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Brambles Long Distance
10 years 10 months ago #118661
by greenie
Replied by greenie on topic Re: Brambles Long Distance
Occasionally a load that looked totally' innocuous', could turn out to be 'evil' and a real pain in the proverbial.--
Had one such item that I had to P/U in Brisbane, then take it to a timber mill down near Wangarrata, this bit of steel was a plywood press, it was to be placed into a hole in the floor, that way the bottom of the press was level with the floor, the wet glued ply wood sheets would be placed into it and then it would be squeezed, this pushed the glue all over the places where it should be and flattened these sheets as well.
This very innocent looking bit of steel was heavy too, about 24 ton all up, but, here's the rub, about 15 ton or so, was way up top of this thing, over ten feet up in the air. It had twice as many strengthening plates up top, as well as the rams fitted to all these top plates
Think about a pendulum in an old clock, as it sways from side to side, this thing was doing it in reverse, it was like dragging around a big lump of stuff, that just wanted to make the truck lay down.
Even going down a straight road, that had undulations on the surface was scary.
I was not impressed with the road surface from Moree to Narrabri AT ALL, the surface looks flat, but no, as you travel along one side will dip down followed by the other side, no way to avoid this at all. Looking in the mirrors did not enhance my composure, when it tilted left, then the right hand wheels down the back were actually just coming of the road surface, then when it swayed over to the right, the left wheels started to lift of.
Made me lift my right toe real quick, upon seeing this happen, down another cog and just keep going, steady, steady.
Driving all that distance, when at any time, if you miss read the road, then this 'monster' could just flip you down onto the ground. Any turns, on any road, that kind of contoured over, to help you go around the corner, now had to be avoided like the 'plague'.
The worst corner at the time was south of Coonabarbran, a right hander which that been given a speed slope, great for when you had it stoked up, but not for me this time.
When I did get around that corner, there no more white posts standing on the left, just a lot of kindling and wheel tracks in the loose dirt.
Maybe the road maintenance gang would have been scratching their heads, trying to work out, what or why, some fool, would ever do that.
YEP, scary $hit alright.
Out of all the years that I worked there, this one load, still ranks about the worst thing I ever had to move.
regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
Had one such item that I had to P/U in Brisbane, then take it to a timber mill down near Wangarrata, this bit of steel was a plywood press, it was to be placed into a hole in the floor, that way the bottom of the press was level with the floor, the wet glued ply wood sheets would be placed into it and then it would be squeezed, this pushed the glue all over the places where it should be and flattened these sheets as well.
This very innocent looking bit of steel was heavy too, about 24 ton all up, but, here's the rub, about 15 ton or so, was way up top of this thing, over ten feet up in the air. It had twice as many strengthening plates up top, as well as the rams fitted to all these top plates
Think about a pendulum in an old clock, as it sways from side to side, this thing was doing it in reverse, it was like dragging around a big lump of stuff, that just wanted to make the truck lay down.
Even going down a straight road, that had undulations on the surface was scary.
I was not impressed with the road surface from Moree to Narrabri AT ALL, the surface looks flat, but no, as you travel along one side will dip down followed by the other side, no way to avoid this at all. Looking in the mirrors did not enhance my composure, when it tilted left, then the right hand wheels down the back were actually just coming of the road surface, then when it swayed over to the right, the left wheels started to lift of.
Made me lift my right toe real quick, upon seeing this happen, down another cog and just keep going, steady, steady.
Driving all that distance, when at any time, if you miss read the road, then this 'monster' could just flip you down onto the ground. Any turns, on any road, that kind of contoured over, to help you go around the corner, now had to be avoided like the 'plague'.
The worst corner at the time was south of Coonabarbran, a right hander which that been given a speed slope, great for when you had it stoked up, but not for me this time.
When I did get around that corner, there no more white posts standing on the left, just a lot of kindling and wheel tracks in the loose dirt.
Maybe the road maintenance gang would have been scratching their heads, trying to work out, what or why, some fool, would ever do that.
YEP, scary $hit alright.
Out of all the years that I worked there, this one load, still ranks about the worst thing I ever had to move.
regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
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10 years 10 months ago #118662
by greenie
Replied by greenie on topic Re: Brambles Long Distance
Another job was to P/U a couple of CATdozers way out past Windorah, eh,
this is Birdsville track country.
Kenny George was to lead this expedition out into the great wilderness and we head out that way empty, I had the White and tri L/L, Ken had his Mack R600 and his quad L/L.
Eventually arrive at Windorah, the word that's been 'penciled' onto the worksheet, is to go see the owner of the general store, find the store OK, right across the road from the pub, you can't miss it.
Up to the front door of the store and it's locked up tight, big sign stuck to the door window say's, -- Gone to Mt Isa for a Funeral.
Over the road to the pub and make some inquiries, appears that the storekeeper did go to Mt Isa, ---- about a week ago, nobody knows when he's going to make an appearance again though.
Now this storekeeper, was the go between us and where these dozers were actually hiding way out in the scrub, he had to deliver the groceries out to these camps sites, so he knew exactly where these machines should be.
Bit of a quandary about now, like how do we find a couple of dozers in about a couple million square kilometres of this empty country.
