I worked at a pulp mill in the 1970s that had log booms set up on a bay to hold floating logs; the woodmill personnel used a “boom boat” - one of the miniature tugboats you referred to, to line bundles of logs up so a claw crane could hoist them into the barker and chipper sections of the woodmill.
Another point about using sprinklers on log decks - it not only prevents drying and cracking (not a big issue for pulp wood, but a very big issue for lumber stock), it also prevents FIRE! Fires in decked logs could sometimes burn for a week or more, consuming hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of wood; they are very difficult to extinguish. I recently saw a large timber mill in the town of LaGrande, Oregon that has many acres of decked log bundles, with huge agricultural sprinklers dousing them 24 hours a day in the summer months. (Sprays of cotton on wire could be used to simulate log yard sprinklers in a model mill).
For lumber flume info, I recommend “Thunder in the Mountains - The Life and Times of the Madera sugar Pine Company” by Hank Johnston 1995 Stauffer Publishing
I was thinking the “Frisco Kid” would live in San Francisco, just a cheap tank of gas away … Are you familiar with the Model Railroad club at Boeing up in Seattle?
Thanks very much for the additional info and clarification. I used to admire those guys on the log booms and boom boats in Coos Bay as I would drive by on my way to/from work.
