Anybody Remember Back When?

[Streetcar]

As a kid, I had a neighbor that had a ww2 surplus dozer. He tried to operate it as cable,but converted it to hydraulic.

 

[turnkey4099]

turnkey4099
We would park it on a slope if we had to shut it down for awhile and start by coasting.
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Steeper slopes if you had iron wheels.

NOpe, crawler type, coasted quite easily.

 

[Thomas]

Birdhunter1
you could start the pony motor and run and jump in your truck while the rattlesnakes crawled out of the machines.
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SOB :shocked: I would have pipe of sort handy all the times when operatering.

 

[MossRoad]

Thought some of you might enjoy this....

 

[WVBill]

Ron - My Father in Law would have remembered equipment like that. He enlisted in the Navy in 1948. Spent his career in the Seabees and retired as a Master Chief Equipment Operator (E-9) in 1972. He passed away last year.

 

[Ortimber]

I was fortunate in that my dad was willing to let me operate any of our farm or machine shop equipment at an early age.

We had several old dozers back then, including an early D4, D6, and two D8s. All had pony motors, and two had cable blades. When I was 12, I got to help build a pond with the D6 cable blade dozer. I pushed the dirt up, dad did the fine grading with a little JD 350. That was one of my favorite memories running equipment.

We also had an International TD 15 that you would start on gas and then flip it over to diesel.

 

[bunyip]

We had a combine harvester that started on petrol and switched to kerosene, was a very cheap fuel in the late 50's, this was in the UK, I think it was a MF.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I worked for a small company that had a D2, a D6 and a supposedly 977 loader, all with pony motors. Trust me, touching one of the plug wires on those magneto fired pony motors will light you up and often as not have you falling off the track. That old D6 needed to have the clutch greased every day before startup. Great stuff putting your arm down into that grease pit. Skip or forget it one time and you would be tearing it apart to repair it.

We dug and loaded a lot of fill with that old "977". It was rough on the tracks so I learned a lot about track repairs anyway. The boss picked up a couple of cable shovels for cheap with if I recall 3 cyl Detroit's that screamed. He had this old guy that ran those beasts pretty well and actually made a lot of money. Kind of like Tony and his gold dredge's.

Then there was the Case backhoe with five sticks instead of the two that we know on today's equipment.

 

[ovrszd]

I started running a road grader in 1989. Cat 12. Had a pony motor. So we don't have to go back very far to find that method being used.

 

[Ken]

Tractor Seabee. Had a Uncle that was Seabee entered the group around '38 then WW11 said had to clear the harbor of mines an other trash so the marines could land and fight on the islands. and build airports so the Army (before Air Force) could land there fighters and transport planes. Helped clear the land for the Alaskan highway to be built.
He talked about the dozers if not left running all the time were pushed into the pits for fill material since could not start.
My service time'54 to '57 was rebuilding and working on the Cat 13,000 engines for 100 K.W generators for the military
Cat engines with pony motors were common on the generators and dozers as well air compressors .
The generators with the international engines that started with gas then switched to diesel were a problem if not switched to gas then allowed to drain the gas from carberator. on cold starting almost impossible to start. if engine had to be used .try on gas then if not starting switch to diesel and drop 1/2 cup of gas into air intake. it clattered and quickly picked the diesel to smoke and chatter but was running.

As a kid in Colo to start the water pump engine deep well first with blow torch heat a brass rod until almost red then crank the engine .gas poured on cloth and pushed into air intake for choke usually would run when warm idle engine and slip the 12'wide belt onto the pully being careful fingers or clothing wasn't in area to be grabbed with the belt.

The John Deere G.P. tractor starting was open the pet cocks on each cylinder turn flywheel to make sure the off side fired cylinder 1st and spin the flywheel shut the pet cocks then switch to tractor fuel or kerosene.

If ever in the Midland Odessa area of Texas go the oil/gas field museum it is worth the trip. and engine #1 #3 donate by El Paso Gas worth looking at.
also lot of old tractors.
ken

 

[Will_C]

My father had a D2 and a D4 back in the 1970s that had pony motors. Never started them myself but remember watching him.
Every backhoe he owned had sticks up. His last one, a 1988 Case 580K, had to be special ordered.
I did built a fire under an ATV 25 years ago when I was in the Adirondacks and it was -26.