Bloke behind the bar offers us a 'wee glimmer of hope', we have to go back out of town a couple of clicks, there's a lady living out at this house, who ALWAYS gets on the daily radio 'yakkerty yak' session.
She might be able to get the word out there, of what we are after.
He warns us, that this radio is actually the flying doctor service, but it's used as a chat session by persons from the Gulf of Carpenteria right down to Marree in South Aust and all points in between. It's used as one big gab session for the bush, you take your chances, if you can even get a word in edgeways, what with all the radio traffic.
Back out the road again and arrive at the gate to her house, she pops her head out the door and we explain the predicament we're in. Now she's' a very sociable lady and invites us inside out of the heat and we can listen in to this chat session.
This will all happen at 4 PM, each and every day, for about an hour.
It's now time that the daily 'skid' is to get underway, I expect her to go over to a table and flick the switch to activate the radio,
nope, she goes and jumps onto what looked like an 'exercise bike' and starts peddling furiously, the radio speaker then crackles to life,
and shes' gunna be doing this frantic peddling for an hour ?
Wow, no wonder this old dear is as skinny as, - now my evil minds sees great possibilities with this machine for S.W.M.B.O. all I got to do is remove them pesky phones from the house, hook them up to this contraption, then make HER use this 'thing-a-me-bob' to chat on the bleeding' phone, should have HER 'trunk' down a few sizes real quick, eh.
Any way, this old dear eventually gets a word in edgeways, and BINGO, a response, we get told that we have to get out to the Cuddapan Station, grab the map and hmm, this is out onto the Birdsville track, then turn left and into 'nowhere' to get to this station.
Next morning, we're on our way and the road out from Windorah was a single lane bit of tar, when we swing left onto the Birdsville track, it's a good smooth surface of compacted sand and dust, that's been wet when it was made, now it's been packed down tight by lots and lots of traffic, it's got a high crown on the dirt and big wide low table drains down each side, it looked like the council grader driver, had nicked a bit of this powdery stuff from down the table drains and pushed it all up to the crown.
That first bit of the track was good, "just to sucker you in", after about 30 kays it then turned to $hite, which was to be expected, the miserable buggers had only just worked on that small section, that ran parallel with a range of hills.
We arrive at this Cuddapan place, we're informed that one dozer, is just around the other side of the homestead, but the other one, is still out scrub working.
Right-o, where is this dozer, that's around the corner going too, told that this one, had to be delivered to Brisbane, OK, that one is for Ken. The one I had to get, was bound for Toowoomba, looks like 'I drew the short straw' with this deal, eh
" Now, just where is this other one hiding ?
Here's the last bit of tar we would see, so that I could take a photo, heading west from Windorah.
"
Here's the turn of to Cuddapan station, see if you find the places on that sign on a map ?
to be continued
this is Birdsville track country.
Kenny George was to lead this expedition out into the great wilderness and we head out that way empty, I had the White and tri L/L, Ken had his Mack R600 and his quad L/L.
Eventually arrive at Windorah, the word that's been 'penciled' onto the worksheet, is to go see the owner of the general store, find the store OK, right across the road from the pub, you can't miss it.
Up to the front door of the store and it's locked up tight, big sign stuck to the door window say's, -- Gone to Mt Isa for a Funeral.
Over the road to the pub and make some inquiries, appears that the storekeeper did go to Mt Isa, ---- about a week ago, nobody knows when he's going to make an appearance again though.
Now this storekeeper, was the go between us and where these dozers were actually hiding way out in the scrub, he had to deliver the groceries out to these camps sites, so he knew exactly where these machines should be.
Bit of a quandary about now, like how do we find a couple of dozers in about a couple million square kilometres of this empty country.
Bloke behind the bar offers us a 'wee glimmer of hope', we have to go back out of town a couple of clicks, there's a lady living out at this house, who ALWAYS gets on the daily radio 'yakkerty yak' session.
She might be able to get the word out there, of what we are after.
He warns us, that this radio is actually the flying doctor service, but it's used as a chat session by persons from the Gulf of Carpenteria right down to Marree in South Aust and all points in between. It's used as one big gab session for the bush, you take your chances, if you can even get a word in edgeways, what with all the radio traffic.
Back out the road again and arrive at the gate to her house, she pops her head out the door and we explain the predicament we're in. Now she's' a very sociable lady and invites us inside out of the heat and we can listen in to this chat session.
This will all happen at 4 PM, each and every day, for about an hour.
It's now time that the daily 'skid' is to get underway, I expect her to go over to a table and flick the switch to activate the radio,
nope, she goes and jumps onto what looked like an 'exercise bike' and starts peddling furiously, the radio speaker then crackles to life,
and shes' gunna be doing this frantic peddling for an hour ?
Wow, no wonder this old dear is as skinny as, - now my evil minds sees great possibilities with this machine for S.W.M.B.O. all I got to do is remove them pesky phones from the house, hook them up to this contraption, then make HER use this 'thing-a-me-bob' to chat on the bleeding' phone, should have HER 'trunk' down a few sizes real quick, eh.
Any way, this old dear eventually gets a word in edgeways, and BINGO, a response, we get told that we have to get out to the Cuddapan Station, grab the map and hmm, this is out onto the Birdsville track, then turn left and into 'nowhere' to get to this station.
