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Saw Mill and Lumber question

Hi John:

Ooops, I didn't MEAN to give that impression. I do not know of any specific eastern mills that still use log ponds. If I made such a statement, it was wrong.

I have re-read my earlier posts, and do not find where I made the assertion that such exist TODAY. I have seen a few mills out west within the last few years that still use ponds or boomed off sections of rivers and creeks.

I am usually careful to 'never say never'. I don't know for a fact that there are NO eastern mills that still have a pond. Thus I may have left the erroneous impression when using such statements as "Today, with logs ponds a RARITY, the logs are washed" (no specific implication of Eastern logging). or "You are correct in that some logging operations, especially in the east, delivered (past tense) their logs to the mill using local rivers.. It was my intention that this was a discussion of logging history, not current practice. The main theme here is RAILROAD logging, which is now pretty historical by definition.

I also stated: "The common western logging operation, and many eastern as well, used either railroads or (later) trucks to transport their logs from the woods. When the logs arrived at the mill, they were dumped into the log pond, for the reasons I earlier stated (all in past tense)".

and: "In some later operations, especially when very large logs were involved, a small one-man pond 'tug' boat was used to maneuver the logs." I think this is still the case at some operations in the west, at least I've seen such boats in the last few years. There is no specific mention of this being an eastern practice, however.

I, and others posting to this thread, have made a few statements regarding modern logging practice, dry decking logs, front end loaders, spraying the logs, etc.

So, I'm sorry if a misconception was conveyed.

And thank you for the complement on the Cass mill description. My companions on the several mill visits were Michael Allen and George Deike, both well known to the Mountain States group.

I hope to see you again at the 2004 Cass Railfan's Weekend! Have a nice holiday.

Dan Mitchell ==========

PEACHCREEK wrote:

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Daniel A. Mitchell
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The Pennsylvania Lumberman's Museum (Galeton PA) has a full size working replica of a steam driven mill, as well as other buildings typical of a 1900's lumber camp. They use a pond, but only operate for two days a year, the weekend right after July 4. They also have an a non-working three truck Shay 80 ton engine and a rebuild Barnhart loader (to keep this on topic). The only burling contest in the state is held in the pond that weekend.

Their head sawyer used to work at a hardware mill just north of there (Ulysses PA), and that mill does not use a pond. They bring all logs in by truck. There is also a mill near me in Cortland, NY which trucks in logs and does not have a pond. I know of three other mills between Binghamton and Owego, NY; but only one has a pond, and I have never seen any logs in it.

Bob McConnell N2SPP

Reply to
Bob McConnell

I grew up near a small sawmill operation, complete with the Teepee sawdust burner. It has a small log pond that was surrounded by the highway on one side and the NP branch line trestle embankment on the other. I can't recall offhand how big the entry to the log pond was; there were large log rafts in the bay on occasion.

There was a small entryway from the highway into the sawmill. One could see log trucks parked inside; they got logs that way as well. I don't recall any kind of RR spur there for outbound shipments.

Kennedy

Reply to
Kennedy (no longer not on The Haggis!)

Greg, My sawmill has a pond and ships lumber by flat and boxcar. Take a look

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picture is wort a thousand words Doug

Reply to
Doug

VERY nice!

One photo of my much smaller sawmill (and a little bit of the pond) can be found along with other photos of my layout at the MMRHS website:

Specifically my layout can be found at:

The mill is from a modified Finescale Miniatures kit, with an added jackslip, winch house, water tank, and a few other things.

The layout represents a fictitious GN branchline somewhere in the western mountains, mostly Washington, ca. 1935. At least that's how I originally intended it. A couple of my regular operators prefer to run 'diseasels', so I incorporated a few of them to keep the engineers happy, which sort of updates the layout to more like 1950, depending on who's running what.

It's a 'U" shaped layout about 14 ft wide, and 12 ft along one side, and

16 ft along the other side. It's a point to point operation, with a third 'leg' being the logging railroad. It's all local and way-freight switching, with lots of industries. A basic card system generates traffic. It can keep three two-man crews VERY busy.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Doug wrote:

Reply to
Daniel A. Mitchell

Dan, That is some great model building you have done. I added your album to my bookmarks so I can go back again. Doug

Reply to
Doug

Thank you for the compliment.

The layout is unusual in one respect. It is (almost) totally enclosed. It is built in sections from 4' to 6' long, and varying in depth from

14" to 24". Each is about 24" tall, with 5" of 'mechnical space' beneath the railroad, 16" of vertical 'layout space', and 3" above for lighting. The effect is like a longs shadow-box diorama. Each section has the train layout, a back panel for backdrop painting, a top with lighting ,and a front with two sliding Plexiglas doors. When it's shut down, almost all dust is excluded. When in use, the doors must be opened of course, but a fan with dust filter slightly pressurizes the layout so clean air goes out instead of dirty air coming in. If too many doors are opened at once, it defeats the system, but it's quite effective overall. It greatly reduces general dust accumulation, and the need for frequent track cleaning.

And, Yes, it does restrict access somewhat. Derailments in back corners are difficult to reach easily, but fortunately they are rare. Overall, it's worked out very well. It's operated about monthly for over fifteen years with no major problems. A lot of though went into servicing. For serious work the doors lift right out, and the top panels lift off. The control panels (one for each section) unplug from the front of the layout sections. The whole layout section can be pulled out of the layout and flipped upside down for major wotk on wiring or switch motors.

Major buildings are all removable, with electrical plugs to disconnect wiring for lighting. It's FAR easier to take the buildings to the workbench for 'service' than to try soldering tiny light bulbs, etc. when the structures are in the layout. Many trees, especially those along the front of the layout can be removed, as they set on pegs.

A new 4' section is still 'bare plywood', but is running, and I hope to get the 'box' built around it this winter.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Doug wrote:

Reply to
Daniel A. Mitchell

Very nice work, Doug!

Reply to
Corelane

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