Lombard, the great steam-powered, snowmobiling, log-hauling horse emancipator

In the span of two days this year, more than 16 inches of snow dropped on us here in Vermont, certainly the most snow I’ve seen at once since I moved up here. Also in the span of a couple days, I got emails from two separate readers regarding the great steam-powered Lombard logging vehicles, both full of excellent histories and photographs.

Terry Harper is one of those readers, and as he wrote in his history of the Lombard on Old Snow Plow Equipment, the Lombard was a purpose-built vehicle designed by Alvin Orlando Lombard at the behest of E.J. Lawrence, then the president of a lumber company in Maine, who envisioned a machine that could take the place of his numerous draft horses engaged in pulling felled trees out of the woods. Lombard a year later applied for the first of his many patents (674,737) that would eventually prove to be what some consider the first practical tracked crawler. He didn’t wait for the patent to be assigned to him, however – his first “Logging Engine,” as he called it (”Mary Anne,” as it was nicknamed), started up on Thanksgiving Day 1900. Mary Anne looked rather like a steam locomotive, except for the skis at the front and the cog-wheeled tracks on either side at the rear. Though the steam engine was worth just 50 horsepower at 300-400 RPM and motored the Logging Engine at 3-4 MPH, Mary Anne could pull 125 tons of logs.

Lawrence immediately bought Mary Anne and ordered two more. Lombard set up shop in Waterville, Maine, and licensed the construction and assembly of the Logging Engine to other companies: Phoenix Manufacturing Company of Eau Clair, Wisconsin; and Jenckes Machine Company Limited of Sherbrooke, Quebec, among them.

Because they were steam-powered, the Logging Engines (also called Log Haulers) could run on either coal or wood, the latter making more sense for a logging operation. Also because they were steam-powered, each Log Hauler required a crew of four: and engineer, a fireman, a striker and a steersman. But they could pull eight sleds at a time, and would usually work around the clock.

Steam-powered Lombards were built through 1918, and by best estimates, 83 were built. They were phased out by the gasoline- and diesel-powered Lombards that A.O. Lombard began to develop in 1909. These were not only cheaper to purchase and maintain, but also had brakes and could be operated by one man. Several steamers still exist, including one at the Clark Trading Post in Lincoln, New Hampshire, and the one in the video below that the Crooker family recently restored.

Our other email came from Gene Herman, who supplied more information on the Lombard’s historical claim to fame – that of being the first tracked crawler. Gene writes:

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it is believed to be the first successful application of the crawler track, beating the Holt Co. (later to become Caterpillar) by quite a few years. Only eighty-three were ever built. I only know of two left running; one in Lincoln, NH and the other in the video link below in Maine. What follows is a brief history, mostly cadged from other sources, and a few more pix:

Alvin O. Lombard (1856-1937) of Waterville, Maine was issued a patent in 1901 for the Lombard Steam Log Hauler that resembles a regular railroad steam locomotive with sled steerage on front and crawlers in rear for hauling logs in the Northeastern United States and Canada. The haulers allowed pulp to be taken to rivers in the winter. Prior to then, horses could be used only until snow depths made hauling impossible. Lombard began commercial production which lasted until around 1917 when focus switched entirely to gasoline powered machines. A gasoline powered hauler is on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine.

After Lombard began operations, Hornsby in England manufactured at least two full length “track steer” machines, and their patent was later purchased by Holt in 1913, allowing Holt to be popularly known as the “inventor” of crawler tractors. Since the “tank” was a British concept it is more likely the Hornsby, which had been built and unsuccessfully pitched to their military, was the inspiration.

In a patent dispute involving rival crawler builder Best, testimony was brought in from people including Lombard, that Holt had inspected a Lombard log hauler shipped out to a western state by people who would later build the Phoenix log hauler in Eau Claire, WI, under license from Lombard. The Phoenix Centipeed typically had a fancier wood cab, steering wheel tipped forward at a 45 degree angle and vertical instead of horizontal cylinders.

In the meantime a gasoline powered motor home was built by Lombard for Holman Harry (Flannery) Linn of Old Town, Maine to pull the equipment wagon of his dog & pony show, resembling a trolley car only with wheels in front and Lombard crawlers in rear. Linn had experimented with gasoline and steam powered vehicles and six wheel drive before this, and at some point entered Lombard’s employment as a demonstrator, mechanic and sales agent. This resulted in a question of proprietorship of patent rights after a single rear tracked gasoline powered road engine of tricycle arrangement was built to replace the larger motor home in 1909 on account of problems with the old picturesque wooden bridges. This dispute resulted in Linn departing Maine and relocating to Morris, NY, to build an improved, contour following flexible lag tread or crawler with independent suspension of halftrack type, gasoline and later diesel powered. Although several were delivered for military use between 1917 and 1946, Linn never received any large military orders. Most of the production between 1917 and 1952, approximately 2500 units, was sold directly to highway departments and contractors.

The Lombard has been designated as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Ceremonies were held Aug. 14, 1982, at Patten, ME, site of the Lumberman’s Museum where a tablet was unveiled reading……

“This steam crawler-tractor emancipated horses from the killing work of hauling trains of sleds over iced roads in the winter woods of the U.S. & Canada.”

There’s now a museum dedicated to the Lombard in downtown Waterville, and Lombard’s house in Waterville still stands.

Interestingly, Lombard’s work on the Log Haulers immediately followed (and probably derailed) his work on a steam car that he had planned to manufacture. He built the prototype in September 1899 and drove it around town, but seemed to have not filed a patent on all the innovations he promised with it, nor did he pursue the idea any further once the Log Haulers proved successful. Not until 1929 did he turn his inventive gaze toward automobiles again, this time filing a patent (1,774,835) for an automobile-to-snowmobile conversion.

Thanks, Terry and Gene!