Next morning, we're on our way and the road out from Windorah was a single lane bit of tar, when we swing left onto the Birdsville track, it's a good smooth surface of compacted sand and dust, that's been wet when it was made, now it's been packed down tight by lots and lots of traffic, it's got a high crown on the dirt and big wide low table drains down each side, it looked like the council grader driver, had nicked a bit of this powdery stuff from down the table drains and pushed it all up to the crown.
That first bit of the track was good, "just to sucker you in", after about 30 kays it then turned to $hite, which was to be expected, the miserable buggers had only just worked on that small section, that ran parallel with a range of hills.
We arrive at this Cuddapan place, we're informed that one dozer, is just around the other side of the homestead, but the other one, is still out scrub working.
Right-o, where is this dozer, that's around the corner going too, told that this one, had to be delivered to Brisbane, OK, that one is for Ken. The one I had to get, was bound for Toowoomba, looks like 'I drew the short straw' with this deal, eh
" Now, just where is this other one hiding ?
Here's the last bit of tar we would see, so that I could take a photo, heading west from Windorah.
"
Here's the turn of to Cuddapan station, see if you find the places on that sign on a map ?
to be continued
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10 years 10 months ago #118663
by greenie
Replied by greenie on topic Re: Brambles Long Distance
2nd instalment
This fella draws me a mud map with specific details drawn on it, I have to go back to the Birdsville track, turn left and head west for this exact number of kilometres, look for a rough track leading south from the Birdsville track, there should be a white marker rag tied to a saltbush, that's the track I need.
Here's a shot of the track that I needed, it's in the foreground, in between the two bushes and the bush in the foreground, the bit of track in the left centre, is the Birdsville track.
The next bit had me a tad suspicious, head south for about 60 kays and I'll be down alongside Lake Yamma Yamma, keep an eye out for the two outrider cabins, once past these cabins by another 15 kays, stop and start blowing the air horns, do this as three long blasts, wait for a couple of minutes and repeat this quite few times, so they can get a bearing, on just where I am.
I'll then have to wait, until somebody comes and gets me, eh, where are these "somebodies" going to come from ,--- down a 'bleedin' sky hook', or what ?
Do as instructed, find this goat track, turn left and proceed to 'crash and bash' my way over this 'crap country' which is covered in gidgee rocks and bull dust drifts, occasionally there's a bit of good surface, maybe, for about fifty yards, only every now and then though.
Get to these outrider huts and drive the allotted kilometres and stop, way out in the middle of nowhere, just lots of wind blown sand hills out here, not even a bird was making a noise, that country out there was so BARREN, not even a blade of grass to be seen.
Hit the horn and had to repeat this exercise for about a half dozen times, when suddenly a 'Toyota stump jumper' pops his head over the top of the closet sand hill.
A bit of a relief to see that I'm not the only person who's hanging around out here, he comes over and tells me that the dozer is still about an hour away, so get in and we can go back to camp for some grub.
Sounds real good to me, so depart the scenery with him, he drops me off at the campsite and does a bolt, to get the dozer driver to quit pushing scrub and get it out to the L/L.
These dozers had been pushing scrub out here, for an oil exploration crew, they used these tracks as roads, to get around the countryside and use their exploratory gear, to see just how much oil was around out here under the ground.
There is a rather large amount of it in the ground out there too.
The fella in the 'stump jumper' comes back, away we go back to the truck and it took a while, but eventually I can hear the dozer roaring, as it's heading toward me.
Load it and it's still got the blade attached, so, it's now a wide load, haven't got a pilot with me, will just have to do, what I have to do,eh.
It's onboard and I have to get back to Caddapan, as Ken is waiting for me, head north over the rocks and bull dust again, it's now late in the afternoon and there's this big lot of clouds, gathering over the range of hills due north and across to the north west.
As the afternoon progresses toward evening, these clouds start to get real angry, eh, there hasn't been any rain out this way for a decade or more, now it looks like I'm about to be in amongst a very big storm.
I start thinking about that first bit of the Birdsville track with all that loose sand and dust, that had been piled up to make a road, might be in a tad of bother here, eh.
Onto the Birdsville track now, ah-ha, this is like a super highway, compared to that 'goat track', from what I've just come off.
Kens waiting and spots me coming in the dull gloom, he does the bolt with me trying to run him down, as the Road Boss has longer legs, than any R model Mack in that yard.
As we get onto this heaped up sand and dust, the heavens opened up and it started to pour.
Wow, we would both be very lucky, if we can make it to the tar and get back to Windorah now, ideas of spending a week out here waiting for it to dry out, did not appeal to me at all.
Ken has his Mack stirred up as fast as he can handle this wet greasy mess that we got under us, me, I'm onto his bumper and getting great big clods of mud being chucked at me from the open wheels on Ken's L/L.
Bugger it, if he don't move faster, I'm gunna have to push him, then it started, Ken lost the crown and is now down in the left table drain, it's soft down in there, so he reefs the wheel and pops clean out of that side drain, goes straight over the crown down into the right side drain, this side to side movement, cannot now be avoided, I start doing it as well, down into one side and ride up the outside of the table drain and back and over to the other side, then repeat it, again and again, this went on, until we DO get to the tar.
