Cable Crane - First trials in Scotland

Date Added: 17 April 2007 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1972 Picture No: 162

Circa 1972. This may have been the first time this crane (Steyr) was worked in Scotland - possibly in Glengarry Forest or fort Augustus. Buyers were Riddochs who had a team trained in Austria? Locking carriage by Jobu was new to us then and could pay out haul-in rope down to chokerman. It was capable of handling about 1 tonne. All my details are sketchy and any further information would be welcome.

Note my mistake and corrections below.

Groups: Forestry in Action, Other Vehicles and Machines

3 Comments

I was too young in 1972 to remember this model - however, my father, Bill MacAskill, then a Director with Riddochs, was involved in the purchase of a Styer winch that was mounted on a lorry chassis in the late 70s, maybe 1979?I remember my father taking me down to Kilmallie from Forres for the day to see it "coming home", driven all the way from Germany/Austria.It was bright orange and the biggest lorry I had seen as a nipper!I believe that it liked lying on its side quite a lot after starting work...overloaded with big spruce logs in the likes of Ratagan that we don't have anymore! Comment left on 17 July 2007 at 12:47 by Lewis MacAskill

Wrong picture and wrong carriage for the steyr cable crane. Comment left on 06 April 2014 at 15:08 by Alan Love

Thanks to Alan for bringing my mistake to light. This indeed is not the Steyr crane system and looks like an early form of the Alp trailer system. The skyline and haul in cables must be fixed in off-set position onto a large spar tree or similar and a Jobu carriage is being used.

Does anyone have more information on this set up? Comment left on 07 April 2014 at 08:10 by Norman Davidson

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