Sandvik arrivals

 Sandvik AB is a large Swedish company with involvement in metal related industries. Among these is the manufacture of mining equipment. Sandvik is favoured by many Canadian mining companies and new units arrived in the Port of Halifax on a regular basis. 

The company makes several models of underground dump trucks, several of which arrived on January 30 on the RoRo ship Elektra. They were driven off the ship by longshoremen using the ship's own 125 tonne capacity ramp.

Sandvik also makes mobile rock processing plants such as this unit which arrived on an Atlantic Container Line RoRo ship last week. It was likely transported on a dolly in the ship, then transferred to the trailer once it was landed.

The driver is just connecting air and brake lines and will soon be on the road. The trailer has the deck extended to accommodate the length of this QA 452 tracked mobile screener.

As usual Atlantic Tiltload has impressive equipment such as this Western Star with flat top sleeper and drop third axle.

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School's Out

 Old school buses re-purposed for recreational vehicles - often referred to as "hippy buses" or "skoolies"- are still sighted occasionally - usually in summer. So it was quite a surprise to see three of them - likely travelling together - all in the same place in Halifax on January 25.

The big Freightliner was the only full sized unit of the three. Its grey paint (peeling in places) was touched off with a red stripe on the hood, but despite the awning and few other touches it appeared to be in fairly rough shape.

I'm not expert enough to know with certainty which manufacturer built the "Toukie Skoolie", but I am leaning toward Thomas Built Buses Inc (a Freightliner, Daimler subsidiary).

The other two skoolies were small scale types, one of which still displayed the Shool Bus sign board, "cheese" coloured paint, and the Girardin name. Girardin is a Blue Bird dealer, and also manufactures Blue Bird's Micro Bird line at their Drummondville, QC, factory.

The hard case unit - despite a roof rack and skylight - displays fewof the niceties of a manufactured RV.

The third and last skoolie, also built on a cutaway van chassis, but this time a GMC, is named "Le Chalet Bus". Perhaps tney are seeking snow for skiing, but that will be hard to find this year.

This one was probably never a school bus, but was more likely a shuttle van or similar. The rear doors suggest a baggage compartment or it may have been in special needs service.  Oddly it has a pair of D-rings mounted up front (I hope they are secured to the frame), so it might have served a remote or northern area.

Fortunately temperatures are on the warm side right now, but if it turns cold I cannot imagine these skoolies being comfortable accommodation.

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Ponsse and Pete

 Finland is a major producer of forestry machinery. One manufacturer is Ponsse Oyj with its factory in Vieremä, where its makes "cut to length" harvesters and off road transporters. Since 2000 it has had sales and service representatives in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (A.L.P.A.), Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. 

 

Malois Transport of St-Odilon-de-Cranbourne, in the Beauce Region, southest of Quebec City, sent this well equipped Peterbilt to pick up a newly imported transporter. The Pete has a total of thirteen clearance lights mounted on the cab roof.  The tri-axle Talbert gooseneck trailer is connected with an interesting single axle jeep dolly.

The trailer of the Ponsse transporter also has tracks, which are not mounted.(The tracks are a bright blue - green and are partially visible where they are stacked at the back of the load. The trailers tires have also been removed for clearance.)

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Round up and Oddities

I have not posted for some time, so here is a round up of recent sitings.

 A few oddities have popped up:

This Renault appears to have made a wrong turn somewhere. The strange container like van body, from another vehicle has what appears to be a huge antenna strapped down on the roof. It also has a Euro made tilt deck. Good luck finding parts.

Hippy school bus conversions are still on the raods, but this one is unique (the bright green colour above the roof is part of a building in the  background - see also below.):

 Canadian National Railway has a fleet of custom spec vehicles, including a hy-rail bus. Used to transport work crews from accommodations to work sites, it is built on a Navistar International cowl chassis.

 CN also operates this beefy Brandt hy-rail conversion Freightliner. It has the power to haul hopper cars full of roadbed ballast:

 (That green structure shows up again in the background - see hippy bus above).

Is this one Cat powered?

Atlantic Pet Distributing uses this Ryder lease Freightliner straight truck to deliver product to pet stores and grooming salons.

I have seen some regular trucks recently too. This good looking streamlined Navistar runs for Camionnage Silver Star Trucking from Laval Quebec:

Equipment Express from Ayr, ON had some big boxes to deliver from the port:

That is it for now except to wish readers a Happy New Year 2023. 

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Hauls, Backhauls and New Hauls

 A tremendous amount of machinery has been moving through the Port of Halifax recently. It would be impossible to track all of it, but this is what I have been able to catch by chance.

This morning Atlantic Tiltload had a pair of John Deere timber forwarders, model 1910G and called out their  Freightliner number 18 and International HX number 19 for the work.

 Both tractors are equipped with an extra axle and at least one of the trailers is a Talbert.

The Earl Paddock company from Stoney Creek, ON specialize in transporting military vehicles and are seen here often with both wheeled and tracked vehicles from General Dynamics for export. They are usually in and out so quickly that I don't get to see their well kept fleet of Kenworths.

 

Many of these military vehicles have passed outbound though Halifax recently.

Today I did spot Paddock Kenworth number 512, backhauling a Liebherr L 580 wheel loader.

 Speaking of loaders I saw this big Komatsu WA600 ready for the road, but no sign of the hauler.

Another operator of well kept Kenworths is the oversize load specialists Transport Watson from Quebec. In 2020 the QSL (founded as Quebec Stevedores Ltd) acquired Watson + Sycamore from Groupe Robert, but have retained the Watson identity so far. Their trucks are well known in Halifax for hauling aircraft components imported by Bombardier. I recently spotted what appeared to be a pair of new Kenworths:

Unit number W3913 is ready for a wide load with flags in place. It is a T880 model with mid-rise sleeper.

Unit W3912 appears to be built to a similar spec (but with a bull bar), and a large headache rack equipped with storage compartments.

What I think is a new name to the Halifax area is Sunbelt Rentals (a huge North America wide operation with 1,1000 locations.) I recently spotted their Peterbilt tilt deck, bearing Alberta plates.

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Still more

 It now seems that there are a lot of domestic RVs on the scene, but they have a definite European air to them.

This ancient shorty Sprinter, from British Columbia, has many of the attributes of a stealth vehicle, but the roll up awning is a giveaway - maybe the surf board too.

When Chrysler had to give up the Sprinter, they came up with the Ram Van (which is a lightly disguised Fiat) and this 2500 model is a worthy replacement. The raised roof version gives it RV capability.

The big German RV maker Hymer, inserts their own logo on Fiat vans. Although common in Europe, this is first domestic Hymer I've seen - it carries Virginia plates and could almost be mistaken for a Dodge (especially with the hood up: How do you get spare parts for a Fiat?
Just follow another one around..)

 The RV season  must be coming to a close very soon, as cold weather is arriving and even the hardy Germans and Swiss are unlikely to want to be here in the winter.

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Inter extra

 Total Transport and Rigging, the heavy lift and oversize load carriers in Halifax, have been busy recently with some big moves. For this they neeed big trucks and the Navistar International HX seems to be a favoured model. The company carries a lot of material in and out of the port area, and I sighted this extra axle HX recently at Fairview Cove.

The truck has lots of extra lighting and chrome too, including the extra large bumper.

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