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Model Railroader’s Guide to Logging Railroads by Matt Coleman Soft Cover
Model Railroaders Guide to Logging Railroads by Matt Coleman
Soft Cover
80 pages
Copyright 2008
CONTENTS
Introduction4
Chapter One: Why model a logging railroad?5
Chapter Two: Types of logging railroads 11
Chapter Three: Logging locomotives21
Chapter Four: Rolling stock and track37
Chapter Five: Structures and logging equipment49
Chapter Six: Designing a logging layout63
Chapter Seven: Going beyond the obvious75
INTRODUCTION
Writing a single book about logging and logging railroads is akin to trying to pack for a two-year journey around the world in a single suitcase. No matter how careful the planning, somewhere on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro or some other remote spot you will find that something you truly needed has been left out and something that is utterly unnecessary has been packed. And so it is with this book.
As I started writing I knew that, because of the broad nature of the topic, the book would be incomplete in some areas. I have spent the better part of my civilian professional career in the forest, paper, and related scientific fields, and have devoted much of my hobby time researching and modeling logging railroads. I hope that this book provides a solid overall description of the subject and inspires you to study more and dig deeper into specific areas of interest regarding logging operations and railroads.
Over the years, I have become an avid model railroader.
Although I love prototype railroads and have chased trains on four continents, my true affection always returns to scale models of trains. Within that focus, my interest in models of railroad equipment that hauled logs and wood products ranks near the top of the list. As a result, this book covers the wonderful world of prototype logging, but always with a focus of how it could apply to a model railroad.
My early years of exposure to trains were the result of being born in 1950 in the middle of the post-war golden age of model railroading. By age 3, I had a Marx train set and by age 6, I had been given a small HO display layout with a Penn Line midget diesel.
I literally wore the wheels off of it due to constant running. I was also blessed with a younger brother who also loved trains, as well as a father who, while not a model railroader, was both supportive and a devotee of all things steam-powered. This exposed me to, and helped me to see, many aspects of the real world that might otherwise have escaped the eyes and ears of even the most avid 10-year-old model railroader.
In addition to the occasional cab ride or visit to a steam locomotive, my parents willingly stopped the car to let me peer into canyons and valleys to look at old, graying trestles of logging railroads across the country, from New Mexico up to Oregon and British Columbia, to the pines of Michigan and the South, and to the laurel-covered hills of Pennsylvania and the Appalachians. I visited museums, saw prototype logging lines in action (albeit with diesels hauling trains by the 1960s), and came to see the fading tracks of the logging line into the woods as the true "narrow path" that I longed to follow with my modeling.
But all of this exposure would have been almost meaningless were it not for one other aspect of the hobby that is almost as important to me as prototype equipment and models. That is the publications, photographs, and other historical remnants that have made it possible for those of us in later generations to learn about and accurately model railroads of all types, in particular logging railroads. I have a collection of Model Railroader magazines that, although incomplete, goes back to volume 1, issue 1 of 1934 (although a reprint), and I must confess that my years of reading Model Railroader have indelibly shaped my view of model railroading. There are many fine magazines and editors in this hobby, but my most treasured issues of all publications seem to be from the Kalmbach presses. I even have a specific issue of a magazine that was a turning point in my view of the hobby, one that I have treasured: the September 1961 issue of Model Trains, which was a key part of my interest in tall timber and geared locomotives.
My goal in writing this book is to try to pass information on logging to a new generation of modelers who were never able to see what I was able to see in my early years. This generation, with more and better models to work with, has the potential to create far better logging-related model railroads than could any of us in the past. To them, and to all who helped preserve the history of logging railroads and their equipment, I dedicate this book.
- Matt Coleman
ON THE BACK COVER
How to model realistic logging operations!
Railroads and the logging industry have been tied together since the mid-1800s. For more than 100 years, railroads dedicated strictly to logging snaked into forests from the Pacific Northwest to New England and the Deep South, hauling logs from temporary camps to sawmills along rivers and coastlines.
The Model Railroader's Guide to Logging Railroads traces the history of the timber industry and its railroads, following advances in logging methods and equipment, specialized rolling stock, and the development of geared steam locomotives, including the Shay, Climax, and Heisler designs.
This book includes information and tips about:
Logging camps and structures
Sawmills and log ponds
Skeleton cars, log bunks, and other rolling stock
Loading and unloading log trains
Track planning for logging lines
Geared steam locomotives
MORE THAN 150 PHOTOS & DIAGRAMS!
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