Anybody Remember Back When?

Tractor Seabee · Dec 13, 2018

Large equipment like bulldozers and shovels had Pony Engines for starting motors and attachments were cable operated rather than hydraulic. Start the pony and get it warmed up, popped the clutch and turned over the main engine until it started, usually had to give it a whiff of ether. Then warmed up the main engine and get to work. Sometimes an hour process. Cold days created a new problem, multi viscosity oils were not made yet. First thing start a fire under the engine to warm up the oil and water, a tarp over it speeded up the warm up, then go through the start up process. This could be 2 hour process. Sent the flunky out to do the warm up while we sat in the warm shed/tent and drink coffee. When I enlisted in the Seabees in 1954 we were still using some those.

Ron

mddorange · Dec 13, 2018

Ron, I hate to say it but I was only 8 in 1954.

Now I have heard of them and even saw a couple but never started or drove one. Sorry.

Tractor Seabee · Dec 13, 2018

mddorange said:
Ron, I hate to say it but I was only 8 in 1954.

Now I have heard of them and even saw a couple but never started or drove one. Sorry.

They could be a real ***** to start, especially in windy, below freezing weather. I was one of those flunkies back then. Wasn't sorry to see them go. Try greasing (hand pump) a bulldozer in those days. They took a lot of grease. Another flunky (E1-E3) job. In construction they were called oilers.

Ron

k0ua · Dec 13, 2018

I was a gleam in my dad's eye in 1954.. so while I have seen them on video, No, I haven't operated any of those....

mddorange · Dec 13, 2018

Tractor Seabee said:
They could be a real ***** to start, especially in windy, below freezing weather. I was one of those flunkies back then. Wasn't sorry to see them go. Try greasing (hand pump) a bulldozer in those days. They took a lot of grease. Another flunky (E1-E3) job. In construction they were called oilers.

Ron

I grew up around big trucks and heavy equipment. My Grandfather used to take me with him to grade county roads or use a D7 when I was about 7 or 8. My father drove dump trucks for the county while he was in high school since my grandfather was the supervisor of county maintenance in TN.

bcp · Dec 13, 2018

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

oosik · Dec 13, 2018

1970 - Dawson city - Yukon Territory. One of the old miners working a claim on Bonanza Cr had a dozer just like that. He spent more time tinkering with that dozer - greasing, adjusting, tightening, repairing than he did "dozing for gold". Start up was not a procedure - it was a ritual. He also had a non working coal fired steam dozer. The flywheel on that steam dozer was gigantic by anybodies terms. The entire dozer was a complete assembledge of bolted together bits and parts. He said it was brought from San FranSisco by steamer - around Alaska's Aleutian Chain - to the mouth of the Yukon River. Then reloaded onto a river paddlewheel steamer and up the Yukon to Dawson City. All the bits and parts were bolted together and you had a working dozer. Working with that steam dozer must have been a real handful. The only coal in that part of the world is a very soft - low grade coal. The steam and smoke must have made work a real choking experience.

Looking4new · Dec 13, 2018

I have seen them, but have never operated one. Thankfully.

4get gto · Dec 13, 2018

And think we bixch today if our block heaters don't work..

To listen from guys that worked on or operated the equipment from 50+ years ago really make you appreciate what we have today.

oosik · Dec 13, 2018

Can even imagine starting a dozer with a pony engine or even a coal fired dozer under the conditions described by the famous author/poet who spent three year on the Yukon, Klondike and Bonanza Cr - Jack London. He speaks of the fires of gold in a miners eye and starting a coal fired dozer at 45 below. At those temps you could get the fires going in the coal box - throw the lever and because the grease was now bakelite - completely shatter the clutch or blow a pin on the output shaft. I can just see me packing my bag and heading for warmer climes because at 45 below I was not about to climb under the dozer and start tearing thing apart.

In those days having a thermometer was an unheard of luxury. They would set half full bottles of various types of booze out on the porch - when the champagne froze it was X below - when the gin froze it was Y below - when their brass monkeys froze it was Z below.

