The Lombard Steam Log Haulers were built between 1901 and 1917 in the area of Waterville, Me. The subject unit was built around 1910. It is the subject of the article linked above.
FTL:"…The Lombard steam log hauler was built between 1901 and 1917 in Waterville, Maine. It was the first successful tracked vehicle, and led the way for modern construction, military, and recreational tracked vehicles.
The first Lombard log haulers burned wood, or coal, and traveled on ice coated roads at about 4 miles per hour. They towed multiple sleds with up to 125 cords of logs, [ about 300 tons]replacing the work of about 50 horses.
This site documents the restoration of a c. 1910 Lombard steam log hauler located at the Maine Forest and Logging Museum in Bradley, Maine…"
The next sited link is to the article in the publication "The Drive’
"This Wacky Steam Locomotive-Car Hybrid Paved the Way for Tank Tracks"
“The world’s first vehicle to successfully use tracks for propulsion wasn’t a tank—it was the Lombard Steam Log Hauler.” ByStef SchraderOctober 27, 2020
I wondered why those guys were riding on the pilot, until I saw the stearing wheel. I am wondering on the ice poad if the skis might have been more self-directing.
I wonder why there’s a kind of caterpillar nested into the big caterpillar. However. It obviously works, and works well.
Sure wish I had enough land to need something like that. I am kinda surprised that I haven’t seen a lot of such machines in logging books. Perhaps I blinked.
Chances are they weren’t too common to begin with. As we see in the article they were very expensive, and a logging company would have to think hard about that kind of purchase, especially if the job was getting done adequately with horses.
[C):-)] Looks like I owe Dan Raitz , a fellow poster here; A tip of the Kromer Cap ! [yeah][bow]
Until I had read the article I posted first, I had no idea what a “Steam Log Hauler” was [:^)] It looked really interesting, and certainly seemed to be a preservation project that had required not only dedication, but much perseverance.
The story of the preservation of that 1910 Lombard Steam Log Hauler was quite an interesting story. The site linked a lot of information on that product of Alvin Lombard’s Steam Log Hauler and how it got to its current home at the Maine Forest and Logging Museum in Bradley, Maine. Which is a part of the Univ of Maine. Whose Mechanical Engineering Technical School played a big part in its resurection.
See link @ https://umaine.edu/met/capstone-projects/2014-lombard-steam-log-hauler-restoration/
I swear, I have this odd recurring dream in which there are (conventional railroad) trains that operate right on the ground, with no rails. Only in my dreams they are usually pulled by an EMD E or F unit. There’s an emotional component of the dream, in which I am very sad or disgusted that there are no more tracks. The feeling is very much like I felt in real life when cabooses were disappearing. It’s the only train-related recurring dream I’ve ever had. Sometimes I’m watching a train; other times I’m in the engine cab.
See patent 674737 (you should download the PDF of US674737A as the OCR is unreadable in the critical sections).
Drive is through the central pinion at pivot on the sideframe, which meshes directly with one of the main geared roadwheels. The two sides are separate, I think driven separately; the two units pivot separately and there is no differential. The chain is a set of rigid racks engaging with the teeth on this wheel which limits the number of pins in the track (Lombard calls it a ‘traction belt’)
The purpose of the other belt is fascinating. It is not a drive belt; it is a suspension belt; it runs exactly as you see in most of the pictures on a flat guide, but what you don’t see is that its links just guide a series of rollers that bear on those guides to support the weight – it is like a linear version of the roller support if some swing bridges. In some of the videos you actually see this chain jerk to a stop and appear to ‘skid’; this is just the rollers doing their job under load!
Note that in one of the references there is a simplified bearing arrangement that looks like it has swing arms from the pinion/pivot point and a shorter bearing belt with flatter return.
He does not mention differential steering by varying the speed and direction of the two sides separately, which would become a critical part of the Holt Caterpillar idea – steering is halftrack-style with wheels or runners. Note the very long ‘rigid wheelbase’ out to the steering pivot, but the traction assembly close to the center of mass for better “adhesive weight”.
When I first posted this story of the Lombard Steam log Hauler, which i had found in an Internet Publication [The Drive]. I thought it had some connections with a few of the posters on this TRAINS Forum; after all it was about Lombard Steam Powered Logging Equipment, and was pretty much a 100 years old and was preserved, in operating condition; by students and faculty of the Univ of Maine and its Mechanical Engineering School at its’ adjunct facility at THe Maine Logging and Forestry Museum at Bradley, Me.
I was interested having grown up in lumber and wood products manufacturing.
After the Thread was posted, one of the Forum posters mentioned that he was aware of the 'Phoenix Steam Log Haulers used in Minnesota. Turns out that those machines were manufactured by Phoenix Mfg. Co. of Eau Claire, Wi. They were Lombard Patented and produced under royalties to Alvin Lombard of Maine.
With some additional Internet Searching I found the following site that added more to the story of how the Lombard patented Machines ’ migrated to Finland
After viewing the original log hauler video another video was suggested that blows my mechanical mind - threading a fastener for both right and left handed threads…If I were to come across something like it in real life - I could probably cross thread it.
Did you never see a Yankee push-pull screwdriver? Those are just an interrupted, stronger version…
Although I must confess I never cared for the things or found them labor- or time-saving. I so strongly associate handedness with screwing in or out that I can’t get used to other actions that give continuous rotation at the business end. I’ll just suffer the wasted motion of the ratchet return… and I bet I strip FAR fewer heads…
