Doug Hamilton’s Machine Memories (Part Nine)

Fri 30 Aug 2019

Doug Hamilton’s Machine Memories (Part Nine)

It was 1976 and Doug had been back in England to get married to Catherine, but after only a week together, it was time for Doug to head back to Canada to start work on what was to be his biggest job yet, the Long Spruce Dam also known as the Long Spruce Generating Station. This was a massive project which took place between 1971 and 1979 and was to be Manitoba Hydro’s fourth generating station to be built on the Nelson River.

The Long Spruce Generating Station consisted of an intake structure, a 10-unit powerhouse with a capacity of 1,010 MW, earth main dams and dykes, and a 6-bay spillway. The generating station also provided a river crossing, allowing the Henday Converter Station to be accessed by highway.

Writing to his old workmate Bill Peters recently Doug said, “I wish you had been there with me Bill you would have liked it, there were single bunk rooms to be had I’m guessing there was at least five Hough 400’s” which readers may recall was a favourite machine of Bill’s.

Doug said, “There were one or two brand new Hough 400C’s and the larger 560’s which were running along with a lot of Cat 988’s which were very popular at the time”.

“To start with I felt pretty lost on such a huge job site, but due to the large turnover of men on the site, after only a month I was like an old hand, but long days and hours were taking there toll and I was really missing Catherine and looking forward to being with her again”.

Photo: Doug with Catherine on their wedding day back in the UK, by this time Doug was missing her, a reminder of how difficult it can be to work away from home!

Some of the Euclid/Terex trucks appeared to have strengthening bars welded on to the front to protect the radiator grills, probably to avoid accidental damage from collisions when trucks were tailgating, a common occurrence on some job sites!

Doug concluded, “There was a lot of talk on site about Limestone, an even bigger dam project that would be starting up soon, they were already taking names of workers and I was told I could go there and that being married meant I could have a trailer (caravan or mobile home) taken into the site, at that time I thinking of working up there for a couple of years and then head back to the UK, well that was the plan then anyway!” Readers of this blog might enjoy this informative video from Manitoba Hydro that gives more detail on the project itself and its legacy today.

Lookout for the next instalment of Doug's Machine Memories here on the Digger Man Blog.

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