Re: Hornsby Chain Tractor.
Quote: I had a good look at the chassis for it. George was there at R.A.M. talking to everyone about it. He had quite a bit of info on it. I understand it went originally to Dawson City to haul coal. The machine had some very innovative things on it, such as a winch mechanism to pull itself or the coal wagons up the hills.
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Hi all. I haven't been keeping up with what has happened to the bones of the Hornsby steam crawler that were on display at a little town ( I can't remember the name of it now but I did go there) right up the top of Vancouver Island.
It sounds like it has been shifted? What is RAM? Is it privately owned now? Is there any intention for it to be restored/recreated??
I hope it stays in Canada and is preserved properly. It has quite a story to tell.
Ordered in 1909 by the Northern Light, Power and Coal Co. to haul coal in the Yukon. The order was placed with the Company Richard Hornsby and Sons, Grantham England. This was after Hornsby had already developed the internal combustion crawler (as seen on the awesome old film footage on the link given in an above post) and the NLPC Co had heard of this development. This company in the Yukon wanted to haul coal so a steam powered crawler was what they wanted. However Hornsby we quite smart and could see i.c. was going to supersede steam and thus stopped building steam engines in 1904. Hornsby employed William Foster and Co. of Lincoln, a nearby firm (and competitor in the steam days) to build the boiler/engine unit and Hornsby built the complicated track gear and put it together.
How long the wonderful contraption worked for in the Yukon I'm not sure, but it ended it's days log hauling on the north of Vancouver Island. There is a fair distance between the Yukon and Van Is as well, so it certainly did get about. The boiler was taken off the machine to be used separately and there was talk that it could have been buried where last used. It is pretty wild country up there though so might be hard to find. (I hiked into Cape Scott and camped on the beach. A mate and I were the only one's up there, and witnessed a pod of Killer Whales chasing seals.)
The frame and tracks unit was thoughtfully saved by someone and put on display under a roof on the edge of this little town.
It is extremely historic, and quite amazing that anything has survived at all! I hope you patriotic Canadians do something worthwhile with this amazing relic.
Best regards,
Andrew Gibb.
An Australian commenting on an English built machine in Canada! The steam world really is international!
