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The Lombard Log Hauler

Logging crew
Ed LaCroix’s logging crew with a steam Lombard log hauler. LaCroix was one of Lombard’s biggest customers. Photos courtesy of the Maine Forest and Logging Museum.
Imagine this, once upon a time in the Maine Woods....

On a bitter cold day in the winter of 1912 near Ross Lake in northern Maine, Si Walsh stepped up to the steering box at the front of the Lombard log hauler. Wrapping his thickly gloved hands around the 18-inch, geared steering wheel, he murmured to himself, “By golly, maybe I’m blessed, the wind is dropping to a slow breath. It could be the death of me, heading into a northwest wind at 20 below on this rig.”

Twisting around, he looked back at the engineer adjusting steam pressure on the log hauler’s hissing boiler. Behind the engineer, the conductor had finished checking eight sleds of large pine logs. All was good to go. Walsh pondered the downgrade navigation on the icy road west to Ross Lake. Two rugged steel sled runners attached to the steering wheel up front, and a set of steam-driven lagged tracks under the boiler behind was this crew’s means for haul power, control, and direction. There were no brakes on the log hauler and sleds of pine.

As with railroads, the log hauler conductor has the last word on all actions. After the crew members signaled each other in sequence, the engineer released the steam power driving the four lagged wheels. The snow and ice underneath groaned as the log hauler’s steam engine hissed and chugged along, heading west with ten sleds of pine logs. Walsh held a steady hand on the steering wheel, ready to adjust direction at any moment. He wrapped a blanket around his chilled body as the sun rose above the forest on another 20 below day, deep in the Maine Woods....


First built around 1900, the log hauler marked a revolutionary transition from horse to steam-powered locomotion of timber in the Maine woods. For carrying distances exceeding 4 miles, logging crews began replacing horses with log haulers that could pull eight sleds at a time. Log haulers were last used around 1928. By the 1930s, logging technology moved toward the creation of bulldozers, and eventually skidders in the late 1950s.
 
Lombard post card
1904 Lombard at John MacGregor Company, South Lincoln, Maine. The earliest machines had vertical engines.

So, who had the passion and foresight to create this steam-powered rig? Alvin Orlando Lombard, who grew up on the farm and forest lands of Springfield, Maine. Lombard was mechanically inclined, and worked with sawmills and smithies from an early age. According to a Maine Forest and Logging Museum (MFLM) website presentation, by the age of 12, Lombard was considered the best shingle buncher in the Maine woods.

By the 1890s, Lombard had moved to Waterville, Maine, and was inventing wood barkers and chip machines for the pulp and paper industry. Creatives such as Lombard tend to thrive on the unexpected. One day he had a chance encounter with lumberman E.J. Lawrence on a ride home on the Waterville trolley. Lawrence posed a question to Lombard: “Why don’t you invent something to move wood so we will not ruin so many horses hauling logs in the woods?” The story goes that they got so engrossed in discussing ideas, they both missed their trolley stop that day.

Jordans mill
Jordan’s Mill in Grindstone, Maine. Customers added steering cabs of varying designs.

This conversation lit a spark within Lombard for what would lead to the invention and manufacture of Lombard log haulers. By 1910, after many experimental trials, Lombard’s Waterville factory was shipping the haulers north by rail to Maine timberlands. The span of log hauler manufacturing was 1900 to 1917. Steam log haulers were used until 1928 when gas- and diesel-powered haulers and bulldozers replaced wood- and coal-powered steam. The old hissing, chugging steam log haulers were abandoned along woods roads, artifacts of a passing era.

Many seasons passed before a road crew working in Maine unorganized township T9-R15 discovered two abandoned Lombard log haulers. In 1967, Burt Packard of Willimantic wanted to display a hauler at his camps on the west end of Sebec Lake. He and some chums went north to retrieve one of the abandoned log haulers. They managed to load it on a truck and hauled it back to the Packard property where it became a local curiosity.

In 1960, the Maine Forest and Logging Museum was founded in Bradley, Maine, with a unique focus on forest resources in a cultural and historical context. In 1984, with financial support from the Pingree Family, the museum obtained Lombard Log Hauler #38 from Packard’s Camps. From the beginning, the museum directors and volunteers were intent on restoring the #38 to full operating capacity.

Logging train
A.O. Lombard, second from right, stands beside a log hauler with a full load.

As in A.O. Lombard’s early trials, the restoration work required a lot of creativity and tinkering. The museum partnered with staff and students from the University of Maine Engineering Department on several projects, from simple to complex.

According to the museum’s log hauler resource page, this included asbestos removal; steam boiler restoration; rebuilding pistons, cylinders, frames, axels, drive trains, and draw bars; testing a new wooden cab on the front end; and much more. Various members of Maine’s forest and metal parts industry contributed funds to support the restoration work.

Restoration was completed in 2014 with a series of successful test runs that certified Lombard Log Hauler #38 as suitable for use in public demonstrations and rides at the museum. Lombard Log Hauler #38 comes back hissing and chugging through the woods of the Maine Forest and Logging Museum annually at special events, delighting longtime supporters and new visitors alike.

Learn more about A.O. Lombard and the Lombard log hauler at the Maine Forest and Logging museum website.

View the accompanying Web Extra: Restored Lombard Log Hauler Helps Bring Maine History to Life

Discussion *

Dec 02, 2022

Great story Roger. When I came to Maine to live the first 2 people I became friends with were real old timers. Lewie Smith worked in the logging camps but only mentioned oxen and horses. Percy Storer only worked on his own properties but made a meager living selling wood. Lewie taught me many things about growing food [he was a truck farmer with 13 kids working his fields why he drove and sold veg around the state in warmer months], working in the woods and general knowledge no one cares about anymore. #1 tip was how to use and more importantly how to sharpen a scythe! His son Norman still lives in Lagrange and at 87 still cuts pulp with chainsaw and tractor. Such simple times back then but little time to relax for those old folks.

BobLombardo

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