Cardiff Type Sulky
Two files containing about 65 Head Quarters Mechanical Development Committee Reports from 1950 to 1958 were saved from destruction by Jim Christie former Forestry Commission HQ, Plant Engineer. Jim, from Crook of Devon, has kindly made the reports available for scanning and entry onto this website.
This report, although numbered 5 in the index, was prior to the Oliver Sulky report (numbered 4) circulated in 1950. The Cardiff Sulky according to the report was trialled around the country with very mixed results and comments! Going by the design it would appear that the small trees were loaded by hand onto the platform of the sulky and then the winch rope was slung around to tie the load together and lift it up towards the arch. Is that a Bristol tractor FC213? PDF showing the full report to be loaded with this picture shortly.
This particular copy of the report had been sent from Director Scotland (who?) to Conservator East Scotland who then circulated it to Col B. The initials probably point to Frank Oliver as Conservator and R Bleukinsop (Colonel Bleukinsop or Blenkinsop?) who was the Conservancy Mechanical Engineer.
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Groups: Forestry Mechanical Engineering Reports , Timber harvesters, processors, forwarders and cable cranes
The tractor had a rear mounted towing winch and a dozer blade. You can see the mounting for the rams in this photo. The machine had a petrol engine and on each side there were boxes. These boxes were filled with sand and stones to add ballast to a very stripped down machine. Comment left on 16 September 2013 at 19:50 by Ian Cameron, mobile mechanic at Dunkeld in the 1960's.