BTD 8 tractor in trouble in Rannoch Forest
The photographs are courtesy of Ian Cameron, Ballater, who was the Forestry Commission mechanic covering the area at this time. Ian had a camera and recorded the sequence of events on film as well as in his book ‘Forestry of the 1960s in Highland Perthshire’ by Fast Print Publishing.
Here the ‘rescuer and victim drivers’ stand side by side over the partially exposed machine which is just visible under the dug peat. The digging would most likely have been partially carried out by the forest squad using the traditional draining tools of the rutter spades, drain drags or howks and shovels (the first two items seen slotted into the ground behind). The man next to the camera is Dick Warrier the driver of the Track Marshall 70 tractor which was to be used as an anchor to the winching Caterpillar tractor brought in for the purpose. The other man is Jimmy Sangster whose machine is the one down below him.
Very fortunately the front of the tractor is at a slightly higher level and the men were eventually able to dig down and attach a heavy wire cable around the front hydraulic winch mounted on the tractor frame. Fortunately also the plough was unhitched when the tractor sank otherwise there would have been considerable digging to get down to the drawbar pin to release the plough.
This would all take considerable time. Taking in rescue tractors from other locations could involve a day or two, digging away the peat was slow hard work and required wood to build a platform to stand on, digging down too far and the hole just filled with sludgy water overnight or sooner, the wood, wire cables and snatch blocks or sheaves all had to be carried in some distance from the road. Sunny dry weather was a real bonus.
In the attached PDF image the Rannoch student forester surveys the scene after helping with the digging. No doubt a valuable experience and one which would stay long in his memory. Can anyone name the student?
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines