diesel lombard tractor

loggah · August 09, 2015, 07:17:17 AM

I see that !!! ;D I do have high ground on another piece of land i own about 5 miles from the house, but i kind of like making sure that parts of these machines dont get legs !!! I would be seeing pieces come into the junkyard by the local meth heads !! >:( >:( I spent years locating parts and getting this Lombard stuff out of the Maine woods,would seam a bit strange to haul them back to Maine for storage !!!!! :D :D :D

Okrafarmer · August 13, 2015, 01:18:27 AM

Yeah, I see your point. Can't blame thecfarm for an honest try!

shinnlinger · August 17, 2015, 09:00:34 PM

Went up to the Cole transportation museum in Bangor, Maine last week and they have some Lombard and Linn stuff, as I'm sure Loggah knows!

loggah · August 18, 2015, 07:14:38 AM

I remember when Manley Haley had that Linn in Sangerville in the barn! It was in really nice original condition. There was a Linn for sale In Uncle Henrys magazine a few weeks ago,i think it was the one Arthur Bailey owned in Parkman Me. ;D Most were sold by Ford and Smiley in Skowhegan who were Linn and Buick dealers. I see they also have a steam lombard track assembly at Coles museum, I know they also have a big Cletrac"80" snowplow unit there also.I have never been there personally but have talked with the curator a few times.

shinnlinger · August 18, 2015, 11:46:20 AM

The top of the steam track is visible in the side shot of the linn. There is a blurb about the guys hauling it out of the woods. They have a few Cletracks and the plow is right next to the Linn.

Okrafarmer · August 18, 2015, 01:51:09 PM

I went to the Coles museum over 20 years ago. It is great place, definitely worth the visit if anyone's in the Bangor area. They have the Linn and Lombard with snowplow, Cletrac 80 with snowplow, and IH TD-40 with snowplow, if I recall correctly. They also have a Cletrac EN, John Deere GP, and a number of trucks, as well as a train locomotive (can't remember what kind) and various miscellaneous cars, farm equipment, a nice collection of fire trucks, and so on.

Okrafarmer · August 18, 2015, 01:54:58 PM

Also worth visiting if you're in Maine in the summertime is the Owl's Head transportation museum in Owl's Head, down on the coast. Loggah probably knows if they still have their steam Lombard there. Unlike Coles, Owl's Head has a number of airplanes there. They also have cars and trucks and various such things. They hold a number of meets and special gatherings each year, especially on summer weekends, often with warbird flyins, etc. I went to a few of those. Sometimes they will have random special attractions, like "antique truck day" or "Corvette day" or whatever, where people will bring their vehicles from afar. Check their website for special events.

loggah · August 18, 2015, 05:07:29 PM

The steam lombard that belonged to the "Harry Crooker" family used to be at Owls head,it is at the new forestry museum in Bradley Me now,where another steamer was just completely rebuilt .

Okrafarmer · August 19, 2015, 01:36:25 AM

Ah ok. Good to know. I do need to get up to that museum in Bradley one day.

snowstorm · August 19, 2015, 06:13:32 AM

the cletrack at coles i remember seeing plowing the road here once must have been in the mid 60's. it may or may not be the same one it was parked on appleton ridge for years .there was also 1 or the same 1 at the blue goose in northport for years

Peter Drouin · August 19, 2015, 06:36:25 AM

I get the Uncle Henry mag every week, One time I missed a 1968 corvette by 5min for $2,000

loggah · August 19, 2015, 07:30:37 AM

Uncle Henrys has cost me a bunch of money over the years ! ;D Im pretty sure the Coles cletrac was the one parked by the Blue goose, a friend of mine also owns a Cletrac 80 snowlow, the machine is in Franklin but the plows are still in Mass. :( :(

shinnlinger · August 19, 2015, 09:51:53 PM

It was indeed the Blue Goose plow for a few years

loggah · February 26, 2016, 04:40:43 PM

Last weekend i had the Diesel lombard out at a antique snowgroomer meet,heres a link to the short movie my wife took ,running along in 2nd gear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULkhxqP6xRU

sprucebunny · February 26, 2016, 05:03:05 PM

Very cool machine 8) Thanks for the video.

loggah · February 26, 2016, 05:14:47 PM

You should have come down,everyone had a good time. :D the 3" snowstorm pulled it off !!!!

sprucebunny · February 26, 2016, 05:50:34 PM

I had planned to come over but the weather was too nasty.

Glad to see you had a good turn out !

Hoping to bring my J5 with a winch next year.

