Old Friends, Old Memories

So, Gary called a huddle with everyone but Jim. The plan was on. During the day, putting just the right amount of water on the road, so the trucks could climb out of the cut, was crucial. Too dry, and the road turned to powder, the trucks would hop and loose traction. Too wet, they would spin out. Well after getting my ass ripped a good one, for a day or two, I had it down. After a truck climbed out of the cut(20-25% grade) I would give the ramp a light shot of water. The next truck backing in, seemed to pack it down, and by the time it drove out the ramp, was always just right. Well Gary directed me not to water the ramp until he hit the horn, when Jimmy was finaly loaded, then soak it good.

When Jim backed under the loader, I knew something was up, as Gary had his bucket max'ed up in the air. When Gary dumped the bucket, with it all the way up, SLAM, man I laughed my ass off. Jimmy bounced around in the cab, like a ping pong ball. He flew out of the truck, pissed off. Gary told him to get back in the truck or sign out. The rest of the load wasn't too bad, but all day long, Gary make it rough on Jimmy that first bucket, each load. For those that have never loaded a truck with a crawler loader, a good operator will raise his bucket so it will only clear the side boards of the truck, by inches, slowly rolling the bucket over dumping a 1/4 cyd, then 1/2 cyd, and so on, so gentley, all in one motion, the truck hardly shakes. If you come up to the truck with the bucket raised all the way,six feet or so too high, and slam it down when dumping, well let's just say you won't make friends, like real quick, your the enemy.

So Jim has a full load, I mean Gary loaded the crap out of that truck, and starts to pull out and up the ramp. I have been pouring the water to it, and Jim spins out. He backs down the ramp, yelling at me that I'm putting too much water on the ramp. Of course I mouth back that the Macks can make it out, what's wrong with that toy he was driving. He was diving this ugly looking GMC 10 wheeler. No offense GMC fans they just don't look as good as a B model Mack. So he locks in his innter-axle locks and tries again, of coarse I put more water on it again. Man was he pissed when he spun out again. He backed down, swearing at us as we laughed our asses off at him. Brotherly love, what a crack up. So here comes a Mack backing down the ramp, gentle gets a load, and pulls right out of the ramp. We were howling at Jim. He followed the Mack and finaly made it out this time.

During the mornings, when water was not as important, I would jump in with Tom in his Mack. It wasn't long before he had me coming down the steep hill loaded, teaching me to use the gears to keep her back and not wear the brakes out. My Pop would smile as he made his rounds and found me running Tom's Mack.

Hi, Glen.
Good to hear that you are up and around again. Ease into it gradually, M8.

Great times, great memories. Thanks for sharing.

1972? I had three iron ore railway projects behind me then, plus an earth wall dam and some mineral exploration and mining work, along with some agricultural contracting, including a fair bit of clearing with two dozers and several hundred feet of ship's anchor chain, in much the same manner that your father got those two houses down to the bottom of the slide. I had also done a fair bit of dam-sinking, building water storages on farms with a dozer, and some sub-division and road works.

I had become fairly handy - if I do say so myself - on dozers, graders, scrapers, 4wd FE loaders, Cat 955H's with pedal steering and a couple of face shovels. I still had only briefly encountered a 4-in-1 bucket, a Drott that was fitted to a Hough 60 4wd loader. That shortage of experience with 4-in-1 buckets changed rapidly when I transferred from Western Australia to Sydney, New South Wales, in mid 1972. I got to see a LOT of 4-in-1 bucket work from then on, along with being introduced to hydraulic excavators, truck and track mounted mobile cranes, rough terrain cranes, sideboom pipelayers - and pipeline work - and the biggest grader that I have ever had my favourite rump steak on, an O&K G350, 42 tons, 400 hp and a 20-foot blade. Man, that thing could move dirt. It didn't do too badly, all things considered, push-loading Cat 660 scrapers either.

There was a LOTT less paperwork, bureaucratic interference, safety 'ROOLS' and environmental 'bullsh' back then. You basically just got on with the job the best way you knew how. And you mostly worked with men who took some pride in what they did.

Ah, the memories. I reckon I have had the best years of the consruction industry in Australia. Too many 'rools' and regulations now.

Just my 0.02.

Keep well, M8.

Man, I was feeling pretty good at learning new skills. I got pretty comfortable driving the mack around, and my brother let me jump on the 951 and load out a truck or two. WOW what a difference from the old 955, I mean you didn't have to use your hands and arms to turn the loader, this pedal steer was a cool machine. I kept grade checking, improving my skills with an eye level, no rotary lasers back then. Well stage two, cutting out the wall was done, and prep work for stage three, the Crib Wall had started.

