Logging and Lumber

The largest industry on my model railroad layout is the logging and lumber industry.  The logging takes place on a mountain in the center of the layout.  The logging is served by a three foot narrow gauge railroad.  The logs are cut and hauled down the mountain to the lumber mill where the logs are dumped into a log pond.  The logs are cut into lumber at the sawmill then the lumber is placed in the lumber drying yard until they are ready to be delivered the customers via the standard gauge railroad.  Since the era of my layout is 1939 I try to keep the equipment and machinery faithful to that era, 1939 or older.

The sawmill pictured above is not on my layout - it is a postcard with a 1912 postmark.  My mill is actually larger than this and modeled after the style built in Pennsylvania in the early 1900's.  I will be discussing this in more detail with photos later.  Early postcards are great sources of information for modeling, and I have a substantial collection of old industry postcards.  That could be a hobby of it's own.  They augment my collection of old industrial books.  I changed from building kits a while back and now prefer to either kitbash if I have something that fits my needs or better yet to scratch build.  It is all fun, and modeling is a journey.  

Vintage workers

The photo below is from an early, undated real photo postcard.  While it was never mailed there is a penciled note on the back saying that brother Frank is sitting in the front row on the right with the men he worked with, so we know that is a picture of Frank.  I do not know the date of the photo but am guessing it is either pre-1900 or shortly thereafter.  I cannot tell what the industry is.  The very dark background appears to be a large building, with perhaps a windowed clerestory at the top resulting in a lot of light there.  It appears that the men in front left are sitting on a short 2-wheeled cart, and frank is sitting on a wooden box.  The man standing on the left is wearing a long coat not unlike the ones worn in foundries or steel mills.  All of the men are all wearing hats which was typical of early workers.  The man sitting second from the left appears to be wearing a tie so he may be the boss, or the boss may be the man standing 3rd from the right who appears to have a pocket watch in his vest pocket.  I find old photos fascinating.

Brickworks overview

I have essentially finished my brickworks.  There are a few more details and touch-ups to do but this is all I plan to post on the brickworks on the blog.  I will next move on to another subject.  If anyone has questions on the brickworks feel free to contact me.  The photo below is an "airplane view" which gives a good overview of the brickworks other than the clay pit off to the left which I posted a photo of a while back.

If you look closely you can see a black bear family on the hill above the upper rail line near a dead tree in the upper center of the photo.

Clay Excavator

While I am busy installing all of my brickworks models on the layout and doing the scenicing, I thought I would show an alternate clay excavation machine circa 1916.  While I think this would make a neat model it would not fit in my situation.  It is an Adel excavator shown in the photo below operating in a shale bank. The machine consisted of a bucket elevator with cutting tools spaced at intervals between the buckets.  The elevator was carried on a sort of railcar with wheels (RR truck) on one end and rollers on the other end.  It pivoted in  a half circle.  It was a fascinating machine that moved under it's own power.  I am guessing the power was an electric motor.  When the half circle cut was complete, the machine advanced itself as well as moving the half-circle track which the roller moved on.  I would love to be able to see this thing in operation but doubt any examples still exist.  The operator cab is the lower enclosed part on the right with a window.

The buckets discharge to chutes that load a storage hopper on an elevated trestle alongside the machine.  The hopper appears to be pulled by a small electric loco which hauls the hopper to the plant, then returns for another load.

Clay pit

My clay pit is on a hill to the left of and above the brickworks. This was done because there was no room adjacent to the brickworks but I have found multiple prototype examples of this.  The photo below shows the clay pit in almost finished condition.  There is a derrick with a clamshell bucket to dig out the clay and dump it into the bin at the right, from which the clay is then dumped into the tramway bucket on the tramway.  The small structure to the left of the derrick houses the lifting engine.  There is a lot of litter of old machinery around the site.

There is a discarded tramway clay bucket on the ground to the right of the pit.

Industrial Litter

When modeling industries there is more interest if the scene has some character and is not neat and clean like it is brand new or the cleaning crew just finished clearing the area.  I have visited many industries of different types and even the most tidy had some litter or temporary pile of stuff.  The less tidy industries can be real messes.  Below is an example of a real mess, but it will provide real character to your industry.

Modern brick company

About 12 years ago I toured Glen Gery Brick company in Pennsylvania with the Railroad Industry SIG.  It is a very modern brick company and they gave us a very nice tour.  They are on of the largest brick companies in the US started in 1890.   You can find their web site at
http://www.glengerybrick.com/about/history.html

The photo below shows the clay extrusion being cut into bricks by the rotating wire assembly.  Center bricks move to the right.

Below is the clay mixing area.  Reject hardened bricks are crushed and used as "grog" in the new mix.

Below shows brick product on an in-plant rail car.

Cart loads of brick in the baking track.  Heating pipes in the rear.

Below you see the brick baking ovens.

Clay tram railroad equipment

The photo below shows a locomotive and two clay tram cars of the Union Mining Company at the clay dump near Mount Savage Maryland about 1920.