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Bombardier Rally photos . . .

Melensdad

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
Hey folks, we have several members here who visit from the www.NorthernTracks.Com website. Their site is dedicated to Bombardier B12/C18 units and, while it is a small forum, they have some great stuff on there . . . and they tolerate me so they can't be too bad of a bunch :rolleyes:

Anyway they just had their 9th Annual Rally that attracted about 20 different units and you owe it to yourselves to take a look. The rally took place on March 10 (just a few days ago).

Here is a link to their Rally thread:
http://www.northerntracks.com/forum/index.php?topic=71.0 :17875:
 
Great post! There is a B7, similar to one I considered purchasing from a man in Valcort.(Home of Bombardier). Records indicate that roughly 120 were built. Not many. It's the Maroon machine with only 2, possibly 3 wheels in the rear instead of the normal 4. They were refered to as Doctor's cars as the first few produced were custom built for doctors back before Canada subsidized snow plowing. A Father & Son team that restored Carriages and Wagons for Museums, Brittish Royalty and the like built 2 replica machines. The Father had worked for Joseph Armond Bombardier for many years and when he retired they gave him much of the original tooling used to produce these machines. In his shop he had a boiler and some forms for steam pressing the original Wood Skiis that went on the early versions of the B7 and B12. It was set up and operational. The tour of the father & son's shop turned out to be better than the Bombardier Museum. Nice post, great linc!
 
What a DRAG! when they re-edited the site the pictures of the exstreemly rare "B7" got eliminated! I've only seen 2 in my life, and one is in the Bombardier Museum.
 
There are photos of that little red Bombardier in a different thread. Look around their site, you will find the photos. But they state it was a custom made unit. I wonder if it was really cut down of if the owner simply doesn't know the history of that that unit.

http://www.northerntracks.com/forum/index.php?topic=77.0
 

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The party that built 2 of these was the son of an original Bombardiere employee that knew Mr. Bombardier personally, and they were EXACT copies of the B7 in the Museum in physical apearance. They were powered by a much newer Ford 6 Cylinder, at least one had an automatic transmission, and much of the body was aluminum on the outside. The interiors were nicely finished off in fancy wood. This Father and Son team restored Wagon's and Carriages for the Smithsonian, as well as for the Queen of England. When I visited them, in Valcort Quebec, I came very near to purchasing the 2nd machine and have always regretted not doing so. The Grousers for the track were also Aluminum instead of the original Steel. One of the machines he built was this color, and the 2nd was more of a Purple/Blue. When I inquired about building another he said it was too much work. As he only quoted a 12,000$ price tag I felt he was charging to little.
 
Found one of these Bombardiers (b2 wide body long looking thing) in the back of an old garbage truck today. Contacted the new owner and found out he got it for free out of California. The roof rotted away and caved in. The tracks look almost new and the drive sprockets are also in new like condition. I will get some pictures in the morning when I go and sneak in to take them. They also have an older Bombardier J5 or something simular. Will get pictures of that as well. Now to figure out how to get the junk yard dogs to leave me alone. I know its an old one sinnce its made from all wood and I believe they stopped the all wood in 1958. It also has that pug nose like the old ones. BUT it has a wierd window that I suspect someone might have made a small body into a wide body. You will see in the picture what I am talking about.
 
They stopped making the wood bodies in 1951.Are the new owners plan on restoring it?If not I know someone who might be intrested.I hope you get the pictures without any trouble.
 
Got em!
 

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The new owner wants to caniblize it to get a J5 bombi running. They want to use the boddies and the drive sprockets. I have tried to talk them out of it. Really the body can be replaced since its all wood and the engine which I am sure is dead would need to be replaced but that part I am not sure. The Comnapny is called Battleborn restorations in Ely nevada. They have a body shop in ElY.

P.S. I was only jokeing about the junkyard dogs.
 

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Yes that is an original pre 1951 wide guage wood bombardier and that was the stock 3 window winscreen that came from the factory.
 
The sprockets look good but are aftermarket. Some of these had steering brakes on the axle to assist in sharp turns but very few. Yes this looks like a great candidate for a rebuild. A local fellow has done a bunch of these and many were a lot more deteriorated than this one. There is an article on him in another forum here that was copied fron the Canadian Woodworker Magasine site. These are getting harder and harder to come by. Sure hope it gets a rebuild.
 
HHHmmm he said that it would turn with the steering? I told him I didnt think so. I hope i talked them out of "Trying" to caniblelize it for the J5. No I dont think the parts willo fit BUT they do look pretty close.
 
The cleats are the same width as the J-5, 16.5" but the holes are 3/8".some of the old J5's are 3/8" holes the profile of the cleat is a little different. the early J5's
used this cleat the later models used a more aggresive cleat with higher sides.
and 1/2" holes
 
Tires and Sprockets are interchangeable. As previously mentioned the grousers can be used but there are No cleat guides on a B12, let's see, at 15$@, and there are about 60 grousers per track, so that means you'll need some 240 guides, 3600 $ worth. The wheels don't interchange. J5's have larger axel spindles than a B12.
 
I just had a closer look at the pics and those ARE the original aluminum sprockets from Bombardier. I now see the heads od the lagging bolts. They sure look good for a machine that id nearly 60 years old.
 
Lyndon said:
Great post! There is a B7, similar to one I considered purchasing from a man in Valcort.(Home of Bombardier). Records indicate that roughly 120 were built. Not many. It's the Maroon machine with only 2, possibly 3 wheels in the rear instead of the normal 4. They were refered to as Doctor's cars as the first few produced were custom built for doctors back before Canada subsidized snow plowing. A Father & Son team that restored Carriages and Wagons for Museums, Brittish Royalty and the like built 2 replica machines. The Father had worked for Joseph Armond Bombardier for many years and when he retired they gave him much of the original tooling used to produce these machines. In his shop he had a boiler and some forms for steam pressing the original Wood Skiis that went on the early versions of the B7 and B12. It was set up and operational. The tour of the father & son's shop turned out to be better than the Bombardier Museum. Nice post, great linc!
Click to expand...

I think the machine you are talking about belongs to Dan Shaver of Stonewall, MB. It is not a b7 model. It had a regular full size body like the c18 with 4 wheels per side. He cut out the center section & installed a 350 chevy. She may not lay rubber, but sure can flick out snow!!!
Check out this site "bienenuve sur quebec b12" Hit the translate button & follow directions. The menu is on the left side. There are a lot of old tractor restorations & the like there.
 
B_Skurka said:
There are photos of that little red Bombardier in a different thread. Look around their site, you will find the photos. But they state it was a custom made unit. I wonder if it was really cut down of if the owner simply doesn't know the history of that that unit.

http://www.northerntracks.com/forum/index.php?topic=77.0
Click to expand...

Bob that's the machine that Dan Shaver has in Manitoba. It was 'REALLY CUT DOWN my friend. Believe me, he knows the history of that machine & many more like it. He's like Boggie is to his machines. He makes & sells parts for these old bombers. If you look up:

"bienvenue sur quebec b12" you will find the bombers that you think you are talking about. If I could use this squawk box right I'd show you what I'm talking about.
 
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