August Micro Trains Releases and Announcements

[absnut]

"I'm not sure but that B&M car might not have made it into the blue
scheme.   Will have to do some checking.
Jon"

According to B&M paint info I have, they were all painted gray.  No referrence to blue.  That photo, to me anyway, looks more gray than blue even including the possibility of fading.

Just my ever-so-humble opinion.

Dick

[bicknell]

This appears to be a prototype for the model....

http://4wheelrailroader.tripod.com/id11.html

Only pictures of a real one I could find online.

[up1950s]

This appears to be a prototype for the model....

http://4wheelrailroader.tripod.com/id11.html

Only pictures of a real one I could find online.

Thanks , there doesn't appear to be a easy way to pull the coupler out and replace it with a span bar on that one . I agree then that the MTL model indeed has a prototype . I sure would like to see a cut of cars with logs on those trucks though .


EDIT
Well I found one that has no span bar . The train is not made up , and it is being loaded , but I doubt that a span bar would be placed after it's loaded . Clearly it is not there .



Found another and with a lighter load of skinnier logs , though looks to be a display .



One being loaded Borneo 1926

[bicknell]

Logs that size are probably stronger than a steel bar anyway!

[Chris333]

The bar between the "cars" was called a Roster and it was usually made of wood with steel ends. Wood was used so they could be any length as needed.

[wazzou]

It was completely common here in the Pacific NW to haul logs on disconnect trucks.  That is why they call them disconnect trucks because they were not connected.  The Spokane Portland and Seattle, a class I that was involved in the BN merger used disconnects in log service from Vernonia, OR to the Columbia River at United Junction for years.
I know an elderly fellow that worked for the SP&S during that period.

[up1950s]

I more I look , the more I see them without the roster pole . Thinking this through , the cars would be in compression , going down hill with the power on the low end and basically just holding back the load from running away . It appears also that they were used on the larger trunks more often , That weight and the strength as mentioned earlier appeared to have precluded the need for a roster pole in a great many cases . I will need to build some with metal wheels and Z couplers , not going to pay that 17 bucks , and have to retrofit the wheels and couplers . Another project for another day . 

[bicknell]

Wheels makes me think, these probably would have had wheels smaller than 33" wheels common today, wouldn't they?

[Walkercolt]

The "there's a prototype for anything" is perfect to describe logging cars. Any size wheels that would handle the weight, Fox, Arch-Bar, Miller,Vulcan, the various bolted-together trucks were used, anything from link-and-pin to knuckle couplers...whatever the logging companies could get cheap, and would hold together a while. Logging railroads made narrow gauge roads look like Class I's in comparison. Down in SE OK, East Texas and Louisiana the logging/papermill RR's are operations that just have to be seen. 5 MPH, any car they can find from a scrapper's yard(no interchange, not many rules apply), wheezey old deisels...anything the "trackage" will hold up under and keep going, two rails on rotten ties in mud...we don't need no stinkin' ballast! Most outfits have their own Pettybone cranes to re-rail cars and engines. Probably the most used best maintained equiptment they have.

[TrainCat2]

Richie,

A good # of logging operations indeed did push empties uphill and backed the loads downhill with the loco to keep the loaded cars in check. It was also easier to build the loaded train with the loader being the first car on the point when going uphill. The empty logcars would be between the loader and the loco.

The loader would hoist a logcar from behind itself and swing it around and place the car in front of it. The loader would then load the logs. Afterwards the loco would pull the empties & loader forward so another log car could be hoisted around. Repeat ...

When coming downhill, the loader would now be directly behind the loco with the loaded cars in tail.

[up1950s]

I also found out in a logging book I have that the cross steel beam that the log rests upon had a edge to it that would knife into the log a bit to stop the forward and rearward movement of the log , the ones that didn't have this , had small spikes to do that same job . Short trains didn't need to be chained down , but if the train was long , chains were used as a further clamping of those logs to that edge or spikes . Trucks weighed from 10,600 to 13,500 lbs and carried 50,000 to 75,000 lbs . If cars had air brakes , extension brake hose is placed under the logs between the 2 trucks and is held in place by chain or rope to one of the logs . There was a high type and a low type , The high having the greater load capacity . Commonly used on the Pacific Coast .

Info from Logging , Principles and General Methods of Operation in the United States 590pp  , by Ralph Clement Bryant , Kalmbach Memorial Library , NMRA