Farm Mechanics/Building Trades
Earlier this month our Farm Mechanics and Building Trades students put the finishing touches on the circa 1926 logging sled for the Maine Forest & Logging Museum in Bradley, Maine. Coupled into long sled trains and pulled by either steam or gasoline powered Lombard log haulers, sleds such as these were a common sight here in Northern Maine and throughout the winter months moved millions of board feet of timber during the early half of the past century.
Starting with a jumble of rusted castings and fittings which had been donated tothe museum years ago and a stack of heavy oak timber cut by the museum crew from a large oak that blew down during a wind storm, our students have turned a dream into a reality. To say this has been a challenging project would be an understatement! From drilling through massive pieces of oak timber (while trying to keep them straight) to working with hundreds of rusted nuts and bolts and castings, our students tackled each challenge with determination, pride in workmanship and amazing problem solving skills. One daunting task was fabricating missing fittings. However, Fred Haines of Haines Manufacturing generously offered fabricate and donated replacements – matching the original pieces exactly.
Now that the sled is complete (all 1,800 lbs. of it) it will be delivered to the Museum where it will become a cherished part of their collection and be used during winter living history events. Once again our students demonstrate that they can indeed accomplish wonderful things with the awesome skills they learn here at PIRCTC.
We would like to extend our thanks to all the students who participated in this project and a special thanks to our PIRCTC instructors – Mr. Espling (Farm Mechanics) and Mr. Bragan (Building Trades) for their support and the wonderful example they provide for our students.