Stop on the tar and can not believe at how and what these trucks were just doing, have a look and there's mountains of this mud piled up at the rear of the L/L's and the trucks decidedly need a wash.
Back to Windorah for a feed and a phone call to Brisbane, tell them the the dozer I got, has still got the blade attached, hmm, so you need a pilot then, yep, OK will organise something.
to be continued
This fella draws me a mud map with specific details drawn on it, I have to go back to the Birdsville track, turn left and head west for this exact number of kilometres, look for a rough track leading south from the Birdsville track, there should be a white marker rag tied to a saltbush, that's the track I need.
Here's a shot of the track that I needed, it's in the foreground, in between the two bushes and the bush in the foreground, the bit of track in the left centre, is the Birdsville track.
The next bit had me a tad suspicious, head south for about 60 kays and I'll be down alongside Lake Yamma Yamma, keep an eye out for the two outrider cabins, once past these cabins by another 15 kays, stop and start blowing the air horns, do this as three long blasts, wait for a couple of minutes and repeat this quite few times, so they can get a bearing, on just where I am.
I'll then have to wait, until somebody comes and gets me, eh, where are these "somebodies" going to come from ,--- down a 'bleedin' sky hook', or what ?
Do as instructed, find this goat track, turn left and proceed to 'crash and bash' my way over this 'crap country' which is covered in gidgee rocks and bull dust drifts, occasionally there's a bit of good surface, maybe, for about fifty yards, only every now and then though.
Get to these outrider huts and drive the allotted kilometres and stop, way out in the middle of nowhere, just lots of wind blown sand hills out here, not even a bird was making a noise, that country out there was so BARREN, not even a blade of grass to be seen.
Hit the horn and had to repeat this exercise for about a half dozen times, when suddenly a 'Toyota stump jumper' pops his head over the top of the closet sand hill.
A bit of a relief to see that I'm not the only person who's hanging around out here, he comes over and tells me that the dozer is still about an hour away, so get in and we can go back to camp for some grub.
Sounds real good to me, so depart the scenery with him, he drops me off at the campsite and does a bolt, to get the dozer driver to quit pushing scrub and get it out to the L/L.
These dozers had been pushing scrub out here, for an oil exploration crew, they used these tracks as roads, to get around the countryside and use their exploratory gear, to see just how much oil was around out here under the ground.
There is a rather large amount of it in the ground out there too.
The fella in the 'stump jumper' comes back, away we go back to the truck and it took a while, but eventually I can hear the dozer roaring, as it's heading toward me.
Load it and it's still got the blade attached, so, it's now a wide load, haven't got a pilot with me, will just have to do, what I have to do,eh.
It's onboard and I have to get back to Caddapan, as Ken is waiting for me, head north over the rocks and bull dust again, it's now late in the afternoon and there's this big lot of clouds, gathering over the range of hills due north and across to the north west.
As the afternoon progresses toward evening, these clouds start to get real angry, eh, there hasn't been any rain out this way for a decade or more, now it looks like I'm about to be in amongst a very big storm.
I start thinking about that first bit of the Birdsville track with all that loose sand and dust, that had been piled up to make a road, might be in a tad of bother here, eh.
Onto the Birdsville track now, ah-ha, this is like a super highway, compared to that 'goat track', from what I've just come off.
Kens waiting and spots me coming in the dull gloom, he does the bolt with me trying to run him down, as the Road Boss has longer legs, than any R model Mack in that yard.
As we get onto this heaped up sand and dust, the heavens opened up and it started to pour.
Wow, we would both be very lucky, if we can make it to the tar and get back to Windorah now, ideas of spending a week out here waiting for it to dry out, did not appeal to me at all.
Ken has his Mack stirred up as fast as he can handle this wet greasy mess that we got under us, me, I'm onto his bumper and getting great big clods of mud being chucked at me from the open wheels on Ken's L/L.
Bugger it, if he don't move faster, I'm gunna have to push him, then it started, Ken lost the crown and is now down in the left table drain, it's soft down in there, so he reefs the wheel and pops clean out of that side drain, goes straight over the crown down into the right side drain, this side to side movement, cannot now be avoided, I start doing it as well, down into one side and ride up the outside of the table drain and back and over to the other side, then repeat it, again and again, this went on, until we DO get to the tar.
Stop on the tar and can not believe at how and what these trucks were just doing, have a look and there's mountains of this mud piled up at the rear of the L/L's and the trucks decidedly need a wash.
Back to Windorah for a feed and a phone call to Brisbane, tell them the the dozer I got, has still got the blade attached, hmm, so you need a pilot then, yep, OK will organise something.
to be continued
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10 years 10 months ago #118664
by greenie
Replied by greenie on topic Re: Brambles Long Distance
3rd instalment
Next morning out with the crowbars and attack these great piles of mud were both carrying, got a heck of a lot of mud from the L/L's, and then head east.
Get too Quilpie and pull up in the railway cattle loading yards and spot these big hoses, that are used for washing out the road trains that cart the cattle to the rail head, OK, a spot of washing is sure needed, so we both get into it.
