Cable crane locking carriage

Date Added: 25 January 2013 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1977 Picture No: 1495

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.

A series of shots of a locking carriage on a cable crane system. Unfortunately location, skyline cable crane type and people are not named. In this picture the haul-in cable on the left is not easily seen because of the bright sky but is just visible. The haul-back cable is a little more distinct. See additional images in the attached PDF.

The carriage must have been able to pay out wire down to the choker man and most likely haul the load up to a point close to the carriage and lock it in position thus allowing an easily controlled haul in with little effort in braking. One disadvantage would be the additional weight on the skyline.

Can anyone explain how the machine worked and how reliably it performed its functions? Where was it used and on which machines?

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

1 Comment

This is the Alp Cat carriage and we used it on the Alp cable crane on various sites in South laggan due to the steep slopes.There is a photograph of myself and someone else (possibly Alastair Cameron)working on the carriage.The carriage worked by using three drums, the haul back was on a small drum on the left side and the haul in on a large drum on the right with the hoist rope in the middle.When the carriage was up the hill the bar at the back came against the carriage stop which released the brake on the drums, and as the winchman hauled back slowly the haul back rope unwound large the drum and the hoist rope payed out to the chokerman.As the haul back rope unwound the haul in wound onto the large drum.When you hauled in the process was reversed lifting the load up to the carriage and was held there by a brake on the drum assembly.The haul in rope went round two pulleys which were attached to the brake assembly and spring loaded.The tension on the haul in kept the brake on till it was slackened at the road.The carriage was very heavy and needed a machine to lift it when setting up in a new rack. Comment left on 05 February 2013 at 22:39 by Robert Hannah

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