Recovered TD8 in Rannoch Forest above ground at last
The image is courtesy of Ian Cameron, Ballater, who was a Forestry Commission mechanic covering the Rannoch area at this time. Ian describes the event in great detail in his book ‘Forestry of the 1960s in Highland Perthshire’ by Fast Print Publishing.
This is Jimmy Sangster’s ploughing tractor which had sunk into a ‘green hole’ completely out of sight. See previous two images numbers 5300 and 5301. The recovery operation took many days and several setbacks as towing points broke off and involved more digging down (initially by hand) to reattach the heavy wire ropes. The TD8 was eventually pulled along under the peat until it hit harder ground and rode to the surface with the remains of a swept back cab clinging on. The machines doing the pulling were a Caterpillar D4C with a heavy mechanical winch (operator Ewan Ferries) anchored to the Track Marshall 70 SMV507F (operator Dick Warrier). Several sheaved blocks had to be used to gain enough pulling power.
In the group surveying the successful result of the operation are from the left:
Noel Reid - Machine operator
Wife of local farmer from Strathardle
Local farmer from Strathardle who loaned an excavator tractor
Dick Warrier – Tractor driver
Ewan Ferries possibly (hidden) - Tractor driver
Jimmy Wright – Mechanic
Davy Pittendreigh – foreman i/c mechanics and operators
Duncan Menzies – Forester i/c Barracks section Rannoch Forest
The PDF below shows the BTD8 at the forest roadside awaiting a lift to the central workshops where it would be cleaned up, have several flushing oil changes, perhaps have its injectors replaced, fuel tank and system flushed and new cab mounted. Almost as good as new!
Download Large Version (1.1MB)
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Groups of people, Tractors Ploughs and Drainage Machines
Ten years later when I was an OND student with FC at Dunkeld (Darcy Black, Tavish McMillan, Steve Cooper) I'm sure Jimmy Black was some kind of travelling vehicle or machinery inspector who swooped down every now and then to check that the vehicles and machinery were being looked after. Could that be right? Have I mis-remembered? He was very strong Doric, and was renowned for his 'flowery' language, the emphasis on the 'f' in flowery.
It would be interesting to have this confirmed by anyone who knew more about Jimmy. Comment left on 19 January 2022 at 19:10 by John Burrow