Mountain top logging route, please critique!

Logging RRs were built on the very cheap as far as I know.    They were designed to be temporary until the timber was cut out, and then pulled up and moved.    There are a few exceptions where a "big" company had a "main" line that was substantial.

 

so my thoughts are that there would never be a tunnel on a logging road.    There would be very very few bridges and those that were would be timber trestles (the material is just about free to them).   

 

Switchbacks were very common to climb up the side of a mountain.    thing about Cass WV.    

 

Trackwork would be simple, only what is absolutely needed.   There might be an engine house near the lumber mill and some more substantial track work.    Also, I understand most did not use ballast, they just laid untreated ties directly in the dirt.

 

With all that in mind, your trackwork may be on the complex side.   

PRRJim, very good points.  I may take some artistic license and put on a timber trestle just cause I love the way they look.  Going simple with the track-plan will be easier on the pocket book as well as reducing the chances for problems. 

 

Like you said, maybe I'll reduce it down to just one siding for an engine house and eliminate the reversals.

Never say never...the Little River Logging Co., which property now is the Great Smoky

Mountain Nat. Park, had a tunnel, originally cut for the log road,  that is still used by a park auto road on the way up to Cades Cove.

Go for it.  Any mountain type layout deserves a tunnel and bridges.  You don 't have too many sidings.   It may  be a bit busy, but the reality is, it's a toy train layout and if you want to play and make it interesting and you have only so much room, that is an ok drawback to  have and overcome with creativity.

As for bridges, high, spindly, and sometimes unlikely (S-curved, etc.) trestles were

built by logging roads, especially some in California.  I have seen pictures of some

where, not only would I not ride a train across, I would not walk across due to open ties and shaky looking construction.  However, for interest, that is just the kind of

trestle I would want to build on a layout.

DomMiele,

A timber trestle is pretty appropriate.   A good idea.    Steel truss bridges are not so common     As someone mentioned, there was even a tunnel on one.

 

Since I operate in terms of switching and moving cars with a purpose, I would build a small  yard - maybe 1 or 2 tracks near a logging mills and a run around track (passing siding).    Also a backwoodsey type engine terminal.    Then the track plan might be 2 or 3 stub end branches that end at logging camps.     The operation would be to move the loaded log cars from the logging camp to the mill and the empties to the logging camps.  

 

I would try to fit in a dummy siding in the mill for boxcars or flats to ship out finished lumber and have a few setting there.

Dom,

I like your general idea.  My plan, not track plan, just a general idea for a layout in a year or two is to build a switchback up a mountain to a logging camp in On30.  On30 was a way of moving out of HO to something larger, and easier to see and work with.  I still have a Climax and a few log cars.  The lower level will be O Gauge Hi Rail mainline.  I saw a Lionel Shay up close and in person at Mercer Junction Train Shoppe last week, and they are great looking engines.  I think I will have enough switching on the switchback; no continuous run.  That will take place on the lower level.

 

As far as trestles and tunnels go, build what suits your fancy.  I have moved away from the pressure in HO to build what is prototypicaly correct.  If it looks plausable, go for it. Besides as Colorado Hirailer pointed out, there is probably a prototype for everything.

 

I'm looking forward to see what you come up with, and hope you are able to post some photos or even video of that nice Shay.

Just took a video of the Shay running on the current layout, now all i need to do is get the video off my phone and onto this post!

Yay!  Thank you!  If you are like me, the challenge of getting it off the phone and onto the Forum may be daunting. 

Dom, Kick an email off to Joey Ricard, or better yet go to the landscape site on this forum and look at some of the stuff he has photographed, as well as footage he has taken at the On3/30 big train show. Our club has been talking about possibly do one for the future. I got on the Google Earth and flew over the Cass Scenic Railroad from Cass to Bald Knob, then to Spruce, then on to Elkin's which has a tunnel.  The new managment is planning on reopening the line thru Slatey Fork, as well as from Cass up the Greenbriar River Valley, to Durbin again. and if you follow these logging lines, they have many, many bridges, and I believe a tunnel or 2........Brandy! 

My Bad, check out scenery and structures. Joey Ricard/Logging Video Documentary. Joey has found a very good 40+ minute video story of logging in this country from day one, thru today. I'd never seen this one, but to date it's one of the best. Showing all sorts of logging equipment Shay/Climax/Heistler/Donkey engines galore. This is a must see especially anyone wanting to build a Logging railroad operation....Brandy! 

 Um, yes, that was way more difficult than it should have been.  Plus, there is a 100mb file limit, so I had to cut the video way down.  Lame!  Does anyone know a way to attach larger video files?

Dom,

Thank you for the video!  The Shay is a beauty!  Just like the one Dave had at Mercer Junction.  The sound and smoke are very effective.  Looks like it can pull quite a number of cars, so it should be good for a few if you run it on a steep mountain grade.  What grade are you using?

Mark, if you can believe it the grade in that video is around 4%, maybe a slight bit steeper at some spots due to my bad math.  I did all the calculations, cut all my risers, and ended up 1/2" too low when i got to the already installed top run!  Had to go back and tweak some of the risers.  Anyhow, that Shay is geared low cause it doesn't go much faster than the video shows, plus like the real thing all the weight is on the driving wheels, and its a heavy loco, so it does pull a good deal of cars.

 

Here's the other interesting bit, that is just a regular conventional loco, as far as i know it does not have cruise control, but even better is that entire run is being fed by only ONE power drop!  No feeders, no bus, just straight from the little MTH 80w Z-Controller and right to the track.  For the size of the run, i think that's pretty impressive.

Dom,

You sound like me on calculations and cutting.  They say measure twice, cut once.  I measure and calculate several times, and it still comes out wrong.  The thing is Like you  I always figure out a way to get it to work.

 

Four percent sounds good, that will make it work a bit.  So it sounds like you do have just the right length run for the engine.  Again, it is very impressive!