Hi Gang:
It is with pleasure that I report that the pdp-11/60 in Vancouver has been
rescued!
Eric Smith flew up from San Jose today, and we rescued the beast, moving
it to a temporary storage locker until Eric can re-attend and drive it
back down south.
It was a _very_ long day, especially for Eric, what with flying etc.
We were fortunate that the person with the machine, Dallas Hinton, lives
next to a lumberyard. He has good relations with the staff, and was able
to borrow a forklift (and operator) from them.
This made loading the behemoth (CPU unit about 600 lbs) quite easy. Also
picked up were two RK06 drives, a Dilog front-loading high density tape
drive, VT52, DECwriter II and III, boxes and boxes of docs, software, and
disk packs.
The only rental truck available on 1 day notice was a 5 ton monster from
Ryder. The gear fit easily in the back. We roped it in as best as
possible, but alas during the 7 mile drive between Dallas' and the storage
locker place, the CPU unit broke its ropes, and despite being restrained
by boxes of docs and the terminals, rolled around and dented the back of
the tape drive unit.
No real damage was done, and the load arrived intact.
The next challenge was getting the CPU cabinet and other units down the
ramp at the back of the truck - no liftgate available, and no forklift at
the mom-n-pop self storage.
So Eric and I gritted our teeth and with much physical effort managed to
roll the units down the ramp _without_ having them either collapse the
ramp or fall off to either side.
The other stuff was moved much more easily, and all of it (save some docs
which Eric wanted to get home for review) is now safely stored.
The machine is in great shape, has all panels, doors. We didn't have a
camera available, due to the short notice. I'll try to take some photos
once Eric comes back to drive the machine down to San Jose. A liftgate
equipped truck will be mandatory - we'd never be able to get the machine
back up the ramp by pushing/pulling. Hmmm a block and tackle or winch
might work too...
Thanks to Dallas Hinton, and the folks on the list who wrote in support of
saving this old machine. Great thanks to Eric for making the supreme
short notice effort to come up and get the 11/60!
The scrap dealer is still coming to Dallas' place on Monday, but now it'll
only be for some broken old Wang terminals (not worth saving, you had to
see them, trust me!).
That's it from Vancouver,
Kevin
--
Kevin McQuiggin VE7ZD
mcquiggi_at_sfu.ca
Received on Sun Nov 21 1999 - 00:45:11 GMT