I’ve seen some really good pictures of logging layouts–good enough to make your head swim, but there I have not seen any plans that put the layout in perspective–with the exception of one from the Badger Creek layout and it is not labeled.
Anyone know of any good logging layout plans?
I’d show you my logging line track plan but it’s still evolving, as is prototypical. A logging layout is a hugely flexible opportunity for freelancing. Hard to do it wrong as long as the process begins in the woods with logs and carries them out to somewhere, either to a sawmill, a paper or pulp mill, or off layout at an interchange or yard.
Logging lines, at least in this neck of the woods, were rough and constantly changing affairs. Spurs would extended into uncut areas and be abandoned when the area was played out. Logging would often be done along the roadbed with logs loaded with a machine like a Barnhart loader which rode on the logging cars or at semi-permanent
loading areas using loaders, ramps or various winches & cables.
Coming out of the woods, you might run off on a siding to a log dump at a pond that feeds logs into the samill or you might carrry the logs to a pulp mill. Sawn wood would be shipped out to customers.
The basic flow concept is raw material → make product - > shipping to market
In old-time operations, nearly all equipment & supplies would be brought into the mills & camps by train.
Logging lends itself well to point-to-point operations. Plan on doing a lot of backing up with your locos.
A good site for oldtime, steam-era logging is: http://www.steaminthewoods.com/
Wayne