Nice clean trucks and load at Quilpie,
While this is going on, a fella wanders over and asks a few questions, turns out he's the pilot car for me, I have a quick look at the car he's driving, it's a VW 'herbie'.
No signs or flashing lights are fitted to this 'bug', ask where all this stuff is that a pilot vehicle requires, he's got a funny expression on his face, then shows me what he's going to use to warn any approaching vehicles.
He went over to the 'bug', and got out an old broom handle, with a red onion bag tied to the end of the said broomstick, he reckoned he was going to hold it out the window and wave it at any vehicles approaching, no way, this blokes a fruit loop.
" EH, - your - not - for - real - ah ya ?"
He was,
as he didn't have bloody clue, as to what he was meant to do, at all.
So I knick the sign from the rear of the L/L and roped it onto his front bumper, at least some poor unsuspecting sod, would now get some idea, of what was coming at them, told him he had to flash his lights at any oncoming vehicles, to get their attention and they might possibly read the sign as well.
He ask me, - " what about this ", meaning the red onion bag on the broomstick , - my reply was, that "he could go shove it, where the sun don't ever shine", - he didn't appreciate my sense of humour at all.
Worked it out that Ken would try and stay a couple of kays ahead of me and this idiot in the VW, then, whatever any vehicles were heading west, he would let me know via the company two way radio.
All's good until just after Charleville, the road improves and the hills get a tad higher, you would go up the hill and then it was a good run of down the other side, these hill tops were about a couple of clicks apart.
Up over this one particular rise, look down the road and the VW has stopped, way down the road near the bottom of the hill, half on the road and half of it, I expected it to start moving, but nope, it's staying just there, about now Ken has told me a triple train is coming my way, I can't see this truck as there's a bit of a curve down the bottom and this oncoming truck is still hidden by the trees.
Start to get closer to this clown in the VW and start to blow the horn at him, he just sticks his hand out the window and waves me to go round him, I move out to the other side and then the road train pops out of the tree line.
Whoa, a quick mental calculation says all three of us are going to be at the one spot at the same time, what to do, duck back over to my side and run into the VW and kill this idiot, or keep going and take the side out of the road train with the dozer blade.
The road train driver had done this very same mental calculation, well, he figured that the table drain was the best way out of this mess, so he just hooked the wheel and shot down into that table drain at full noise, all I could think of now, is that this poor sod, is going to have three trailers laying in the dirt on their side.
Nope, held them upright with a bit of fancy steering work and shot passed me with heaps of room to spare, just as I went around the VW, now he's got to get these trailers back onto the road safely, he did it, be buggered if I know how he kept them on all their wheels though, boy, was I thankful that that bloke had reacted so quickly.
Pull up to find out why this idiot was stopped on the road like he had, turned out a cow had wandered across the road in front of him, he decided to stop and make sure I didn't hit it, he was going to shoo it away, if it came back, when he went to go again, the motor stalled and he couldn't get it to start again,
then all this $hit happened around him.
I informed him that he is a very fortunate person to still be breathing, told him that I was about ready to kill him, so that the other truck driver, did not die.
Told him to get out front about 5 kays away from me, and do not stop, until we get to Morven.
He did stay that far away from me, I never saw him again until we got to Morven.
Swing into the main street at Morven and low and behold, there's a PROPER pilot car waiting, I couldn't tell that idiot in the VW to
"EFF ORF "
quick enough.
regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
Next morning out with the crowbars and attack these great piles of mud were both carrying, got a heck of a lot of mud from the L/L's, and then head east.
Get too Quilpie and pull up in the railway cattle loading yards and spot these big hoses, that are used for washing out the road trains that cart the cattle to the rail head, OK, a spot of washing is sure needed, so we both get into it.
Nice clean trucks and load at Quilpie,
While this is going on, a fella wanders over and asks a few questions, turns out he's the pilot car for me, I have a quick look at the car he's driving, it's a VW 'herbie'.
No signs or flashing lights are fitted to this 'bug', ask where all this stuff is that a pilot vehicle requires, he's got a funny expression on his face, then shows me what he's going to use to warn any approaching vehicles.
He went over to the 'bug', and got out an old broom handle, with a red onion bag tied to the end of the said broomstick, he reckoned he was going to hold it out the window and wave it at any vehicles approaching, no way, this blokes a fruit loop.
" EH, - your - not - for - real - ah ya ?"
He was,
as he didn't have bloody clue, as to what he was meant to do, at all.
So I knick the sign from the rear of the L/L and roped it onto his front bumper, at least some poor unsuspecting sod, would now get some idea, of what was coming at them, told him he had to flash his lights at any oncoming vehicles, to get their attention and they might possibly read the sign as well.
He ask me, - " what about this ", meaning the red onion bag on the broomstick , - my reply was, that "he could go shove it, where the sun don't ever shine", - he didn't appreciate my sense of humour at all.
Worked it out that Ken would try and stay a couple of kays ahead of me and this idiot in the VW, then, whatever any vehicles were heading west, he would let me know via the company two way radio.
All's good until just after Charleville, the road improves and the hills get a tad higher, you would go up the hill and then it was a good run of down the other side, these hill tops were about a couple of clicks apart.
