New England Sawmillers in Scotland - Sawmill Unit No 3 – constructing base of bunk house
The Images are courtesy of https://www.actonhistoricalsociety.org/ww1-sawmill-unit.html Also check out Records No 4778 – 4789 or under ‘Groups’ the ‘American sawmillers in Scotland 1917’.
A great image of a wagon with freshly cut timber for constructing the base of the bunk house to replace the sleeping tents particularly as autumn will soon be knocking on the door. It is a long building required to house over thirty occupants and the vertical poles just visible between the horse and wagon cover the uneven ground to form a flat base structure for the floor.
The flag pole stands in front of the cook house behind which is the sawmill and steam engine. It looks like a rail and washing under the side awning of the nearest tent.
The pole wagon detail is clear enough to see how much of it is constructed with a pivoting front axle attached to a shaft that sits between the pair horses and no doubt fixed to the bottom of their collars. The main fixed cross tree elegantly supports the shaft and pivot axle junction with neat iron work. A swingle tree with chains to each horse is attached at each end of the fixed tree with powerful looking hooks. Can anyone say what is the purpose of the chain running above the shaft?
The chains hanging down along the wagon are assumed to be the load retaining chains.
The PDF below is another view but in which the floor timbers can be seen. The two men on the floor joists are named as Sid Wheeler(left) with the hammer and Hap Reed with a large spirit level.
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Groups: American sawmillers in Scotland 1917, Buildings in Forests, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Groups of people, Horses at work in Forests, Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills