Forestry Memories

County Forwarder at Eynort Forest Skye

County Forwarder at Eynort Forest Skye

Date Added: 24 January 2013 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1977 Picture No: 1469

The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. George took many forestry photographs in his forestry career and many are now shown on this web site. Check under ‘Groups’ and George Dey Collection.

There is no information on this machine or driver and any help would be appreciated. It was taken at Eynort Forest, FC No 70634 but the driver’s face is in shadow. The PDF has a couple of more distant views of the scene

Download Large Version (310kB)

Download PDF (572kB)

Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, George Dey Forestry Collection, Timber harvesters, processors, forwarders and cable cranes

9 Comments

The machine is a Chieftain Forge of Bathgate built County 754, with Wartsila cab-mounted crane.

These cranes were unusual in that the slewing ram assembly revolved with the crane.

The trailer shown in the PDF is Chieftain Forge's 'Trysil' forwarding trailer which featured a unique trailing arm/rocking beam suspension system said to reduce the pulling effort required on rough terrain.
Comment left on 21 May 2015 at 19:59 by David Shearer
Look closely at the top right of the cab and you'll see a vertical tube in contrast to the slope of the window. At the top is a swivel and a pulley block. This was little cable winch to pull those items just too far away for the Wartsila cranes extension. (this isn't extended in the picture). The operator normally sat on a swivel seat and the winch lever could be pulled from there to operate the winch clutch. Comment left on 21 April 2020 at 17:53 by Swyn Jervis
I have taken the opportunity to load one of Jim Christie's Chapelhall images of the same machine type viewed from the back.
The tube, top pulley and small winch assembly at the bottom can now be seen.
Hope this helps.

Norman Davidson
Comment left on 22 April 2020 at 16:00 by Norman Davidson
What would be the pulling power of this winch before it hauled the forwarder over? Still its a smart looking machine all the same. Comment left on 23 April 2020 at 09:42 by leslie phillip
Hi all
Great to see these images after so long away from Chieftain Forge, I worked there from 1979 - 1986.
The main image is the original safety cabin (I have no idea how many were produced) but the driver has a resemblance to Mr George Campbell. The pdf was taken in the works yard. With the Tyson trailer behind. In David Shearers comment above, there is reference to a reduced pulling effort required when scaling an obstacle, this was proven years later when a college project quantified the reduction. Happy days!
Comment left on 29 January 2021 at 11:24 by Jim Findlay
Re the comment by Leslie Phillip 23-4-2020
The winch was a Farmi 2.5 or 3 ton unit. I have no recollection of comment relating to pulling the cab over. But as the operator would have been inside or adjacent to the winch control he / she would have halted the operation before failure
Comment left on 29 January 2021 at 11:30 by Jim Findlay
I've seen mentioned that these cabs were also fitted to Ford 5000's with half-tracks before they used County's, but not come across any photos of them.

Would Jim Findlay be able to contact me please
Comment left on 22 February 2021 at 13:49 by Andrew Gates
Hi Andrew, I think you are correct, in my time there I only remember a couple of the Ford 5000’s with half tracks and this cab - the works tractor was the same minus the half track. I don’t have photos, but I’m still looking Comment left on 22 February 2021 at 17:34 by Jim Findlay
Hello Norman,I seem to remember speaking to you a good while back. I worked on glentanar estate from seventy four to nineteen eighty. The forestry squad had a 5000 tractor with a wartsilla cab mounted crane and a chieftain forge tandem axle trailer. The bogie set up was walking beam as someone mentioned. They were very easily drawn on soft conditions. I also remember there was a stabiliser ram mounted from the tractor to the trailer drawbar. I remember the driver got a fair fleg once when he stood the tractor fair up and down due to the either a hose bursting at the ram or blowing the seals. Happy memories o them days. Forestry equipment has come a long way since them days. Comment left on 01 June 2024 at 17:41 by Paul gessler
Form Goes Here