Tom, that loader has a fixed beam, and seems to be on the same level as the cars, the pivoting beam and the ability to be raised up above the cars to allow the empties to pass below the loader are the the signature features of the Surry Parker, and that beast has neither. also it doesn't have the big bulky braces A the four corners that hold the posts for leveling .
My guess is that it is a homemade flatcar mounted skidder, with the fixed beam. and without the pass feature, it probably wouldn't be an efficient loader, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't used as one , but unless it had a seperate track passing under the boom, in could only load one car at a time.
Modeling easten operations, we are left with lots of puzzels. There isn't enough documentation. Studying photographs I can now make out that second pulley on the tall skidding boom of the two drum Surry parker, but that doesn't make any sense, unless the drum was dicided, . with two cables and two pullies to skid two logs at a time, or w did they have a haulback system, so they wouln't need horwes or mules to drag the empty cable back to the woods.
So, we will have a big question once I get these things built How do we rig them? Mine , at least will only pull logs from the pile next to my big donkey, a foot ot so up onto the landing, and load them, so I won't even have to pretend that my set up is the usual set up.
I'll have to check my Dad's text books, but if I'm not mistaken, they just have western practices. Eastern Loggers didn't need no stinking diploma! ( My dad A.W. Nelson jr. had a degree in Forrestry from Idaho, a Masters from Yale, and an honorary doctorate from Idaho, Helped set up the Forrestry program at Ole Miss, and taught part time @ Auburn.
Also at least one of Little river's Surry Parkers looked pretty strange, while retaining some of the charicteristic looks. Was it just rebuilt, ir was it a homemade copy ? The good lord alone knows what they did to them when they turned them into incline machines!
I once toyed with the idea of putting in an incline off of the upper track at the back side of Harlow, where the tannery is going to go. the actuall incline would have gone where my shelfs are against the eastern wall of the RR room. It would have required the track to wander onto the window seat under the skylight.
Having an incline would be cool, running logtrains out of Harlow would be cool; but it would leave me very little room for engine facilities in Harlow, operations in Harlow are a nightmare without logtrains, and I couldn't figure out where to nut that **** that is on those shelfs, so for once I did the uncomplicated thing, and did not build the incline. If I want log trains out of Harlow the riverboat will have to bring in a bargefull, and load the log cars directly on the mainline, by the river.
(in this edit, let me note, that years later, rebuilding my RR, Harlow is now in the middle of my railroad, and log trains will indeed be rolling through downtown harlow! Also the ruling grade on the mountain has been reduced to 3.3% grade, so those log trains can be longer!)
Bill Nelson
Parts is parts
Bill