Tom hit the road on a Friday morning heading to Bakerfield with one of the Pete's running the Cat, pulling a set of doubles. He was getting a load of concrete cirb members. They are like concrete log sections that locked together. I remember my Dad had scheduled with our Cat dealer to have a rental forklift delivered first thing Saturday morning. Cat had just started getting into forklifts around this time if I remember correctly. So with excitement in the air, the Saturday crew went into action. The mission for the day was to unload two trailers of crib sections, so Tom could hit the road Monday early am.

When I helped Tom drop a trailer down below, I noticed the forklift that was dropped off. It didn't look very big. Tom and I drove up the hill and turned around to park for unloading. We were headed down a 8% grade, in an intersection, that dropped off heading down slope about 18% grade, pretty steep. I helped chaulk all the duals and helped untie the load. My brother Gary came up the hill pissed off, as the forklift wouldn't make it up the hill. There was a big screw up, as the fork lift that the dealer sent was a factory 8000 lb lift with no suspension. No way this thing was going to do the job. As soon as you would drive over a depression or grade break it would spin out. Gary was pissed. He got my oldest brother Greg and got the Cat 930 4:1 loader we had on the job. They went down the hill with a cable. Gary was running the 930 as they came up the hill, and Greg was on the forklift. What a pain in the ass the day was turning out to be. This thing couldn't get out of it's own way. A few hours of work was going to take all day. Gary would yoyo the fork lift up and down the hill on the cable. When he pulled it up as close to the truck as possible, we would chaulk the forklift, so the loader could get behind him and push it under the load. After the lift got a load on it the loader would ease it down 20' or so, then switch back to the cable again. We worked real hard to do such a simple job, but we had to get it done.

Ever get a knot in your throat that get's real dry, and slowly sinks, well my Dad pulled up and he was pissed off. He parked his new Monte Carlo just past the trailer heading up hill. He got out and was chewing everybody out because we were way behind schedule. He was a fire breathing dragon. It didn't take long though as he watched our operations to realize it was the forklift. Man he was pissed. I was glad when he and my stepmom Jean made their way down into the cut, the foundation to the wall. Everyone was on edge now, and then, and THEN......

My bother Pat started screaming at Gary. I turned around and started to through a rock to get Gary's attention, Tom was screaming out too. Greg saw what was going on and started to wave his arms, before Gary finally stopped. You see, Gary was used to pulling past the trailer by 10' or so all morning, but now Pop's new Monte Carlo......OH NO.......Yep, the 4:1 bucket was off the ground about two feet, middle of door height. The loader bucket opened up the passenger door like a can opener. 18" tall and 24" wide, a big L shaped can opener. It pushed the plastic door panel onto the seat. BOY things got real silent, when Gary parked the loader. I asked Gary what the plan was, what a crack up, OK are you ready, here goes, the plan was....."Don't Tell Anybody". OK, but I didn't think that was going to last long. Man was Gary sweating bullets now. Things were hotter than a two dollar pistol. He was so nervous. So he gets in the passanger door, pops the panel back on, closes the door, gets in the car and turns it around so the damaged door is parked against the steep bank. OK, looking good from this point of veiw, maybe it will buy another half hour or so, but......So Gary has us swear that we won't tell anybody. OK, we were all tight brothers back then, so we all agree.

Pop and Jean come walking up the hill and Pop ask me who moved his car. I told him Gary did, he want to park it away from the action more. He was ok with that, opens the drivers door, so Jean could slide into the front seat. Pop and Jean direct us to head down the hill by the golf coarse as there was a picnic area there and Jean was getting lunch ready for the crew. We all smiled and waved OK as the new Car drove down the hill with a crator in the passenger door. Everyone was laughing our asses of at Gary, and he wasn't happy. I kept saying to myself, "Don't Tell Anyone", and laughing. This plan sucked, man it was only going to get worse.........

Hi 7upuller,

Man this is better than Botts ever was.

Cannot wait for the next installment, have been back and forth all day.

Thanks,
Eddie B.

[quote="edb"]Hi 7upuller,

Man this is better than Botts ever was.

Cannot wait for the next installment, have been back and forth all day.

Thanks,
Eddie B.[/quote]

Man I agree Thats a better story then most books out there, keep it coming!
Dennie

Great story, it really needs to be in the magazine!

Thanks for sharing

Great Stories,
That fire road you mentioned....could that be the one that runs along the base of Mt. Tam on the ridge....could back road connect you to Sausalito?? Only been like 45-50 years since I was there.

Yes OM,

You got it, those fire roads go on for miles. Some of them like the ho-koi-koo trail are part of the old rail road grade that ran up Mt. Tam around the turn of the century and early 1900's. The Rail Engine supossively had special gear reduction to climb the grades, pulling gravity cars up the hill with tourist on board. They would gravity down to Muir Woods, Get pulled back up and gravity down to Mill Valley at the end of the day. I hear Bechtel bought the Engine after the 1920 fire that burned up all of Mt. Tamalpias. They sent it down to Hoover Dam, because of the special gears in it.