Up over this one particular rise, look down the road and the VW has stopped, way down the road near the bottom of the hill, half on the road and half of it, I expected it to start moving, but nope, it's staying just there, about now Ken has told me a triple train is coming my way, I can't see this truck as there's a bit of a curve down the bottom and this oncoming truck is still hidden by the trees.
Start to get closer to this clown in the VW and start to blow the horn at him, he just sticks his hand out the window and waves me to go round him, I move out to the other side and then the road train pops out of the tree line.
Whoa, a quick mental calculation says all three of us are going to be at the one spot at the same time, what to do, duck back over to my side and run into the VW and kill this idiot, or keep going and take the side out of the road train with the dozer blade.
The road train driver had done this very same mental calculation, well, he figured that the table drain was the best way out of this mess, so he just hooked the wheel and shot down into that table drain at full noise, all I could think of now, is that this poor sod, is going to have three trailers laying in the dirt on their side.
Nope, held them upright with a bit of fancy steering work and shot passed me with heaps of room to spare, just as I went around the VW, now he's got to get these trailers back onto the road safely, he did it, be buggered if I know how he kept them on all their wheels though, boy, was I thankful that that bloke had reacted so quickly.
Pull up to find out why this idiot was stopped on the road like he had, turned out a cow had wandered across the road in front of him, he decided to stop and make sure I didn't hit it, he was going to shoo it away, if it came back, when he went to go again, the motor stalled and he couldn't get it to start again,
then all this $hit happened around him.
I informed him that he is a very fortunate person to still be breathing, told him that I was about ready to kill him, so that the other truck driver, did not die.
Told him to get out front about 5 kays away from me, and do not stop, until we get to Morven.
He did stay that far away from me, I never saw him again until we got to Morven.
Swing into the main street at Morven and low and behold, there's a PROPER pilot car waiting, I couldn't tell that idiot in the VW to
"EFF ORF "
quick enough.
regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
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10 years 10 months ago #118668
by greenie
Replied by greenie on topic Re: Brambles Long Distance
Gladstone
Occasionally there were jobs that you had to do on site, sent to Gladstone with 'dada' to one such bit of site work.
My set-up for this job was a tag axle with bolster and a tri axle jinker, had to thieve the jinker from a tri axle trailer, then add a frame to the jinker to hold the timbers.
Here's the set-up at Hendra.
'Dada' had to use a 2 row float with a plate and turntable, bolted to the floor and swipe another tri axle from a trailer to make another jinker.
We got all this set-up done on the Friday, had to be in Gladstone Monday to start loading these small concrete beams. We both decided to head for Gladstone on the Sunday morning, that way we could see just what we were up against. Me, I started from the yard, 'dada' had taken his lot home, so he started from northside of Brisbane.
Arrive at the site Sunday afternoon, soon find the pre-stressed concrete beams we had to move, now for those that don't know what a pre-stressed concrete bridge beam is, it gets made in a mould.
All the formwork wire is lowered into this mould and then the stressing wires are laid into this lot, one end of these heavy wire ropes are attached to a heavy well made plate that's been anchored down really well, these ropes are then stretch-out to the other end of the mould and attached to an even stronger plate at the other end, this plate then has a large amount of hydraulic pressure applied to the ropes to stretch them out tight, think tons of pressure, the concrete is now poured into the mould, a few days/weeks later when it's dry, then the pressure on these cables is reduced slowly and the beam will rise up out of the mould.
This beam has now got a bow in it, so when it gets laid down onto bridge pier, along with all the other beams, there is a slight hump at the centre of these beams. Now when a heavy vehicle passes over these beams they will sag down a little but DO NOT break, they are now in tension of anything heavy from above.
The sides of the beam are another thing entirely, if you try and bend one of these beams with side pressure and you succeed, then you better watch out for all the bits of exploding concrete, they can not withstand very much of this side pressure before it goes pop, so you had to reinforce both sides with wire ropes, to stop the beam from trying to bend, all in all, a lot of work had to be done to each beam, before it could be loaded for transporting.
Start to lay out all the gear thats required to shift these little toothpicks and I'm getting bitten by all the sandflies that call this area home, not a very pleasant creature these things when they want some blood, I've got on boots, shorts and a shirt, so quite a bit of skin is open to these little Ar$eholes.
Didn't know it at the time, but I just happened to be allergic to the bites when this many appeared and attacked at the same time, only had had a few bites at a time previously and had no real bother before this lot.
Look at my arms and they are starting to swell up, my legs are doing the same and my eye's start to get squeezed shut, oops I need some thing to cover me real quick, into the cab and into my cover-alls, still had to get all that gear set-up for tomorrows work.
Kept working and got the wires attached to the first beam, spread out the brake and electric leads, when 'dada' appears on the scene about know, he takes one look at me and tells me to get out of here quick, do so and stop on the bridge over the water inlet for the power station, no sandflies out here, the breeze is far too strong for the little buggers to move.
Wait out here for about an hour while 'dada' does his set-up, when he comes around the corner from the sandflies home patch, he can see that I'm in a bad way, so NO hanging around Gladstone for the night, we do a bolt to the small hamlet of Mt Larcom for the pubs board and lodgings, by now I must of looked like a cartoon character with all this puffy flesh.
