Logging loco operations

[bob@osd]

I've been thinking about including a logging line in a proposed layout. It would have a small engine terminal to service the HOn3 power. Should it have a turntable? Would this be authentic? Did the logging roads turn their locos? Did they pu***he log cars as well as pull? Thanks

[GN-Rick]

A lot depends on the size of operation you are planning. A larger outfit
might have an old second-hand Armstrong turntable, but more likely the
line would have a wye or two somewhere. Another operational detail
is that many lumbering outfits didn't turn locos at all. They headed (forward)
up into the woods, (being that base camps were usually the lowest points
on the railroad) and would pull the train downhill back to the mill or reload in
reverse to insure the presence of water over the crownsheet of the boiler.
A very good reference book on the subject is the Oso Press's
"Logging Railroads in Skagit County", this being in Washington State.
Hope this is helpful to you.

[tomikawaTT]

Just glanced through my copy of "Last Of The 3-foot Loggers," Allan Krieg's treatise on the West Side Lumber Company. One photo caption notes that the Mill Turn loco, "Turned on the wye." Another photo, showing the engine house and car shops, is of rectangular buildings with multiple parallel tracks connected to a compound ladder, something like a small model railroad yard partially roofed over.

The photos of trains taken all over the system indicate that the locos (all Shays) ran smokebox forward, so there must have been wyes in the woods as well. It's a reasonably safe bet that turntables would have been avoided - maintaining three turnouts is much less expense and trouble than maintaining one rotating bridge.

At least one reverse loop existed on the line, at Camp 24. There's a prototype you can use!

Chuck

[bob@osd]

Thanks guys, It's going to be a lot of work no matter what I do, but I'll be sure to read the suggested book as it will be lots easier and cheaper than travelling to Wash. although I do intend to model a GN type line (Olympia, Spokane & Duluth) as the connection for the Hidden Eye Lake Lumber line (model railroading is hell) and could use the firsthand knowledge as well as a vacation.

[wjstix]

It depends on the area, logging railroads at the Duluth end of your rail line were quite different than the Pacific NorthWest ones. In the Great Lakes area, logging was usually done in winter, so you'd probably want a way to turn the loco and make sure it's in front so that it's snowplow can buck thru any snowdrifts. Geared engines were less common because the distances travelled tended to be longer, geared engines were too slow. Second hand 2-6-0's were probably the most common MN logging engine.

BTW in the Great Lakes area, a covered-pit turntable like the Atlas HO one wouldn't be unheard of.

[route_rock]

Like said each logging line had its own ways of doing things. I know a geared job really didnt need to be turned so if the line was a cheap skate, there would be no turntable and no provisions to turn the power.
In regards to leading the loads if the grade was steep enough the loco (hopefully a geared one) would be run ahead of the load so the disconnects or whatever kind of cars wouldnt break away and smash up anything in the way.Again this is the rule of the individual company.
I think this is why logging lines are so much fun to model to most people. Rivet counters cant get into you too much cause nothing was reallly standard.Good luck!