News

Memory of the month the way things were (Part Nineteen)

Canada No 4

January was very cold and all the machines were left running 24/7 whether they were used or not as it would be impossible to start them once they cooled down and the coolant would freeze, even neat anti-freeze freezes at -60f, interestingly enough we never had any problems with diesel freezing so they must have had a lot of additives in it.  Scrapers could only run during the day so as to let the muskeg freeze overnight ready to scrape next day, two men were employed overnight to move the scrapers every hour to stop the tyres freezing to the ground, but one night failed to do so, next morning the first two to pull away left large sections of tread stuck to the ground, not a pretty sight but another lesson learned. After a few weeks the head of earthmoving operations visited the site and as he was passing stopped to speak to us, one of his questions was had I ever loaded rock before, I really thought he was taking the micky, I replied that I had loaded enough rock to fill the channel several times over, he then said I suppose you will be quitting like all the rest, which of course is why we were there in the first place, my reply was quit! Damn it we’re Brits, we don’t quit’ and I’m pleased to say none of us did 

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Photo: Terex-R35-on-the-ice-road-Ominawin-Channel-1975

On those wonderful clear nights that are a feature of those latitudes and with no light pollution, the stars are a marvellous sight and the northern lights were a real bonus for someone like me from southwest England so I’d often nip out to make the most of it. On Saturdays we normally only worked in the morning on overtime rate, on this particular morning it was very cold with a strong north wind blowing and I was pushing motor scrapers with an IH TD25 with no cab on but with canvas sheets to the engine sides to direct a bit of heat towards me but only up to the waist. 

The Cat D8 and box scrapers didn’t even manage one load because the muskeg had frozen in the box before they got to the dump, it wasn’t far to go either so that was the end of them for the winter. As soon as I started pushing the scrapers ice fog would come up so thick that not only could I not see the scraper I couldn’t see the blade and only just see the end of the bonnet, the only way I knew the scraper was loaded was when the blade went light. I felt like a Malteser covered in ice from the scrapers back engine blowing the fog over me and freezing on my clothes and head, obviously no exposed skin, I wore a balaclava, woolly hat and goggles and my industrial parker hood tied in tight and for the first time ever they brought us out hot drinks.

This went on until lunch time by which time I was so stiff it was difficult to move.Then unusually the superintendent came to me and said we need someone to run a D6 this afternoon you’ve been doing it all morning so you get first choice, I’m sorry I said but I’ve had enough, (me! turning down work) well he said, it’s minus 90F (-67C) with the wind chill so it’s no wonder. One of the scraper drivers said he’d do it but he’d been in a heated cab all morning so didn’t realise how cold it really was, later on in the canteen he came in with the side of his face black and that was through his clothing where the wind was hitting him on one side, it seems that was the coldest day of the year.

Photo: Caterpillar-16E Motor Grader Ominawin-Channel-1974

One of the jobs I quite liked was grading the ice road so supplies could get through, one day out on the ice, a blizzard came in and it was so thick it was impossible to tell sky from land, where I been, or where I was going, luckily the road was straight at this point so I kept going until the tree line came into view, as I drove through the trees I saw a glow through the snow, it turned out to be the headlights of the supply truck and you have to marvel at the way they get through in such conditions and the distances involved around 500 miles in this case, we were both pleased to see each other especially as I had no radio so it feels quite isolated a long way from camp and if your engine quits you are in big trouble. The co-operator