modern day logging questions

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am thinking that i would like to plan a modern logging operation like the one featured in the last mr or the mr planning 09. My question is what areas of the u.s. would still have train based logging operations. My shortline will be freelanced but would like a class one railroad to feed into the town to pick up lumber and drop off other stuff for the town or mill. I am stuck on what class one to use. The year can go back as early as 1999-2000. Would csx, norfolksouther, union pacific, bnsf or? be a good railroad. I would like to model wooded areas with some good size hills to pull through. Any thoughts and any direction on the iternet to turn to. I have googled logging railroads and get a lot of model railroads. Scale is ho.

Thanks Mike

2

Hi Mike

The St, Maries River railroad, up until recently, was a modern logging RR that hauled logs on a branch line of the Milwaukee Road in Idaho. Clarkia to St.Maries Idaho.

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?railroad=St.%20Maries%20River%20Railroad

http://www.nicdoncaster.com/PNW/stmariesp.htm

A Google search will get you plenty of hits.

3

You might want to check out the Camas Prarie RR in the PacNW. It was jointly owned line of the BN(NP) and UP. Typically ran mixed power featuring both BN and UP units.

http://www.wwvrailway.com/camas.htm

4

Thanks guys. That is what I am looking for. I am going to do some more research. These look like they are out west?

5

Mike,

Here in NW PA around the Allegheny National Forest they still ship some logs by rail. In Bradford at one time they had a “transload” area under a highway overpass. They’d stack logs, bring in the rail cars and then show up with a log truck to use it’s crane to load the cars. Buffalo and Pittsburgh services Bradford, not sure where the logs went from that point. I’ve also seen similar transload operation in Ridgeway PA also on the B & P.

Also check this rail line out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Railroad .

Never saw it in operation, but depending on what type of traffic you want to run, you could run log cars to a chipper, chip hoppers to paper mill, etc…

Chris

6

One true logging railway still exists here in BC, the Engelwood Railway owned by Western Forest Products, formally CanFor. I was at the operation in Woss, BC two weeks ago and they are running 1 round trip 5 days per week from one of 3 truck to rail re-loads down to the dryland sort at Beaver Cove. They move big, coastal type wood like western red cedar, spruce and Douglas fir using GM SW1200’s that have been re-motored with Cat engines. However, this is a captive short line, no direct connection to any other railway.

CN still delivers logs on the former BC Rail line in central BC to specific mills, as well as chips. This is primarily Lodgepole pine, much smaller than the coastal wood, and the majority of product moved is chips rather than logs. With the increase in bio-energy plants like pellets and the like, more and more chips,sawdust and hog is moving around. A new pellet plant is now in operation along the CN/BC Rail mainline about halfway between Quesnel and Prince George, BC.

Hope this gives you some more ideas.

7

Try and get a book “LOGGING BY RAIL” by R.D. Turner it’s rail logging in B.C. a perfect book for logging, lots of line drawings, photos etc, there are lots of logging books in and around Washington, Idaho and Oregon, a pile of info on the subject. good luck .

8

Thanks everyone. I am going to look into washington,idaho and oregon. Is there anything on the east coast that still logs? I will have to get the book as well. Thanks guys

9

Here is a link to a club layout doing logging in 1989. Might serve as some insperation

http://rvmrc.net/ourstory.html

CORP use to run a log train from Weed, CA to Roseburg, OR. You can look into them as well.

ratled

10

Here are some photos I took at Woss, these might give you some ideas too:

This is along a cut block, they plan to load directly to the train from this site, not a usual practice but still does happen when it works:

This is an empty headed to the woods, near the Nimpkish Camp spur:

Note that they run the caboose next to the locomotives when empty:

Loading a rail car at the Woss Reload:

And typical loads:

11

Pathfinder, those are great/useful pictures.

12

Although modeling modern times, try to take the opportunity to model the abandoned obsolete.

Mark

13

Thanks.

I have some that I also took at Nimpkish Camp, were the car shop is. I need to load them up to Photobucket and post them. Includes a 68’ log car and one of the SW’s still in CanFor paint.

For the OP, something to consider: for a modern logging line to be viable, it needs volume and distance, no short trains or short hauls. Otherwise might as well truck it.

14

Wow some great pics. This gives me a good basis to start thinking. I will have to think about the train length though. My space will not be the largest. I was thinking double deck to extend the run but it is soo small a space to have a helix. I also have two entrways to contend with. Hmmm got lots to think about. I am going to save the pics for future reference.

15

Glad you like it! here are some more:

68’ log car, for moving boom sticks I would guess

Some regular log cars:

Speeder and control stand:

Something they use, steel ties on every 5th, notably on curves. The rest are yellow cedar:

The “new” car shop, the original closed this summer (shows in the background of the 68’ log car above):

And the other SW1200; no Cat motor and no new paint:

16

And this contemporary scene on Victoria Island, B.C. of long-abandoned vehicles adjacent to a sawmill, needs to be modeled too.

Mark

17

My dilemma is that this mini-diorama, of a non-rail-served sawmill, won’t fit in on my planned layout.

Mark

18

The following pitures of the ambulance at Stafford Lake on BC’s mid coast would be a good one to model too:

19

Yeah…I love moss.

Now what about this?

Mark

20

these are great. i am going to start a file with these pics in it for future referene. Do you guys have any other pics of the sw1200 from different angles. I would like to model one or two of these on my line as well. I like the tradition of building your own loco to fit your needs like what was done in the old log days.