OT: A Snow Run with the Lombard (sort of)

What better way to spend a sunny 35 degree February day than by playing with old machinery?

Yesterday morning we headed south down I-95 from "The County" If your from away you probably don't know
the significance of those simple words but if your from Maine when somebody says "the county" you
know instantly that they mean Aroostook County - which, by the way, is the largest county east of the Rockies.

Anyway, after a 2-1/2 hour ride we arrived at the museum, met up with Herb and went to work. First order of business was sorting out the fuel system. Last time we ran it the old girl wasn't running so great. I thought it might be water in the fuel but as it turned out is was sediment from the tank. Cleaning out the bowl and a little filter screen in the carb as well as cutting in a in-line fuel filter took care of that.

We also looked at adjusting the tracks which are very loose. Not wanting to break a bunch of bolts we decided that a little heat would help. However the thought of dragging the torch setup through the snow convinced us that its a job better left for the next trip.

All this work, of course, required us to take the beast out for a test run. Since we have had a nice thaw with a bunch of rain thrown in the snow banks are not what they were but the once at the road was just a solid ice bank. I had visions of 23,000 lbs of Lombard framed and teetering on the top like the Grinch's sleigh on the tip of Mount Crumpet. Not something I wanted to contemplate. As luck would have it they are harvesting trees blown down from a recent storm and it didn't take Herb long to convince the skidder operator to knock a hole for us.

All good fun!

Thank you for the post. Very cool! So what kind of motor runs this little beastly log hauler? Figure maybe a Buda or LeRoi? What a great way to spend a Feb day, much better spent than mine! Congrats on a job well done. That is just awesome. Regards, John.

handsome devil said:

Thank you for the post. Very cool! So what kind of motor runs this little beastly log hauler? Figure maybe a Buda or LeRoi? What a great way to spend a Feb day, much better spent than mine! Congrats on a job well done. That is just awesome. Regards, John.

Click to expand...

Hello John, Originally it had a 6 cylinder Wisconsin D4 (5-3/4"x6-1/2") that according to the brochure cranked out 145 hp and almost 700 feet of torque but.... years ago the chassis and engine parted ways so it was re-engine with some odd 6 cylinder engine with what looks like Hindu writing on the tag. We have to run two transmissions with the first locked in low gear. We would love to find the correct engine for it or even a D2 OR D3!

Looks like you may be low on power steering fluid.

That's badass...though it's begging for a 4-71 or 6-71 Detroit diesel

Adjusting up the tracks.

Do they have a large spring near the adjusting nut & front
idler fork ? Like on a dozer ?

Usually they are covered up, and hard to see.

If you have such an arrangement, I would make
sure the spring isn't broken.

digger doug said:

Adjusting up the tracks.

Do they have a large spring near the adjusting nut & front
idler fork ? Like on a dozer ?

Usually they are covered up, and hard to see.

If you have such an arrangement, I would make
sure the spring isn't broken.

Click to expand...

Hello Doug,

The yoke has four slots (two on each side for the bolts that hold it tight to the underside of the frame rails.
The adjustment bolts are two long bolts extending from the front of the yoke through a frame cross member. To adjust you simply loosen the four bolts so they will slide in the slots and take-up the slack with the adjustment bolts then re-tighten everything. The attached patent drawing explains it the best. Once we break everything free of rust and layers of paint it should be a quick process.

I used to know something about truck cooling systems, so I am curious about the gas Lombard. I see it has a Boyce MotoMeter with a Lombard logo on the front mounted on the top tank of the radiator, so I guess it was OEM. I also see a manually operated radiator shutter. Can the driver really see the top tank temperature well enough to know when to adjust the shutter?

Is that a starting crank on the front? That crank looks wicked, and not so fun compared to the actual joy riding once it is running.

That thing looks like child's play to operate compared to the steam Lombards.

Larry

Hi Larry,

Yup, the MotoMeter was OEM. However, the original went missing way long ago so what you see here is a replacement - The body is an original and since getting our hands on an original Lombard faceplate would be difficult to say the least I etched a new one using an original (provided by a collector) as the pattern.

I can tell you for certain that I can't read it! That radiator is out there some. However, sometimes they would mount a little light on the hood to illuminate it at night. My guess is that the shutter served more to protect the radiator than help with cooling.

