Woodburning steamtrains: areas and buildings for storeing firewood

[perstuen]

Hi fellow modelers!

Through the collective knowledge represented in this forum: Have somebody here any knowledge and/or pictures of how firewood for woodburning steamtrains was stored? I am familiar with coaltowers but my layout depicts an earlier era and I havent found its wood equivalent.

I would think that this firewood was stored close to the railroad in some sort of covered sheed?

Perstuen,

Norway

[lvanhen]

Try this link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Civil_War_RRs/ it is a group that follows US Civil War RR's.  You have to join , but it is free.  they have many photos in their archive of models and the real thing, including "wood ricks", the term for the storage sheds for fire wood.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I don't know about the north, but in the south in many places the wood was stored in a shed or a lean-to by the water tank, and in some places, was stored under the water tank.

[perstuen]

Thank you for valuable information. It seem to me that there is plenty of opportunities and variatons and room for improvisation (seems likely back in the early days of steam that not everything was standardized).

P.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

(seems likely back in the early days of steam that not everything was standardized).

P.

That's for sure. In many areas, parts from one locomotive wouldn't fit on another, even though they were built by the same manufacturer.

[orsonroy]

I've seen a few period photos with wood racks. Essentially, they were pole barns with canvas roofs, 10'-14' poles, 3'-4' 2x12 plank sides, and nothing more. There would be tracks on either side of these long, narrow sheds, and plenty of dime a day labor to load the engines with fuel.

[cacole]

Moving ahead in Fast Forward to today's railroading, I have a video of the Durango & Silverton narrow gauge tourist railroad in Colorado that shows them stopping and cutting firewood with a chainsaw as they needed it.

The line's regular engines all burn coal, and the wood burner was there for a special weekend showing.  If it was a regular on their line, they would probably build something more permanent for it.

[StillGrande]

I have a book on Civil War Era railroads and it shows the structures as described above.  Basically a raised platform with the legs extended to support a cover, usually slanted away from the tracks, made of either wood or canvas.  There are actually plans for one in the book.  It is geared towards modeling the Civil War era trains, so there are plans for lots of things.  For the life of me I can't remember the name, but there are a bunch on eBay, cheap.  Search books for railroads and civil war. 

[tomikawaTT]

I recall being told that local farmers with wood lots would have one of those raised, open-sided lean-tos alongside the tracks where the right-of-way abutted their property.  Whether the railroad would collect the wood and move it to a more central location, or whether an individual loco would stop and load a cord or two, deponent sayeth not.

I also recall seeing an early photo of an engine terminal with a woodpile about half the size of the roundhouse.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - including wood burning steam)

[richg1998]

I have seen quite a few covered and uncovered wood ricks in railroad books I have. Some areas had huge piles of wood in the open. Books by George Abdill are a good source of photos. What I found interesting is a "rick" is a half a cord of wood, 2 feet wide, 4 feet high, 8 feet long. That could probably start an argument. I have no idea when the word "rick" was first used.

 

rich 

[jawnt]

Around 1900, my grandfather cut and hauled wood for the Santa Fe here in central Texas. My mother has a picture of him standing in his wagon hooked to 4 pair of oxen in front of the wood pile at Milano, Texas. The wood pile was 100' plus in length and higher than Grandpa's head. All out in the open -- no shed, no cover. At that time, the Santa Fe was using 4 foot long wood. Then for a while Grandpa woked as a fireman on the Santa Fe.

So it would seem you could do pretty much what ever you wanted in terms of modeling, keeping in mind the local of your railroad.

John T. in the cold cow pasture

[R. T. POTEET]

Around 1900, my grandfather cut and hauled wood for the Santa Fe here in central Texas. My mother has a picture of him standing in his wagon hooked to 4 pair of oxen in front of the wood pile at Milano, Texas. The wood pile was 100' plus in length and higher than Grandpa's head. All out in the open -- no shed, no cover. At that time, the Santa Fe was using 4 foot long wood. Then for a while Grandpa woked as a fireman on the Santa Fe.

So it would seem you could do pretty much what ever you wanted in terms of modeling, keeping in mind the local of your railroad.

John T. in the cold cow pasture

jawnt, yours is as I understand it.

The railroads would let contracts in the local area for a supply of firewood for use in the company woodburners.  The contractor would deliver this firewood at a specified location on a specified day where an inspector would examine everything and issue a payment chit.  This firewood was seldom exposed to the elements long enouh to risk getting ruined, hence there was no real need for shelter.

As an aside, I read something someplace where a crew wooding up was always apprehensive when a woodpile began getting low; shaketails just love woodpiles.  My grandfather spun a windy about the only time he ever got struck at by a shaketail; he was in his teens and was moving a woodpile at a sheep camp in eastern Idaho; it scared the livin' bejeezes out of him it did.

[perstuen]

I found a great picture on this forum showing exactly that kind of construction I was looking for. Thanks!

[perstuen]

That is: quote from the gentleman above that supplied the link.

"Try this link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Civil_War_RRs/ it is a group that follows US Civil War RR's.  You have to join , but it is free.  they have many photos in their archive of models and the real thing, including "wood ricks", the term for the storage sheds for fire wood." border="0" width="15" height="15" /> "

 I didnt want to post the picture in case of copyright issues. But it shows a pole structure with floor  a bit above ground level and a shingle roof. No walls.

 

[steamaddict]

Hi Perstuen,

From what I have seen in photos it just seemed to be stacked on the ground or on a couple of timbers laid on the ground close to where it was going to be loaded.  Each piece appears to be triangular in shape (split in sections from a round log) with each side about 4-6 inches or round logs about 6-8 inches in diameter all about 2 - 2 1/2 feet long.

All of it was cut, split, stacked and then loaded by hand.

Darren