First operational harvester in the UK.
Osa 20/706 doubl grip harvester 1985. Knapdale forest, Seafield Road. First operational harvester in the UK. First day; first tree.
Pictures Dick Davidson and the Swedish trainer/operator.
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Groups: Forestry in Action, Other Vehicles and Machines, Timber harvesters, processors, forwarders and cable cranes
Group: Forest Nurseries - 365 pictures
6 Comments
The Swedish trainer/operator was Dick Davidson. The guy looking on is Iain MacIntyre who was to take over as one of the two main operators. The other was Stan Hilliard.
Comment left on 03 March 2007 at 18:27 by
The first operational mechanised harvester in the UK, cutting the very first tree in 1985. The location is the Seafield forest road near Achnamara village. Its FC number was FC64017 and it was operated by Iain MacIntyre from Ford and Stan Hilliard from Port Anne on an overlapping shift. I saw the same machine over 10 years later in Lochaber, still going strong.
Comment left on 05 June 2007 at 15:06 by Thanks to Malcolm Wield
This was a great machine in its day but unfortunately near the end of its working life with the Forestry Commission it slipped off a low loader and suffered extensive damage to the cab and front end.
It was sold by tender from Chapelhall Workshops in November 1998 and purchase by a contractor from Argyll. Comment left on 15 January 2009 at 13:21 by David McQuillan
It was sold by tender from Chapelhall Workshops in November 1998 and purchase by a contractor from Argyll. Comment left on 15 January 2009 at 13:21 by David McQuillan
I remember this to be a beautiful stand of Norway Spruce and on a flat site for Argyll that was brashed by Ewan Telfer and me in preparation for this day. Being only 17 years old at the time I was stopped using the chainsaw by new Health and Safety legislation and had to brash with an axe, the irony of old and new technology was not lost on us. At this time the cutting contractors were put on a quota and slowly over time reduced in numbers as we gave way to the new machines and so another era was lost and the forest became a slightly different place and for me a sadder place.
Comment left on 19 October 2012 at 14:13 by Douglas McGavin
If I recall correctly this Osa Harvester first arrived in the UK to the FC as a demo machine along with the Swedish operator early 1985. It was put to work at Dalbeattie forest on a stand of mature Sitka and Norway - standing and windblow. This was actually the second 'Double Grip' harvester to arrive in the UK as the previous year Kockums had a demo machine at Dalbeattie which the FC evaluated but did not purchase. The Osa worked on the Roberts Road site for a few months before being bought by the FC and sent to Knapdale along with the Swedish Operator. Several of us who worked for the FC at this time spent weeks brashing, measuring and cutting back wrong length logs for FC Work Study who were evaluating the Osa.
Comment left on 20 October 2012 at 08:33 by Iain Gale
I was an apprentice mechanic in the Torlundy Workshop from 91 to 95. If I think it is the same machine the OSA260 it was a beast of a machine for a young boy. It was in the workshop a few times, an engine rebuild once, think just big ends. Then we split it another time as the bearings went in the hinge in the middle - think the top bearing collapsed. The operator at the time was a man from Dalavich Ronnie MacEchan think that's how you spell him. He was known as Ronnie Rocket. The machine rolled of a low loader years after I left and got a 2nd hand cab somewhere but don't know were it is now. Ronnie still works for FC in Dalavich were he operates a Ponsse
Comment left on 10 March 2013 at 21:34 by Archie Macfarlane
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