EPISODE 282 MASSEY FERGUSON DEMOLITION THE IRON WORKER MACHINE….NEAR DEATH EVENT…GLAD POLICE ARRIVED
alan skeoch
March 2021
THIS WAS MY GOOD FRIEND BILL PARSONS. WE SHARED A LOT OF GOOD TIMES. THIS WAS ONE OF OUR BEST.
Most of the Massey Ferguson buildings were stripped bare. Hundreds of machines gone God knows where.
But I found one machine that had been judged worthless and left behind for the demolition crew.
Who would possibly ever want a lever action ‘iron cutting machine’? Obsolete remains of 19th century
manufacturing. Who would want it? Well, I wanted it. Never heard of such a machine that could cut
iron or steel just by use of he human hand and a long lever.
Extricating the machine turned out to be quite an event. Exciting in the extreme. Even a member
of the Toronto Police force and his cautionary black and white car with flashing lights got into
the adventure.
This was not an easy job. The iron worker was located on the third floor of the old paint shop building.
How the hell would I get it down to ground level. The machine must have weighed 300 pounds or more.
This required thought. And help. So I called up my good friend Bill Parsons. A man who loved
outdoor bizarre adventure.
“Bill, can you help me move a machine out of the Massey demolition site?”
Bill Parsons already knew about my rescue missions as he had received
some of those pitch pine planks.
“Sure, When?”
“I think Sunday morning is best. Most people will be at church or asleep.”
“What will we need?”
“Just a long piece of heavy rope…40 or 50 feet long.”
“Got it right here.”
The foreman and his boss found my presence amusing.
I had already got permission … first to get the machine which was junk to him and
second to be on the demolition site on Sunday when no men would be working.
We took my truck right up to the doomed building. Climbed up the stairs to he
third floor and then did something I should never have done.
Best understood in numbered stages.
This was the building. We knocked out one of the third floor windows.
1) We used our hammers to smash the glass window and sash. No one
seemed to have heard the glass shattering.
2) We manhandled the iron worker over to the window.
3) We tied the rope to the machine.
4) We walked the rope back to a vertical ceiling support beam.
5) Looped the rope around the beam.
6) then went back to the window and managed to lift the
iron worker onto the ledge. It Teetered there…unstable\
7) “Now, Bill,you go back and hold the rope. When you
are ready give me a signal.”
8) Bill signalled. Then I pushed the Iron worker
off the smashed window ledge. It dropped like a wrecking ball.
9) Bill took off like he had been shot from a cannon.
10) I got to the rope just in time. We were holding
the rope … the iron worker was dangling between the second
and third floor. Heavy…but manageable.
REVIEW THE STEPS.
We looped the rope around the distant beam, then Bill held the rope while I pushed the iron worker out
the window. That was a deadfall drop of about five feet before the slack was taken up. Imagine.
Dropping a 200 to 300 lump of iron in a free fall for several feet. Bad business. I got back
just in time. WE stopped the drop but could not move. Then help arrived…in uniform.
Police.
About this time the police arrived. One policeman. He
wondered what the hell we were doing.
11) “Glad you got here. Grab the rope. We can all slowly lower
the machine to the ground without smashing it. I have permission..
take my licence…whatever you want. But grab the rope.
And he did. We gingerly lowered the iron worker to the ground
and tipped it into my truck. The adventure was over.
The paint shop on the second floor should have given us second thoughts. Looked like splattered blood.
We survived. Note to worried readers. Do not get too agitated. If we failed all that would happen would happen only to the iron worker…it would be
smashed below. We had an emergency plan.
“Bill, if things go wrong, let go of the rope.”
Once loaded in the truck we felt the adventure was over.
But not quite.
“Do you fellows know why smoke is coming out of
that chimney?” And the cop joined to the sky where the
tall chimney ended. Sure enough…smoke.
We were not alone.
“We have no idea.”
“Well, I better check that out as well.”
“Thanks for the help officer.”
“Our motto is We Serve…or something like that.”
(I Think he thought we were a brick short of a load…nuts in other words.)
The foreman told me on Monday that some enterprising thief
had cut loose all the copper electrical wire he could find…
a great roll was made. Then he burned off the insulated
covering in the furnace before getting on the King Street
car and riding to a scrap yard downtown. He got away.
“He could have killed himself had one of the lines been alive.”
Now it is year 2021…decades later. Guess what? I cannot find where
I put the iron worker. Somewhere in a fence row at the farm. Sinking.
THE END
mar