were just off the road. By controlling the haulback line the trctor would be kept level even though its front wheels were sometimes 5-6 feet above the steeply sloping ground below the road.
Groups: Forestry in Action, Timber harvesters, processors, forwarders and cable cranes