Hoped like heck that tomorrow will bring a bit of relief for all this pain, in the meantime, a few 'bundies' and a few more, helped out.
to be continued -
Occasionally there were jobs that you had to do on site, sent to Gladstone with 'dada' to one such bit of site work.
My set-up for this job was a tag axle with bolster and a tri axle jinker, had to thieve the jinker from a tri axle trailer, then add a frame to the jinker to hold the timbers.
Here's the set-up at Hendra.
'Dada' had to use a 2 row float with a plate and turntable, bolted to the floor and swipe another tri axle from a trailer to make another jinker.
We got all this set-up done on the Friday, had to be in Gladstone Monday to start loading these small concrete beams. We both decided to head for Gladstone on the Sunday morning, that way we could see just what we were up against. Me, I started from the yard, 'dada' had taken his lot home, so he started from northside of Brisbane.
Arrive at the site Sunday afternoon, soon find the pre-stressed concrete beams we had to move, now for those that don't know what a pre-stressed concrete bridge beam is, it gets made in a mould.
All the formwork wire is lowered into this mould and then the stressing wires are laid into this lot, one end of these heavy wire ropes are attached to a heavy well made plate that's been anchored down really well, these ropes are then stretch-out to the other end of the mould and attached to an even stronger plate at the other end, this plate then has a large amount of hydraulic pressure applied to the ropes to stretch them out tight, think tons of pressure, the concrete is now poured into the mould, a few days/weeks later when it's dry, then the pressure on these cables is reduced slowly and the beam will rise up out of the mould.
This beam has now got a bow in it, so when it gets laid down onto bridge pier, along with all the other beams, there is a slight hump at the centre of these beams. Now when a heavy vehicle passes over these beams they will sag down a little but DO NOT break, they are now in tension of anything heavy from above.
The sides of the beam are another thing entirely, if you try and bend one of these beams with side pressure and you succeed, then you better watch out for all the bits of exploding concrete, they can not withstand very much of this side pressure before it goes pop, so you had to reinforce both sides with wire ropes, to stop the beam from trying to bend, all in all, a lot of work had to be done to each beam, before it could be loaded for transporting.
Start to lay out all the gear thats required to shift these little toothpicks and I'm getting bitten by all the sandflies that call this area home, not a very pleasant creature these things when they want some blood, I've got on boots, shorts and a shirt, so quite a bit of skin is open to these little Ar$eholes.
Didn't know it at the time, but I just happened to be allergic to the bites when this many appeared and attacked at the same time, only had had a few bites at a time previously and had no real bother before this lot.
Look at my arms and they are starting to swell up, my legs are doing the same and my eye's start to get squeezed shut, oops I need some thing to cover me real quick, into the cab and into my cover-alls, still had to get all that gear set-up for tomorrows work.
Kept working and got the wires attached to the first beam, spread out the brake and electric leads, when 'dada' appears on the scene about know, he takes one look at me and tells me to get out of here quick, do so and stop on the bridge over the water inlet for the power station, no sandflies out here, the breeze is far too strong for the little buggers to move.
Wait out here for about an hour while 'dada' does his set-up, when he comes around the corner from the sandflies home patch, he can see that I'm in a bad way, so NO hanging around Gladstone for the night, we do a bolt to the small hamlet of Mt Larcom for the pubs board and lodgings, by now I must of looked like a cartoon character with all this puffy flesh.
Hoped like heck that tomorrow will bring a bit of relief for all this pain, in the meantime, a few 'bundies' and a few more, helped out.
to be continued -
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10 years 10 months ago - 10 years 10 months ago #118669
by greenie
Replied by greenie on topic Re: Brambles Long Distance
2nd instalment
Next morning I'm a bit better but still looked funny, had to get back to the beams to get them loaded, it's now a hot morning and hidden away behind this hill where the beams were, it's still sandfly heaven, no breeze AT ALL and all these 2 legged suckers offering up some blood.
I'm wearing coveralls again and it's like being in a steam bath working in this heat, but had to do it.
Here's that hill that stopped any breeze and allowed the sandflies to congregate in a huge swarm, loading the Road Boss
If you look closely, there are two posts sticking way up in the air, these are the masts for the flying fox.
Eventually both beams are loaded and were on our way, this journey will take a long detour of about 45-50 clicks, just to get these bridge beams about half a click north of where we started from.
They were building a brand new bridge across the Calliope River, just about 500 metres west of the power station, they had a flying fox set-up to take these beams out over the river, to place the beams into position on the piles, only thing wrong with this lot, was the flying fox COULD NOT lay the last set of beams into position, that's where we came into the equation, to get these beams around to the other side of the river.
When this was going on, there was NO road on the other side of the Calliope AT ALL, nothing, narda, zip, today, there's a highway up part of the bush track that we had to use.
We had to go back toward Gladstone and turn right up Lord st, interesting turn when you got a load on that's a tad longer than a car and trailer, up past the hospital, turn left, down to the Dawson Highway and turn right, keep going till we got to the Brute, turn right and over the Calliope River, then swing right heading for Yarwun, turn right down this dozed track and keep going.
