Butler Brothers logging trucks

[mountainskidder]

Hopefully the archive can be preserved. Doug1966 suggested all 3 of the top places. The Forest Museum would be my top pick if any parts of the actual trucks could be retrieved since they have the space. One other consideration for this might be the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society 'Heritage Acres'. Since all the trucks were effectively designed and built in Saanich by a long-time Saanich family the Historical Society might be interested.

Thx Truckmodeler... I will check Saanich Heritage Acres out as well. Makes sense.

 

[TorkelH]

Good luck! Hope you at least are able to go through the archive and save the interesting parts, as well as the cab and other salvageable remains!

 

[mountainskidder]

The good news is that I have touched base with three organizations who wish to preserve the archives. In the meantime, the Butler family will take some time now to choose which organization to select. The difficult part as I see it will be getting the three Butler truck frames from Andy Byrnes property in Powell River back to the Island. I believe they were barged over to Powell River and being a tad over-sized were moved on public roads late at night. Well see how this plays out over the next few months. The photo below was on a social media thread and I though it needed to be on this page.

MB Menzies Bay Butler Truck Trial Period

 

[mountainskidder]

Had another look through this forum and discovered that I had missed that the above MB Menzies Bay photo had already been posted by camptramp on May 20, 2014 in Post #110. So kudos to camptramp for the original post of the photo!

 

[Jollyhubucks]

Hi all
My first post here but following this discussion regarding the archives for the Butler "skate" trucks. My grandfather, Fred Greenhalgh, was the head of the Butler shop and was personally involved in the construction of these trucks. also a good friend of Barney Oldfield and Claude Butler. I grew up often hearing stories of these massive trucks, so seeing these trucks or the archives disappear is sad news. Any update on the preservation of the archives? Are they still out at Keating?

 

[mountainskidder]

Came across these two photos while viewing a Hillcrest Lumber Mesachie Lake photo album recently posted online by Nigel Robertson. I've seen many photos of #36 but this one caught my eye because the cab is different... it's got a sliding door on an extra long cab and the truck is labelled with SM-1. Got two photos here with one showing the truck from driver left-side and right-side from behind. I wonder if this truck came into Mesachie Lake by rail and was being off-loaded at Hillcrest Lumber for a demo somewhere in the area like Caycuse or Gordon River? It's a long way from home in Saanich for a proto-type testing. Anyone else seen this version of the "skate"?

 

[HD Mech]

Came across these two photos while viewing a Hillcrest Lumber Mesachie Lake photo album recently posted online by Nigel Robertson. I've seen many photos of #36 but this one caught my eye because the cab is different... it's got a sliding door on an extra long cab and the truck is labelled with SM-1. Got two photos here with one showing the truck from driver left-side and right-side from behind. I wonder if this truck came into Mesachie Lake by rail and was being off-loaded at Hillcrest Lumber for a demo somewhere in the area like Caycuse or Gordon River? It's a long way from home in Saanich for a proto-type testing. Anyone else seen this version of the "skate"?

I think this might be the truck built by Madill. They also tested it at Kelsey Bay. My Dad has a poor picture of it somewhere. In the background behind the log truck is a pickup with Madill on the door.