Yup! That is a crank handle. This one got a bit bent at some point. Once the museum's blacksmith shop is up and running again its going to get a little TLC. It is an experience cranking one of these beasts by hand. There is one period article I found where they were using a Lombard to clear farm land down in New Jersey - When the starter or battery packed-up they used a rope and several burly gents to pull it over. My friend Don has a Lombard with the original 6 cylinder T-head (5-3/4"x7") I have tried to hand crank it several times. I simply cannot pull it through - and I am 6'-2" 240 lbs. Don is few inches taller and he makes it look like childs play.

handsome devil said:

Thank you for the post. Very cool! So what kind of motor runs this little beastly log hauler? Figure maybe a Buda or LeRoi? What a great way to spend a Feb day, much better spent than mine! Congrats on a job well done. That is just awesome. Regards, John.

Click to expand...

The original thread on the Wisc. engine is wonderful reading, although many of the older pics are sadly missing. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...story/big-big-wisconsin-t-head-engine-188057/

Old Photo of Gas Lombard with the Ski Attachment

Terry,

On the Lumberman's Museum website, I found this old photo of _what I think is_ a Gas Lombard with the ski attachment.

past perfect 1 images 328 | The Patten Lumbermen's Museum

Can you confirm that I've correctly identified the subject as a Lombard?

Note that she's towing six, count them, SIX (!) sleds piled high with pulpwood! Sleds don't have brakes!

On Edit: Here's another: past perfect 1 images 228 | The Patten Lumbermen's Museum

John Ruth

SouthBendModel34 said:

Note that she's towing six, count them, SIX (!) sleds piled high with pulpwood! Sleds don't have brakes!

Click to expand...

No problem-o

The tracks don't have much braking anyhow, they get clogged with snow....

Live Steam Magazine is starting a 1" scale construction article on the locomotive boilered Lombard at the Maine Forest and Logging Museum at Bradley, Maine. (March/April 2018 edition)

March / April 218 - Live Steam

John

Yup! Those are Lombards! The second link is to a photo of Ed Lacroix's tractor no. 6. That particular tractor survived and is now in State Museum in Augusta. At one time Lacroix operated upwards of 20 or more Lombards. He was by far Lombards biggest customer.

6 sled! That's nothing. The record load was 298 tons (108 cords) of pulp wood loaded onto 22 sleds. It was set using the one and only diesel powered Lombard which had a Fairbanks-Morse 36A 5-1/2 engine. Here is a video showing that particular tractor in action.


Prior to that the record for a standard gasoline powered Lombard was 264 tons (96 cords)set in 1926.
I counted 13 sleds in this photo:


Here is a photo of the diesel:

Maine Logging "What's Its"

The Patten Lumberman's Museum website has dozens of historic photos without captions.

Patten Lumberman's Museum Image 284: An Avery tractor. Only steamer I've ever seen with the engine below the boiler.

past perfect 1 images 284 | The Patten Lumbermen's Museum

Image 319: Lombard's transporter. Not sure I'd like to be UNDERNEATH while manhandling the starting crank!

past perfect 1 images 319 | The Patten Lumbermen's Museum

Image 336: Non-Lombard Track. Rivets give it a WW 1 tank-like appearance.

past perfect 1 images 336 | The Patten Lumbermen's Museum

Image 381: I think this is the enginehouse at Umbazooksus Lake. I think I recognize it from an article in a long-ago issue of Down East magazine. The engine house has since burned, but the locomotives are still there. Terry has a thread somewhere in this forum about stabilizing the track under these now-exposed locomotives and jacking them back upright. He saved them from capsizing! This is a lot harder to do in the remote wild woods of Maine than you might at first think! Hurrah for Terry and his crew!

past perfect 1 images 381 | The Patten Lumbermen's Museum

Added as an afterthought, just because it's so strange:
Image 164 - An impractical-looking worm-drive tractor.

past perfect 1 images 164 | The Patten Lumbermen's Museum

John Ruth

Hello John,

That flatbed Lombard dates to 1909. Lombard made his first Gasoline tractor that year. His very first gasoline tractor was pretty much a steam Lombard frame and track system with a huge (9"x10") Brennan four cylinder engine mounted on the back. a set of cast iron radiators served for cooling.



The armored crawler tractor would have been originally intended for service in France during WW1. after the war many found their way into the woods.

The screw driven machine was designed and patented by Ira Peavey. He also developed a gasoline version as well. Somewhere I have a photo of both a Peavey and a Lombard working on the same operation.

Yup that's the engine house that was at Tramway. The locomotives were stored in it until the state burned it down in 1968.

I can't believe its been over 20 years since we did that project! In fact it was about this time of year when we had the infamous pickle pail incident. We hauled 150 yards of crushed 3 miles across Chamberlain Lake using snowmobiles and 5 gallon plastic pails. In all it took two weekends and 4500 pailfulls.

What great memories!