Forestry Memories

Cable crane on lorry at Strathyre Forest

Cable crane on lorry at Strathyre Forest

Date Added: 24 January 2019 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1969 Picture No: 4331

Photograph courtesy of William Fleming, Polmont who worked in Strathyre Forest as an apprentice Forest Craftsman and stayed in the hostel for a time around 1957-58.

Great image of a transfer operation involving an Isachsen Cable Crane and a Bedford Lorry with registration VLL191G. The FC number on the lorry is a little unusual as it may be in the format of area number, purchase sequence number and then purchase year and could be 28/549/68.

The man sitting on the lorry nearest to camera is named as Jimmy Dewar and the other one as Jimmy Wilson (or Eddie Drysdale - see comments) a local man but not a forestry worker.

Note the advert on the side of the lorry which reads:

Forestry Commission
1919 Jubilee Exhibition 1969
Edinburgh 5,6,7 June

The Forestry Commission put on quite a few shows and exhibitions in 1969 at various locations all over the country and invited the public along. There were machinery demos, new forest walks, wildlife viewing and travels on buses to see ongoing work. All in all a general warm welcome was extended to school children and adults to come and see how their local forests functioned.

Groups: Timber harvesters, processors, forwarders and cable cranes

1 Comment

I think that the man referred to as Jimmy Wilson may actually be Eddie Drysdale and I think that they were at an exhibition at The Bush Estate near Edinburgh.The other man is my father who drove the local FCS lorries after Norman ("Joe The Mole") Grant. I learned to drive sitting on my father's knee in FCS lorries but had passed my driving test by the time he drove this Bedford TK. It was garaged in "Mary's Garage" just behind our house in Keip Road. Comment left on 01 October 2021 at 21:34 by James Dewar
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