Sawmill fork trucks sold today; Vermont

One of the two remaining sawmills in out town was recently closed and had its auction today, which I attended out of curiousity and historical interest and with a little bit of allegiance with the family that owned the place as the 30 year olds in the business are the sixth generation of that family in sawmilling in this town. I worked for a year at this mill in 1975.

I could say more about various aspects of this auction or this mill's story but just thought I'd post a couple a of pictures of the Caterpillar forks lined up for sale, as under 'Antiques' there has been a recent discussion of fork machines.





A couple of these are 25,000 pound machines. Thirty years ago the fork trucks--there were two or three of them then also--were Towmotors, also with eight foot forks, and also, I think, with dual wheels and sideshifts. I alway thought the plywood cabs the mill built on these things looked funny: a mill is the hottest palce in summer and the coldest in the winter.

Here is a shot of the auction crowd



And here is a 'dramatic' one of extra bands at the filing shop. (I helped carry an ancestor of one of these--it took three men to do so--each day at noon, when I worked there.)



Time passing on: it's OK with me, I think.

Northernsinger

If I'm standing next to you looking over the crowd
my first inclination is that I'm gonna get a bargain or two today.

So, what did the fork trucks sell for?

I didn't stay for the fork trucks. I would say (though I'm no expert) that of the first thirty or forty lots--this included a portion of the log mill including the debarker, the head saw and the resaw, etc--about half or more of the items sold for scrap prices.

Here is a link to the auction list:

http://www.kittrellauctions.com/servlet/SelectAuction.do?auctionId=105

I think this list only included half of the lots.

It wasn't much of a crowd but there were more than appear in that photograph.

Northernsinger

Heh! I thought I had hooked my wagon to a team of horses that would get me to the gold country. I had my gear ready to go. Unfortunately for me Milacron's metal industry closed and I was forced with a lot of important decisions. I now have a job that I enjoy to such a degree that even if I win the lottery I believe I will still work, for the simple reason that I enjoy doing what I do. John