Will

 

[npalen]

You guys are making me feel old. We had a 1936 RD6 CAT as well as a D2 both with pony motors on our Kansas grain and livestock farm back in the 50's. The WD9 International started on gas (if you were lucky) and then switched to diesel.
An umbrella was a luxury and a radio was practically unheard of.

 

[ultrarunner]

Thought some of you might enjoy this....

I go by the BEST tractor building everyday on the way to work... BEST tractors are shown in the video and originated here in San Leandro California... lots of AG history in the SF Bay Area...

Friend still use a CAT with a Pony Motor each year to disc the orchard... his Grandfather bought it new just before WWII

 

[MossRoad]

Anyone have any old family pictures of some of these machines? That would be really cool to see. :thumbsup:

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Yes, but living in the SW desert, I didn't have the very cold start problems. I don't remember it taking more than 5-10 minutes. My use was seldom enough I had to look at things for a while to remember what to do. I always got the two levers mixed up, and had to sort that out in my mind.

Bruce

Bruce, remember I was working on stuff that was already worn out, everything was a little on the sloppy side.

Ron

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Ron - My Father in Law would have remembered equipment like that. He enlisted in the Navy in 1948. Spent his career in the Seabees and retired as a Master Chief Equipment Operator (E-9) in 1972. He passed away last year.

I am sure he did his seat time on those old beasts. I got smart and struck for UT. Figured chasing S**t instead of dirt and rocks was a better deal. I retired in 1987 as a W4.

Ron

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Let's broaden the scope into more variety of experiences; what are yours? How many of you were proficient at hand fitting babbitt bearings on large rotating machinery. As a service tech for industrial refrigeration system that was part of the trade. Largest compressor I worked on was a 16 X 16 two cylinder ammonia compressor. 2 man job and every part was moved with a chain-fall. Flywheel was 20' in diameter with an 8" shaft and flat belt. Open crankcase with stuffing boxes on each connecting rod. Constantly weeping ammonia when operating. Originally has all hand lubricated through oil cups. We converted it to a pressure oiling system so they could layoff 5 oiler/wipers. There is more detail but it would probably bore you.

Ron

 

[Tractor Seabee]

I was fortunate in that my dad was willing to let me operate any of our farm or machine shop equipment at an early age.

We had several old dozers back then, including an early D4, D6, and two D8s. All had pony motors, and two had cable blades. When I was 12, I got to help build a pond with the D6 cable blade dozer. I pushed the dirt up, dad did the fine grading with a little JD 350. That was one of my favorite memories running equipment.

We also had an International TD 15 that you would start on gas and then flip it over to diesel.

You probably have a lot more seat time than I did. The operators were not generous with seat time to the non-rates. and I wasn't to be an operator. Those old cable dozers would move a lot of dirt though. Hitting big rocks would bounce the blade up and sometimes snarl the cable. Big job to un-snarl (flunky job).

Ron

 

[zzvyb6]

As a kid in Buffalo, I watched an Insley cable excavator being used daily in digging a new City sewer line just behind our house. The owner often let me operate it while he stood down in the ditch to set dynamite charges for blasting the solid rock down there. I would release the boom and shovel from which hung a dozen or so railroad ties strapped together to block the blast. I needed to stand on wood blocks to grip the lever handle releases. Soon after that, I built a small model of his rig from Erector set parts, some scrap wood and an old 'digger' toy model and spent many a Summer trenching play sewers in a sand pile using concentrated orange juice cans as pipes.

Where I live now, there is an identical yellow cabbed Insley cable drive excavator rusting away in a back yard with trees growing thru it. Brings back a lot of great memories !

 

[mpham]

I remember as a child in the late 60’s going with my dad to work on a bunch of them old tractors. He did the service work for a sand company that had cable run excavators and chain drive Sterling dump trucks. Every Saturday was spent oiling and repairing the chains on the trucks. Most of the dozers and graders had pony motors in them. Then ran on diesel. We still had a chain drive truck running at the garage up till about the year 2000.