LOMBARD LOG HAULER MUSEUM
Corner of Spring and Front Streets

The Lombard steam log hauler was the original crawler type overland tractor. It had crawler treads and skids in front for steering. It required 4 men (an engineer, fireman, pilot or steersman, and conductor) to operate it.

In 1901, Alvin Lombard (1856-1937) was granted a patent on the track, which would give wheels traction in the snow, and in that year he built the first power log hauler at the Waterville Iron Works in Waterville, Maine. This type of track was the ancestor of all crawler type tracks such as military tanks, bulldozers, tractors, etc. The first log haulers were steered by horses. This steam crawler-tractor emancipated horses from the killing work of hauling trains of sleds over iced roads in the winter woods of the United States and Canada. Later, a steersman sat on the front of the sled, guiding the hauler by a large iron wheel that turned the runners. They had no brakes.

The log haulers operated best on the roads formerly used by horses. The machine could haul 300 tons. The logs were hauled on sleds in trains of four to ten sleds. Their speed was 4 or 5 miles per hour and 20 miles per hour downhill. The haulers weighed from 10 to 30 tons.

Eighty-three Lombard steam log haulers were known to have been built up to 1917 when production switched entirely to internal combustion engine powered machines, ending with a Fairbanks diesel powered unit in 1934. The steam log haulers were mostly used in Maine and New Hampshire but three went to Russia, and one each to Wisconsin and Michigan.

In 1911 or 1912, the Lombard Traction Engine Company developed a gasoline log hauler. This had a 6-cylinder engine rated at 100-horse power. The gasoline log hauler was patterned after the steam hauler in all important details except for the power source, which eliminated the huge steam boiler and reduced the size considerably. This made it more maneuverable and faster. It was also lower in initial cost, could be driven by one man, and had brakes. However, it did not have the power that the steam log hauler had. In 1934, Lombard built a diesel engine hauler but trucks came into use about that time, so the new hauler was obsolete from the beginning.

The steam log haulers had an advantage over horses and oxen in that they could tow many more two-sleds than any team.