CONTENTS Introduction ...... 4Introduction ...... 5 railroad? Why model a logging ...... 11 of logging railroads Types ...... 49 Structures equipment and logging Logging locomotives ...... 21 locomotives Logging ...... 37 Rolling stock and track ...... 63 layout Designing a logging ...... 75 Going beyond the obvious Chapter One: Chapter Two: Chapter Three: Chapter Four: Chapter Five: Chapter Six: Chapter Chapter Seven:

Fig 5-1: Early log loading

Ramp

Rail car

Fig 5-2: Typical skidder operation

Block and pulley Return wire

Tail block and pulley Skidder Main pull line Choker Log

The Lombard Log Loader was a tracked vehicle for hauling logs and sleds on snow. It was steam powered and used a Shay engine. the summer and not moved until they were felled to where they moved more easily than on land, winter when the snow pack, were hand sawn into timber. and they wouldn’t catch fi re. With Cutting trees in the woods around the base until it could be felled close to where they were combined with sled runners By the end of the 1700s, as the proper mill design, logs could be The fi rst loggers in North America pulled over. needed, with teams of horses or placed under logs, allowed easier trees nearest the coast were moved by mechanical power – were here long before the Europe- The arrival of Europeans in oxen moving them if needed. movement. harvested and replaced with farms provided by the water wheel – to ans arrived. Native Americans North America immediately The effort required to move a The use of horse, oxen, and and buildings, the solid timber the saw blade, which was also used the forest as a resource for changed forest harvesting. Early large log was enormous, and mule teams in the woods began industry moved inland. The use of powered by the wheel. building materials – the lodgepole settlers fi rst felled trees to clear colonists who specialized in wood early. Loggers learned to trim water power for sawmills began in With this step, the modern pine was named because of its use land for farms and to build houses harvesting began using water to branches and cut a bevel on the the early 1800s, with the use of an sawmill was born. What was in the structures of the Pacifi c and furniture. The axe was the fl oat logs whenever possible. In bottom side of the butt of the log artifi cial pond upstream to pro- missing was an effi cient way to Northwest. Harvesting techniques primary tool for 17th century eastern Canada and New England, to reduce drag as the log was vide a constant supply of water move logs to the pond. The were simple – some trees were cut colonists, but saws – double- the use of water for transporting dragged through the forest. Even for the mill’s waterwheel. This railroad would provide that down with stone axes, but most handled almost from the start – logs began well before the use of so, few logs were moved more pond also proved to be an ideal answer, but with it came the need were felled by controlled burning quickly came into use. Trees were railroads. Many logs were cut in than a thousand yards from where place to keep logs. They could be for better ways to cut the timber

The Hull-Oakes “wigwam” sawdust burner could be found at most Western sawmills The skidder operator hauls back the line from the road donkey to the yarding donkey (left). The fi r log eventually arrives at the yarding through the mid-1900s. The conveyor carried donkey (right). Two photos: Darius Kinsey, Library of Congress sawdust to the burner from the vacuum Prior to 1900, teams of horses and oxen often pulled logs on iced sledways in the winter. This blowers at the head rig. Steve Austin scene was photographed in Michigan around 1900. Library of Congress

50 51 and move it to the railroad. A logging scene in the early Fig 5-3: High-lead logging system High lead 1800s would feature all animal power. Logs would be pulled by Triple pulley or Pull or drag line yoked teams of oxen, horses, or Return line double pulley mules, with the forward end of with ratchet each log beveled to provide a better shape for dragging. Bevel- The drag and return ing of logs continued as long as lines move the pulley logs were pulled through the along the high-lead line. An additional “lift” line woods, even with giant steam Guy wires raises and lowers the log. donkeys and yarders. Boom The loggers in this early scene would all have double-bit axes Two- or three-drum (one edge used in the morning, loader/skidder the other in the afternoon) The Anchor tree Spar tree with boom loggers would also have double- Cutting area The boom had its own set of guys and Loading area Log car handled saws, ropes, wooden pulleys to enable it to gather logs from block tackle for moving trees, A team of 10 oxen skids a massive Douglas fir through a forest in Washington state around the deck and load them onto railcars and several wagons for moving 1900. Courtesy of the Weyerhaeuser Collection their equipment. Living accom- Overhead view modations would be tents or very involved two teams of animals the country until the era of the rough shelters with a cooking that pulled on parallel ropes run- steam skidder and spar tree or area. As time went on, accommo- ning under the log, which was the self-contained McGiffert and Cutting area dations improved but never lost rolled up a ramp of several logs Barnhardt loaders. For small Boom pulley anchor their overall simplicity. onto the log car (fig. 5-1). This operations, this method of roll- Log deck The loading operation usually method was used in all areas of ing logs up ramps and onto rail- Anchor tree Spar tree Boom pulley anchor Guy wires High lead Typical mill and pond layout Yard for empties Yarder/skidder Loader Boom rotation

Locomotive pulls train Boom pulley anchor Log deck through unloading area, then to empties yard. Engine then pulls empty cars back to logging area. Loading area The boom loader had its own pulley and anchor system. Rail spur

cars continued into the 1950s, By the late 19th century, the basic form, a donkey comprised a albeit with a tractor or bulldozer era of running logs down a river vertical steam boiler powering a Unloading ramp instead of animals. was over, but on the West Coast single-piston steam engine with a Sawmill A late-1800s improvement to the movement of large rafts of single-drum winch (all taken from animal power were Michigan logs via the sea was just begin- merchant ship technology of the Log pond high wheels. These consisted of a ning. This reached a peak in the 1880s), all mounted on a substan- large pair of wheels with a tongue 1920s and continued for some tial wooden skid. for the draft animals and a heavy mills into the 1950s. At fi rst, animals (horses, mules crossbar with a block for a wire By the turn of the 20th century, or oxen) were still used for local rope or choker chain that would most larger logging operations log moving and for loading logs lift the lead end of a log off the took advantage of steam power of onto railcars. Every single-drum ground. High wheels improved some sort. The fi rst of these steam- winch used as a skidder required To logging the ability of animal power to powered machines was the West some method to get the choker area move heavy logs so well that they Coast’s famous Dolbeer Donkey. (the loop of chain or cable that Main yard remained in service in many areas The Dolbeer and later varieties of was put around the log to pull it) even after steam power came to steam donkeys were often referred back to where the cut logs were the woods. Variations were used to by their use, such as skidders, waiting. Usually a horse or a mule all over the United States. hoists, and yarders. In its most was used (oxen were too slow) to

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