I stumbled across a McGiffert loader at work on the McCloud River Railroad's newly built Burney line while on a family fishing trip in 1958. An incredible rube goldberg, but apparently one of several used by McCloud and others. Wonder if one of these got preserved anywhere. Even for 1958 is was ancient technology to see still working hard.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=262066

JBWX

Yup, there is a complete one at Long Leaf, Louisiana, at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum. They also have a skidder as well. Kind of the EBT of the south.

There is another one at Collier Memorial State Park near Chiloquin, OR. This is about 30 miles north of Klamath Falls on US 97. (At least it was there last time I was, about 5 years ago.) The AAA tour book calls this "one of the largest collections of logging artifacts in the country." A very fascinating place; I've been there a couple of times. Included in the collection is a small steam locomotive, the only thing I can remember about it is that the Parks people didn't know anything about steam locomotives. As I recall, the sign said it was a wood burner, but the loco itself had an oil tank, and remnants of the fireman's manifold for an oil burner.

The same state park has a VERY NICE campground. No problem getting my 26 ft fifth wheel in there. Also a nice river for fishing.

The Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN has one also, inoperable but nicely cleaned up and painted. It was donated by International Paper. Hope the link works:

http://66.116.202.72/Education/misc.asp

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'm a bit surprised that at least three survived. Now my burning question is how did they move the things.

JBWX

You can find very good details and photos in

Minnesota Logging Railroads
Frank A. King, 1981
Golden West Books
San Marino, California

It moves on its own wheels. They don't show in your picture, but they are right under the "deck" at each end. In your picture, its legs are extended to raise the deck high enough for the empty flat cars to move under it. It will move on the same track that the flat cars are on.

There is a picture that shows the wheels on the Collier park web site:

http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_22 ... ovieid=466

This is a panorama picture, so you may have to use your mouse to move it around to see the McGiffert.

In another part of the Park web site, I just noticed that their brochure says they have two McGifferts.

When the legs are raised, the deck sits down on its wheels, which will be on the rails. Apparently, it could move slowly under its own power, but for moving it any distance, they pulled it with a locomotive.

John,
The one at Collier's might be the same one you photographed--I'm on dial-up, so can't seem to download the pic (as usual). I believe both there originated from the McCloud. Interetsing that, if it's the same loader, it has outlived the railroad it was photographed on! That line was recently "de-railed" Sad times.
S'
David D.

By my count, there should be five surviving McGifferts.

One would be the Louisiana machine already mentioned.

Two would be one of the two machines in Collier. This unit is indeed a McCloud River unit, one of three such machines purchased new by the McCloud River Railroad in April 1907. McCloud River Railroad sold the three to the McCloud River Lumber Company in 1922, and by 1925 or 1926 McCRLCo re-sold this unit to the Kesterson Lumber Company of Dorris, CA, who re-sold the unit to Weyerhaeuser in 1929. Around 1961 Weyerhaeuser donated this machine to Collier.

Three is the other machine at Collier. It is one of the more modern McGifferts, built for Big Lakes Box Company in 1926. Weyerhaeuser acquired this machine as well and converted it to diesel power. Weyerhaeuser operated it on their logging railroad based out of Klamath Falls until 1961, when they retired it and sent the machine to Collier.

Four is a machine that spent at least the later part of its career working for Long-Bell Lumber out of Weed, CA. Around the early- to mid- 1950's Long Bell purchased a large amount of timber on the Hearst properties along the McCloud River, and they sent this machine onto the McCloud River Railroad to load their logs onto SP log flats for delivery to the Weed mill. Some MR switch lists and wheel reports I have from around 1962 show this log traffic ran between 10-20 cars a day. When the traffic wrapped up, this McGiffert was stored in McCloud for several years until one of the decendents of the people involved in Clyde obtained the machine and had it shipped back to Duluth, the birthplace of the McGiffert, for display in the Lake Superior Museum of Transportation.

Five is one of those "lost machine in the woods" stories that has proven to be surprisingly accurate. I don't remember the exact story and I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but the story involved either some trestlework that gave way or a washout or some soggy track that sent a McGiffert loader toppling into a lake in British Columbia. Two or three years ago the now-deceased publication Tall Timber Short Lines carried an article by a couple people who heard about this, went looking for it, and actually found it, or what they could see of it- namely just the legs and the wheel mechanisms sticking up out of the mud on the lakebed.

I have a number of McGiffert loader pictures on my McCloud Rails page, including the shot that John linked to in the message starting this thread (thanks again for letting me use that photo and the others, John!). The third photo down shows one of the McCloud River McGifferts in the "wheels down" position and moving across the bridge over Highway 89 on the Pondosa branch:

http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/Lu ... aders.html

McGiffert loaders were topheavy and had a tendency to fall over from time to time. There are three good photographs of the McGiffert's running gear in the lowered position on the following page:

http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails/Lu ... recks.html

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

I don't have my library at my fingertips at the moment, but I'm pretty sure that one of the Tionesta Valley (PA) affiliated logging lines had one. I think it was the only Northwest PA operation that had one. What makes it more interesting is that it was a full-sized McGiffert on 3' narrow-gauge. The picture certainly sticks in my mind.

There's some kind of rule working here on oddball disproportionate preservation - I'm pretty sure there's only one preserved Barnhart loader at the Pennsylvania Lumberman's Museum in Galeton, PA, and they and the American had 99% of the Eastern market for on-car loaders. I don't know of any preserved Americans.

Southern Forest Heritage Museum at Longleaf, LA actually has 2 McGiffert Loaders. Both of them date from about 1919-20. Both loaders used to be stored behind the enigine house, but in April one was moved by volunteers to a more accessible location in front of the machine shop, and restoration work has been started.
Both of the McGifferts were built by Clyde Iron Works, and the museum also has the last Clyde 4 line rehaul skidder in the world on display outside the engine house.

Ely Thomas Lumber Co had two 3 foot gauge American loaders, one of which was saved by my father and shipped to Michigan, along with several log cars, Shay #5 and Climax #7. When plans for a logging museum fell through, it was sold, along with Climax #7 and some log cars, to the US Forestry Service. It is on display at the Cradle of Forestry Museum in Brevard, North Carolina.

I think Cass may have an American that has been converted to IC power. The one they have in working order looks like an American.

Michael Allen