I want to model a small logging camp in one corner of my layout. I have a branch line running nearby with a small siding coming into the area I want to model. It's in one of the corners of my layout, a small triangular section measuring 40" x 30" x 50" long in the front with a maximum depth of 22" from the corner.
Can anyone recommend any logging camp kits, or logging machinery.....?
Thanks.....
What era and region?
Early transport of logs was by horse or oxen to the landing. Animals were replaced by steam donkeys, yarders, and loaders in the late 19th Century. Spar trees and high lines came in the early 20th Century (mainly Western US). Later came specialty machines like McGiffert loaders.
Logging camps would be only where there were sufficient forests to be logged (for a year or two) at a distance from the sawmill.
Lots of good books and MR articles to read on logging to give you a feel.
Fred W
Yardman,
That should be plenty of room to create a logging camp, especially if you can create a visual separation between it and more built up areas of the layout (by using a wooded ridge or other view block). The image below is of my log-loading area, which is at the end of a shelf layout that is 24" deep. This is "Eastern" logging, and as previously mentioned, the location and era would determine the type of equipment.
My logging bunkhouses are from J.V. Models and are still available. B.T.S. also offers eastern-style bunkhouses in kits that make two per package. For the larger (more "western" in look) bunkhouses, I know that there is one offered by Evergreen Hill. My log loader is an old Keystone Locomotive Works kit, and the log cars come from Keystone, also. These are still sometimes available at train shows (saw some for sale in Timonium at the start of the month). AHM also recently offered a Barnhart loader that had nice detail, but it was gauged differently than the Keystone Locomotive Works log cars' rail. My little water tank is from an Evergreen Hill kit.
Since the photo, I have added more clutter such as brush and treestumps. I just have three spurs: One where the loading is taking place, one where empties can be spotted while "pulling" out the loaded cars, and a third where I have stationed my old "Blacksmith car" and a bad-order car or two.
Bill
I actually have not even considered an era or region. My layout is pretty much free-form, designed with the Grandkids in mind. If I was going to choose an era, it would be 1940 to 1960, and the region would be the East Coast - Virginia/Kentucky/West Virginia areas. I have been looking for quite a while now, and have only been able to find two "logging camp" themed kits.....surely there must be more. The two that I have been looking at are the Suncoast Model# SNC3050 and the JV Model# JVM2018. Thank you for your input, and if you know of any other kits (under $100.00), I would like to know about them.
Having a railroad-served logging camp would fit well in the forties, but truck logging had pretty much taken over by the sixties; it'd be a bit of a stretch. Of course that hardly matters; it's your trainy empire, no one else's.
Sierra West and B.T.S. do both make excellent logging-related kits, but they aren't cheap at all. This one from Suncoast does have some promise:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/690-3050
Welcome to the forest!
Stu
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
Ha. Yes. Didn't realize that link was to a kit you'd already mentioned. Sorry about that!
Here is a picture of the area I am working in......it would be all the area behind the track that is going uphill on those risers.....those trees are just for distance effect....I want to make some small hills back there as well....
These are interesting, too:
http://www.besttrains.com/products_1029.html
They're pretty tiny, so shoehorning them in the corner there shouldn't be a problem. Nice setup, by the way. Your benchwork looks pretty solid!
Thank you Stu for your comments and suggestions. This is my first real layout (had a 4x8 plywood layout years ago) and I may have gone a "little heavy" on the wood and supports, but this should last for a good 10 years or so as the Grandkids grow-up and have fun playing on it with Grampy.
Machinery is
http://www.riograndemodels.com/
Lots of cool stuff here
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site