Art & Words by
HOWARD B. TAYLOR

The loggers’ best answer to their deathless dream of a skyhook until recently was a form of the skyline. This steam rig topped them all. It combined yarding, loading, and car moving into one compact unit with a portable stepped spar which folded down in transport. It had drums for everything. About 14, in fact. The skyline had a separate drum in some. Some ran the mainline through the skyline jack, out to the tail tree, down to the buy stump, over to the guy stump, and up through the tail tree jack to tail hold on the carriage. One line became main line, skyline, and haul back. Got that?

Guy lines were tightened by drums powered by compressed air motors. The logs could be flown to the landing. If a choker did not button up, a slack pulling device pulled out a little more mainline. It moved to a new side on the railroad. Walking guys backed up the skyline.