Dave Shepard · February 26, 2016, 05:54:08 PM

That is awesome! Would that machine been able to take that much motor in actual use fully loaded?

AfraidChocker · February 26, 2016, 06:13:17 PM

Great build Loggah...

I always felt Lombard got the raw end of the deal when Benjamin Holt stole his idea and got the better part of the claim for a tracked machine. Lombard I know felt the same way all his life and jumped into the fray during the Holt/Best split, but still, he got short changed in my opinion.

Like others, the whole thread was interesting to me, and not just from the build itself. My wife is from the North Country of NH, and like your sisters, got dragged to Maine on account of love. Well partly; she made me get married there, North Haverhill to be exact, and being a Saturday wedding her cousin showed up ready to go to the track. In every wedding picture there is his race car sitting on the trailer ready to go. I wonder if he raced with your Brother; his preferred track was just over the line in Vermont?

Her Grandfather is a direct relative of the Stanley Steamer brothers too, so as I said; a very interesting read. Myself, a lover of old crawlers; I think I would trade my wife and the first born for an CleTrack!

One question though, and no disrespect implied at all; but some say the Centipede was the better of the two designs (in regards to steam), but do you find that to be true?

Bruno of NH · February 26, 2016, 06:21:35 PM

That looks and sound great !
Jim

loggah · February 26, 2016, 06:29:35 PM

Joan, That would be great if you and the J5 make it next year ! ;D The Phoenix centipede"STEAM HAULER" was Lombards first style machine which he made up untill 1908,Then he changed to the 2 cylinder horizontal ,saddletank machine with differential and chain drive.He licensed Phoenix Manufacturing Co of Eau Claire Wisconsin to manufacture his old style machine with them paying Lombard a $1000 royalty on each machine. They worked well but the differential action wasn't very efficient ,relying on the steam engines to compensate during a turn. The other problem with the vertical 4 cylinder style was at times the engines would become synchronized together resulting with the front of the steam hauler to jump up and down !!!! ;D ;D Dave, The Lombard gas machines actually had a bit more torque then the ud 18A engine i put in,The 1 diesel log hauler that lombard made with the big Fairbanks-morse 36A 5 1/2 Diesel probably had another 300 or more ft.lbs. of torque close to what a td 24 engine od early D8 cat had.

Kbeitz · February 27, 2016, 07:41:39 PM

Wow.... Just read the whole thing... Very nice tractor.
About 20 years ago my neighborer scraped a Wisconsin p2 engine.
He tried to sell it to me knowing that I collected Hit and Miss and steam engines.
But the thing was just way to big and heavy for my collection.
It looked ruff but I think it was all there. We both had no idea what it came out of.
I told him that it was probability worth a gold mine to the right person.
But I think he scraped it. I don't even thing I had anything that would have moved it.

NEWOODS · July 06, 2016, 12:49:46 AM

Slightly off topic but after reading through and thoroughly enjoying the whole threads about Loggah's Lombards, I'm hoping either he or some other fount of historical northern New England logging knowledge might see this and be able to help with a question that I so far have not been able to determine a conclusive answer for. I'm posting my query here in hopes of this post being seen by those who would be most likely to have knowledge on this topic and not disappear in the wider spectrum of the entire forum. If it turns out there is significant discussion or anyone objects to this being posted under this thread, I can gladly move it to a new separate thread.

I would like to build some accurate scale models of some of the 1940s-1950s era logging trucks and equipment of the Brown Company (Beyond Brown Paper online collection at Plymouth.edu is a spectacular resource if anyone hasn't seen it yet- including photos of some of the equipment (but not lombards) of Mr. West from Errol, NH who Loggah mentions in relation to Lombard operations ).

The challenge I have is that because nearly every photo from that era is black and white, paint and lettering colors are not clear. I -believe- the woods trucks of Brown Company were painted dark green, with either white or light yellow lettering, and at least some also had a somewhat darker outline or "shadow" on the lettering.

So with that said, I was just wondering if perhaps Loggah or anyone else here might be able to assist in my quest to find the historically accurate paint and lettering scheme for the Brown Company trucks, either by verifying or refuting my belief above about the colors used, or if it anyone knows if any color images showing Brown Co. trucks? So far I have asked several individuals, some of the local historical societies, the librarian of the Brown Collection at PLymouth, etc. and always come up empty handed other than a few sources who have agreed with dark green as the base color. Can anyone say definitively that that is correct, or what the lettering color was?

Thanks for any information, images, or leads anyone might be able to provide or suggest!