I've been laying track, mostly mainline, around the layout and I've come to the area that I want for my lumber mill. I have roughly 7 feet x about 2 feet of land to use but I'm still having trouble with the trackage for the mill. I've found a couple websites with arial views of mill complex with all of its tracks. But nothing was labeled. I'm struggling with figuring out where the cars go after their respected jobs. example.... Logs come down mountain to mill, then they get unloaded into the pond. Now, with the engine head-end, what happens now. Does the engines then shove, backwards, the log train back to the camp? Or does the engine uncouple after unloading and turn, or runaround the log cars to get to the rear end and then pull cars back up mountain. If anyone has some plans for mill complex and its tracks, please help me... Or if you have other ideas.... I've researched (internet) and I have gone through all the MR I own, and all the track plans I can find.... But rarely are things labeled at the detail I need. I'm thinking of heading to the library for some books......But even then, I sometimes get lost in all the words...
Mike
Some of the things you're asking depend on the logging company. Logging lines were usually kept simple and as inexpensive as possible. Again, it depended on how much money the company wanted to spend. From what I've read, the one rule usually was that when trains operated in areas with grades, the engine was always kept on the down hill side. I realize this is not much in the way of information but by using this rule, it might simplify how you set up you mill.
JWARNELL....From what I've read, the one rule usually was that when trains operated in areas with grades, the engine was always kept on the down hill side. I realize this is not much in the way of information but by using this rule, it might simplify how you set up you mill.
....From what I've read, the one rule usually was that when trains operated in areas with grades, the engine was always kept on the down hill side. I realize this is not much in the way of information but by using this rule, it might simplify how you set up you mill.
I've seen this in print a lot. It's not necessarily true. Unloaded log cars, being very light and relatively short, did not push very well up grades. Disconnects were/are notorious for derailing when pushed, especially up any kind of grade. Link and pin couplers were often used long after they were outlawed on common carrier lines (1903). The engine brakes were needed going downhill as car brakes were often not the efficient, automatic system we see on mainlines today. So often the engine would be kept ahead of the cars going down the hill. This meant runarounds at both ends.
Steam locomotives had to be careful to keep a minimum water level in the boiler over the firebox. Sometimes this meant having to keep the front of the boiler pointed uphill, regardless of which way the train was going.
Again, arrangements varied considerably, depending on the region of the country, the era, and even from one logging company to another in the same region. As I learn more, I am constantly amazed at the different practices from one logging company to another, and from one decade to the next, just in Southern Oregon/Northern California alone.
I would research some logging web sites, pick some photos of a prototype you like, and use that as a guide.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
I agree with Fred. Logging cars were light weight and tended to derail when pushed, therefore the locos ran around the cars after the logs were dumped, and pulled them back to the woods. Water also had to be kept over the crown sheet at the back of the boiler, so the geared locos ran front up-hill just about all of the time.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I'm not sure if your model logging line represents Wisconsin, but the two best books on Wisconsin logging operations are The Roddis Line and Thunder Lake Narrow Gauge by Harvey Huston. These are now out of print, but I expect that your local library could get them in on interlibrary loan if requested. I just checked my copies and neither one shows a trackplan for mill locations. Both books have some wonderful photos which will get your creative and modeling interests flowing.
As the log harvesting progressed, the distance from the mill increased. It thus became unsafe (as mentioned by others above) to push empty log cars for that distance. There should be a run-around near the mill and another where some of those spurs head off into the woods for loading. Logging railroads did not go for big expenses, so turntables were relatively rare - although there are multiple examples. The Thunder Lake Lumber Co. had a wood-framed turntable at Rhinelander, WI and a roundhouse (looks like 3-stall) at Pine Lake.
Bill
Last of the 3-foot Loggers (Allan Krieg, Golden West Books, 1962) has a ground plan of the mill at Tuolumne, CA, which had both narrow and standard gauge trackage. The logs were delivered on skeleton cars by the narrow gauge, and finished product was shipped out over the Sierra RR.
While there was quite a bt of trackage, including dual gauge, surprisingly little of it actually went to mill buildings or to an area that I would have suspected to be outdoor storage. Most of it was devoted to empty and loaded log cars.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a ground-yard sawmill on the backdrop)
Thanks guys, a lot of very usefull info. I will definatly be going to the library....
Oh, I plan on modeling upper New England... Possibly New Hampshire area..
MPRR Thanks guys, a lot of very usefull info. I will definatly be going to the library.... Oh, I plan on modeling upper New England... Possibly New Hampshire area.. Mike
From an earlier thread on loging RR's of New Hampshire:
http://www.logginginlincoln.com/BillGoveCollectionofLoggingRailroadPhotos.html
http://www.logginginlincoln.com/default.asp
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=logging+railroads
Smile, Stein
As mentioned by Steinjr's links, there are three relatively recent books by Bill Gove that should be of great interest to you if you do not already have them. The are: (1) J.E. Henry's Logging Railroads (1998), (2) Logging Railroads of the Saco River Valley (2001), and (3) Logging Railroads Along The Pemigewasset River (2006). All three are reasonably priced softbound, but with glossy pages for good photo reproduction. All three were published by Bondcliff Books, and still tend to be available from folks like Ron's Books.
Each of these three volumes have basic sketch track-plans of mill locations. In Logging Railroads Along the Pemigewasset River page 61 there is a map of the mill area of the Woodstock Lumber Co. (Woodstock, NH) that is of a nice-sized mill for adapting to modeling.
Another book of possible interest to you would be Rails in the North Woods: Histories of Nine Adirondack Shortlines by Richard Allen, William Gove, et. al. (North Country Books, 1978).