The first part of this track was dirt, this soon degenerated to mud and lots of mangrove trees which quite a lot had been pushed into the mud to try and give it some bottom, if the mud was too deep, someone had to tip whatever fill was available into these stinking sinking mud holes, even had to do a bit of wading over a river crossing, to get where we needed to be.
Once unloaded, get back to square one, then repeat this mad exercise all over again.
Once loaded, get out of the way for the next one, that building is the northern side of the Gladstone Power Station,
Eventually you got over to the other side of the Calliope River, that's 'dada' set-up, notice all the mangrove trees in the rear of that photo.
Here's a compilation showing them removing that little 'toothpick' from me. 'Dada' is down to the left, had to stop him from giving the forks though, took a bit of convincing to get him to just wave.
First day there was a tad of drama, doing the right hand turn from Hanson Rd into Lord St, this turn is more than a right angle turn, got most of the way around it and dragging the jinker around when a chain snapped on the jinker.
The jinker was refusing to do this right turn when the chain snapped, it went straight ahead and tried to knock down an electric pole, stopped the truck before this happened though. Tried to use a chain and 'dada's' Mack to bring it back into line, nope, a crane was required to lift the beam up and remove the weight on the jinker, crane turns up, we had it going again very soon.
We each had 4 beams to move, should have taken till Thursday, but nope we were a tad late for one tide, so that lot got cancelled till the next day.
This was what it was like, for the next 3 beams, that's when it dawned on me about this saying,
same $hit, only a different day.
This bridge was to allow heavy vehicles to bring heavy plant and equipment to the area north of the Calliope, ALL the places that were built in this area were all very noxious industries.
Think quite few people might have heard about the trouble that the local fishermen up there, are having with the Barramundi that they catch with big red open sores in these fish.
Me thinks, that all this noxious crap waste illegally being dumped, has eventually caught up with the wildlife, eh.
regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
Next morning I'm a bit better but still looked funny, had to get back to the beams to get them loaded, it's now a hot morning and hidden away behind this hill where the beams were, it's still sandfly heaven, no breeze AT ALL and all these 2 legged suckers offering up some blood.
I'm wearing coveralls again and it's like being in a steam bath working in this heat, but had to do it.
Here's that hill that stopped any breeze and allowed the sandflies to congregate in a huge swarm, loading the Road Boss
If you look closely, there are two posts sticking way up in the air, these are the masts for the flying fox.
Eventually both beams are loaded and were on our way, this journey will take a long detour of about 45-50 clicks, just to get these bridge beams about half a click north of where we started from.
They were building a brand new bridge across the Calliope River, just about 500 metres west of the power station, they had a flying fox set-up to take these beams out over the river, to place the beams into position on the piles, only thing wrong with this lot, was the flying fox COULD NOT lay the last set of beams into position, that's where we came into the equation, to get these beams around to the other side of the river.
When this was going on, there was NO road on the other side of the Calliope AT ALL, nothing, narda, zip, today, there's a highway up part of the bush track that we had to use.
We had to go back toward Gladstone and turn right up Lord st, interesting turn when you got a load on that's a tad longer than a car and trailer, up past the hospital, turn left, down to the Dawson Highway and turn right, keep going till we got to the Brute, turn right and over the Calliope River, then swing right heading for Yarwun, turn right down this dozed track and keep going.
The first part of this track was dirt, this soon degenerated to mud and lots of mangrove trees which quite a lot had been pushed into the mud to try and give it some bottom, if the mud was too deep, someone had to tip whatever fill was available into these stinking sinking mud holes, even had to do a bit of wading over a river crossing, to get where we needed to be.
Once unloaded, get back to square one, then repeat this mad exercise all over again.
Once loaded, get out of the way for the next one, that building is the northern side of the Gladstone Power Station,
Eventually you got over to the other side of the Calliope River, that's 'dada' set-up, notice all the mangrove trees in the rear of that photo.
Here's a compilation showing them removing that little 'toothpick' from me. 'Dada' is down to the left, had to stop him from giving the forks though, took a bit of convincing to get him to just wave.
First day there was a tad of drama, doing the right hand turn from Hanson Rd into Lord St, this turn is more than a right angle turn, got most of the way around it and dragging the jinker around when a chain snapped on the jinker.
The jinker was refusing to do this right turn when the chain snapped, it went straight ahead and tried to knock down an electric pole, stopped the truck before this happened though. Tried to use a chain and 'dada's' Mack to bring it back into line, nope, a crane was required to lift the beam up and remove the weight on the jinker, crane turns up, we had it going again very soon.
We each had 4 beams to move, should have taken till Thursday, but nope we were a tad late for one tide, so that lot got cancelled till the next day.
This was what it was like, for the next 3 beams, that's when it dawned on me about this saying,
same $hit, only a different day.
This bridge was to allow heavy vehicles to bring heavy plant and equipment to the area north of the Calliope, ALL the places that were built in this area were all very noxious industries.
Think quite few people might have heard about the trouble that the local fishermen up there, are having with the Barramundi that they catch with big red open sores in these fish.
Me thinks, that all this noxious crap waste illegally being dumped, has eventually caught up with the wildlife, eh.
regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
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