Forestry Memories

Highland Bear Forwarder — Panmure

Highland Bear Forwarder — Panmure

Date Added: 30 March 2015 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1977 Picture No: 2920

Photograph courtesy of Leslie Phillip, Perth who worked on Panmure Estate near Carnoustie for about 8 years. At that time the Estate had a team of about seven men working in the extensive woods and a further three in the saw mill.

This James Jones build Highland Bear forwarder was driven from new for around seven years by Leslie and did much of the timber extraction on the Estate as well as running timber to the Estate sawmill. The many years of hard work clocked up around eight thousand hours but the forwarder was completely overhauled and repainted about 1980. Leslie’s brother in law carried out the work over the weekends. Registration Number is MSR848P.

The PDF shows the machine from its early days circa 1975, through a snowy winter, after its overhaul and working beside a pole wagon. Note the home fitted aerial for the entertainment radio.

Download PDF (2MB)

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

4 Comments

Note on the pdf photo of the Highland Bear off loading mill wood on to the pole wagon a breast plate was added under the hydraulic oil tank, ( lower front of the forwarder) this helped to stop branches and tops from damaging the rubber hoses and hydraulic pump. Comment left on 01 May 2015 at 00:47 by Leslie Phillip
The tree felling squad on the estate at the time in their lunch breaks liked to have a bet with each other to see if I could lift and set on a nearby fence post objects such as empty tin petrol cans, plastic lunch boxes or their "thermos flasks" with the Highland Bear without leaving any signs of damage. I wish I had put money on it now. Comment left on 07 June 2016 at 22:52 by Leslie Phillip
Was this the only highland bear forwarder in Scotland in the early 1970s with a fitted entertainment radio? Comment left on 16 September 2016 at 22:38 by Leslie Phillip
This forwarder was also fitted with a hand held cb radio to keep in touch with a base station at my home just yards from the estate sawmill, they proved handy before the days of mobile phones. Comment left on 21 March 2023 at 14:26 by Leslie Phillip
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