- [Dr Dad] Look at that one.
What do you think that one does?
- [Cody] They already wreck it.
- [Dr Dad] Whoa, it's a skidder.
- [Cody] What's a skidder?
- [Dr Dad] Well, I don't know,
but I'm guessing it also,
maybe it's a portable lumber mill.
I betcha that's what it is.
It probably saws the
lumber up or something.
- [Cody] Look at that
old chain that's broken.
- [Dr Dad] Yeah, hey, let's
go around the other side
and see if we can find out what it is.
(playful music)
(train horn whistles)
(soft country music)
- [Dr Dad] Well hello, engineers!
Today we're at Whittaker
Station in Cass, West Virginia,
an old logging section,
and you'll never guess what we found.
So engineers, guess what?
So that piece that's right back there,
that used to have this
big massive tower on it,
and it would pull logs in
all the way around.
You can see it.
Look how it's way up there.
They would pull logs
all the way down here,
and then that would be the log turner,
that piece right there,
that big massive crane,
and what that log turner would do
is load it onto the car,
and then the car would take
it over there to the train,
and they would take it down the hill.
Is that like really super fun or what?
- [Cody] Yeah!
(laughs)
- [Dr Dad] Whoa, it's a skidder.
Whoa, it's all those gears.
That's some serious gears, isn't it?
(Cody speaks indistinctly)
- (Dr Dad) Yeah, and it's
got a big ol' massive boiler
on there, too, huh?
Now then, what does it do?
- (Man) It's a steam skidder.
It pulls logs in from
a mile away, he said.
- (Dr Dad) Wow.
It takes a log and it pulls it in.
Once the loggers felled a tree,
they had to get it back
to the trains somehow.
So in 1939, they created a log skidder.
It had a 96-foot tower
that could hoist a log
50 feet into the air
and run it back to the
train up to a mile away.
So they never really dragged the log,
they flew the log!
So just how much is one
mile in all directions?
Well, let's find out!
Here we are at Whittaker
Station in West Virginia.
And there's the trains, there's the crane,
and there's the steam skidder.
All right, let's get a measuring tool.
Here we are, quarter mile,
there's a half mile,
There's three-quarters of a mile,
and here we are, we're almost-
a little more, little more...
There's one mile!
It's the whole side of the mountain!
Whoa, look at this big old crane.
- (Cody) Yes!
- (Dr Dad) And it loads it onto the car,
on the cars that we've been riding,
that's what it looks like
when they were loading
all the logs on the car.
Whoa. That is one big machine, isn't it?
That's a mighty machine.
(jaunty, upbeat music)
This must be the dining car
where they ate.
This is probably the most popular car
in the whole yard, isn't it.
Hey, can you cook us
some bacon, eggs, please?
I want some bacon and eggs!
(laughs)
- These are fake.
- (Dr Dad) Hey, serve
us up some coffee, too!
Look at that coffee! (laughs)
That's a big coffee thing.
- Food.
- (Dr Dad) Hey, okay, dinner time, ready?
Want to sit down and have some dinner?
Have some breakfast?
(laughs)
Okay, I'm going to serve breakfast!
(rattling)
Here you go!
Okay, we're cooking up some eggs!
Here you go, here's some eggs!
(laughs)
You want some coffee with that, sir?
- Um, yes please.
- (Dr Dad) (laughs)
(Eric imitates train wheels)
- (Cody) Whoa, that's awesome, Dad!
How that switch does.
One switch comes out-
- (Dr Dad) Oh, and here's
the switch, right there.
Look, let's take a look.
We saw the guy do a switch,
for real, didn't we?
See, it's pointing this way.
So this one right here
is pointing to this one,
so it actually turns to the left.
- Guys, did you know that
tower is a fireman's tower?
- (Dr Dad) Uh-huh.
Whoa, what do they do with that tower?
The fire tower?
- Um, they would...
- (Dr Dad) Look for elephants?
- No.
- (Dr Dad) (laughs)
- They would look for...
they would look for a train
that's on fire, I guess.
- (Dr Dad) No, forest fires, probably.
Cause this is forest fire,
look at all the forest behind you.
That's a lot of forest, isn't it?
(Eric imitates train wheels)
- Let's go back to the flat train.
- (Dr Dad) Okay. Let's head back.
(cheerful theme music)