However - for those who found the gold and those VERY FEW who managed to keep it - this brought an all new life.

I deeply treasure my 1903 original signed edition of Jack London's - Call of the Wild. During my many years in Anchorage - I went to the Yukon River, Klondike River, Bonanza creek areas - five different times - retracing the travels of Jack London. Those were truly wild and bawdy times. And to think - due to sheer respect and ultimate force the Northwest Mounties were able to keep ALL guns out of Dawson City during the entire times of the gold rush.

Right across the Klondike river from Dawson City was the largest Red Light District west of the Mississippi. There was a suspension bridge built over the Klondike for easy access. When we explored the Red Light district we recovered two fist sized blobs of rust - they were pistols. We found loads of hollow green glass tubes - about an inch in diameter and eight inches long - the women on our adventure finally broke down and politely informed us men what they were.

CobyRupert · Dec 13, 2018

oosik said:
When we explored the Red Light district we recovered two fist sized blobs of rust - they were pistols. We found loads of hollow green glass tubes - about an inch in diameter and eight inches long - the women on our adventure finally broke down and politely informed us men what they were.

Don't leave us hanging......what were they??!!

oosik · Dec 13, 2018

Ah - I was hoping some woman TBNer would step forward. Coby - they were douche tubes. A quite necessary item in a Red Light district.

Thomas · Dec 13, 2018

Yes sir sure do remember.
Cat D8 cable lift straight blade pony motor and as you said good 20 mins warm up time if not longer on cold day,but most of also uncomfortable seat.

Thomas · Dec 13, 2018

4get gto
And think we bixch today if our block heaters don't work..
To listen from guys that worked on or operated the equipment from 50+ years ago really make you appreciate what we have today.
..........................
You hit the nail on the head with that post!!! :thumbsup:

2LaneCruzer · Dec 13, 2018

My Dad was a construction Superintendent of some sort all of his life; mainly finding, quarrying and processing limestone, sand and gravel. He started out loading trucks by hand, with rocks from the quarry destined for the crusher.

I remember the old dozers with the pony motors, but the old cable operated equipment was pretty much gone by the 50's when I first have memories of such things. Dad could operate just about anything with wheels and a motor, and fix most of them too. I remember him driving a portable unit of some kind, maybe a portable crusher or conveyor across the state on the highway. It was so big that we had to stop traffic at the two lane bridges so he could get across. I remember it looked like the Eiffel Tower on wheels. Ah, those were the days.

Thank goodness we don't have that kind of cold weather here.

bunyip · Dec 13, 2018

in the 80 we saw graders with pre heat motors, i believe the exhaust went into the manifold to warm it before starting, seen a few cable dozers quietly rusting away in paddocks.

LouNY · Dec 13, 2018

And don't forget the start on gas run on diesels of IH.
I didn't mind the pony engine start once the pony got started, sometimes that would be a nightmare.

turnkey4099 · Dec 13, 2018

k0ua said:
I was a gleam in my dad's eye in 1954.. so while I have seen them on video, No, I haven't operated any of those....

That was the RDxx seriers, there was a prior version that you started by sticking a long bar in a hole in the fly wheel and cranked it that way. I can't recall what that series name was. I only have seen that at the antique tractor shows.

Landlord bought an RD6 bulldozer. I didnt' get to operate that one, my dad's last tractor was a huge McComick Deering T40. That was a diesel engine that started on gas and they changed over. Hand crank. If one was man enough to pull it over top twice it wouild always fire on the 2nd pull. Don't even try to start it after it was warm though. We would park it on a slope if we had to shut it down for awhile and start by coasting.

Thomas · Dec 13, 2018

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

if you had iron wheels.

Birdhunter1 · Dec 13, 2018

My Grandpa was a union Operator out of Michigan then later down here, in the early 70's a large lake was built down in Southern Illinois and he said the standard operating procedure was to check all the fluids at the end of the day and grease everything so that next morning you could start the pony motor and run and jump in your truck while the rattlesnakes crawled out of the machines.