Eastern Sawmill Operation c1948 Without the Pond

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hello Folks

One of the industries on my CVRR - c1948 - is a medium sized sawmill processing local second cut timber (meduim size logs, not those monsters you see in oldtime photos of logging operations in the Northwest) into planed building lumber and ties for a local treatment plant. Logs are delivered by flat log car and stored in a yard. There is no pond for this particular operation.

This raises three questions: (1) prototypically how would logs have been stacked in the yard during this era, (2) how would they them have been placed onto the conveyor for movement into the mill and (3) what sort of equipment would have been used?

I have looked and looked without success for prototype photos of such an operation (I have found some photos of forklift trucks from this era, and even a straddle truck for moving and stacking lumber but nothing specifically for handlng logs). [sigh]

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Warmest regards
Bill Rice-Johnston

2

Stiff leg derrick or overhead cables.

3

By 1948, self-propelled diesel-powered log handling equipment was fairly common. Most books about “logging railroads” clearly emphasize the railroad and most center on the earlier steam era. I tried to think about references of logging lines that had survived into this (1948-ish) era. Jim Witherell’s book, The Log Trains of Southern Idaho, has a closing chapter on more modern operations. Diesel loaders on a track (“caterpiller style”) base were used and one is identified as a Northwest Model 44 loader (page 155). That one is rather large, but a photo on page 161 also shows a smaller loader fitted onto the back of a 1940’s-era flatbed straight truck.

For HO, an SSLtd Stake Body Close Cab Kleiber Motor Truck, later distributed by Walker Model Service as their kit # 5115 might be a good place to start. Also, take a look at Woodland Scenics’ “Insley Model K Backhoe on Crawler Chassis” (In the Walther’s catalog as # 785-237) might be a good place to start. It is appropriately “funky” looking to crawl around in a log yard, but one would have to modify the backhoe into a log grip.

Bill

4

Hello Bill

Thank you very much for your help. While looking for log loaders, I came across these photos:

  1. http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/clarkkinsey&CISOPTR=419&CISOBOX=1&REC=1

  2. http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/clarkkinsey&CISOPTR=504&CISOBOX=1&REC=2

  3. http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/clarkkinsey&CISOPTR=507&CISOBOX=1&REC=13

Although these would look just a bit out of place on my Eastern, second growth sawmill, they may be of interest to some of you out there (speaking of selective compression…!).

Enjoy. [:D]

All the best

Bill

5

Just a further thought or two:

The log yard would almost certainly have an older bulldozer. With chains attached to the blade, these can easily move logs, and can lift them, too. Additionally, the log lot would be rutted and muddy, and the dozer would be used occasionally to smooth out the “roadway” through the lot. Lots of bark chips would be in that mud, even in a model. I think that there have been several older-style bulldozers in HO.

I suspect that the logs would most often be piled up by type of wood. Pine logs here, Oak there, Maple over there, etc. The mill would tend to run “batches” of cuttings based upon their orders and that way would keep the saw settings the same for a run of product. If you have “logs” with some different bark, they should be grouped together in the log yard.

Any of this log-yard equipment would have seen a hard life due to the nature of the work, and may be in it’s second career in the log yard after initially serving elsewhere when it was more reliable. Rust and streaked grease may be plentiful. The “timber grader” may be out in the log lot measuring and assessing the logs that just arrived, and a fellow with a clipboard could be following him around to record the measurements.

Bill

6

Thanks, Beach Bill

Speaking of “older bulldozers”, rutted and muddy" and “lots of bark chips”, check out these photos:

http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/toc.php?CISOROOT=/clarkkinsey&CISONICK=subjec&db=clarkkinsey&nicks=subjec.

There’s enough detail here to keep even the most ardent weatherer busy for years. [:D]

Enjoy.

All the best
Bill

7

My local sawmill, which closed in 1944, used log ramps. The skeleton cars were unloaded onto the ramps. The logs passed through jets of water from spray nozzles before they went up the jack ladder. This removed loose bark and dirt before the logs went into the saws. In photos, the longleaf pine logs were no more than 2 feet in diameter.

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you should check out Arcadia Publishing. they make the books loaded with pictures. Search Grand Marais, which had a samill operation like you are describing, where they stacked logs into large piles. When they needed them, they rolled them into a long, skinny pond which was used more like a converyor belt than a log pond. In this case, you could use a converyor belt instead of a log pond.

http://www.grandmaraismichigan.com/History/Historicalgallery/ccmsawmill.htm