Seattle car & foundry company

Here's a start for your log car search. Good luck. I think you'll find as many variations as there were lumber railroads. A lot of the lumber railroads built their own equipment.

http://archive.org/details/catalogueno300seatrich

Bernd

Another source...

.... would be the Car Builder's Cyclopedia. Best thing to do would be to research the specific line you intend to model, because "creativity" was the standard on non-interchange railroad cars.

Library

Check for logging railroad books at the library. There are a ton of books out there on logging railroads and most are picture heavy. As was suggested by Bernd, almost every logging operation used different equipment and from a variety of sources.

Good Luck.

Roy

Photo book

Take a look at http://www.amazon.com/Kinsey-Photographer-The-Locomotive-Portraits/dp/1884822657

There seem to be many copies of this book on the used market.

Resources...

Thanks to all who responded. I especially appreciate the links, I am checking them out. As far as local resources, a nearby college has a tremendous archive (mostly from the late Judge Leon Ford, a railfan & expert in my part of the country); my problem is finding time to go down there and gain access to the archives. This would be my most important potential resource, since my planned logging layout is freelance, but based heavily on local logging practices of nearly a century ago.

Local library is spotty at best. I've exhausted their current stock of info/books/resources; and have run into problems getting them to obtain books from other sources. Biggest problem is local desk clerks not understanding what the heck the "interlibrary loan system" is. One actually told me "We don't have anything like that." Guess that's what happens when you live in Green Acres. Hence I resort to the web as much as possible.

Again, many thanks to those who responded.

Virg

Arch bar trucks are available from Kadee & Tichy.

MDC had a cast style truck available for their Old Timer line, but since the Horizon take over, I'm not sure how many of their trucks are available.  I think just about any other truck design to fit your era & prototype will require scratch building.

Arch bar trucks

I definitely want arch bar trucks - they look right for the period and fact that logging railroads often used "obsolete" equipment that the mainline railroads were no longer using. But what other trucks would be appropriate?

That's another reason I wanted to learn more about trucks. Some of my MDC "old timer" equipment came with Fox trucks (mainly some "log cars" that are actually the tank car frame with the old timer tank taken off... but they are good enough for my purposes). With a log load on them and sufficient weathering, they should look just fine.

But if the Fox trucks are not appropriate I want to replace them with arch bar.

V

Fox trucks were the type who'se name I couldn't remember.

The fox trucks were the ones in the MDC old timer kits that I could not remember the name of.  I suspect that the logging companies may have used what ever was cheap to buy.  Since their equipment often did not go into interchange service, it would not be unusual for them to get some obsolete trucks cheap from a larger railroad.  I am using logic here, rather than any sort of concrete knowledge of any historical practices.

brake wheels

howdy,

does it matter which way the rail car is facing in respect to the brake wheel?  does it make sense to have the wheels from the cars on the same end so brakemen don't have to travel as far?   any regs on this?

just wondering

thanks

@ John

Cars can be positioned with either end going either direction.  Many have platforms which allow a brakeman or conductor to cross over from one side to the other, and many trainmen now have brake sticks which allow them to reach any brake on either side.

Since the brakeman has to walk back to tie brakes anyway, the only thing they'd save time on is if the last brake they tied happened to be on the near end.  On the other hand, it would be an enormous hassle to make sure that every car was turned to face the right direction every time.

brake wheels

good point!   thanks for reply

Logging Cars are Seldom Boxcars

Ken, I ended up reading your post first as I was flipping around on screens, and what you describe sounds like boxcars, where the brakeman would walk the car tops and set the brakes, because the brake wheels of yore were raised up above the car tops.

Whereas, logging cars are usually flatcars, and it would be very difficult to walk across the top of logs.  Not that it was never done, but I would guess the brake wheels of these old flatcars were built into the side of the car, and accessed by walking alongside the string of cars.

Most ore cars from my interest had controls to open the doors via hand wheels or cranks where the shaft of each passed across the car, and thus could be operated from either side of the car.  I think the logging cars would have been the same (for brakes of course, not doors).  I recall my old Kadee detached log trucks had such a brake wheel.

Logging cars

I have seen reference to logging cars (and pairs of disconnects) marshalled with two B ends together to make it easier for the brakeman (who was quite likely riding somewhere on the train).  It's still a long walk to the next pair of brake wheels, but at least he gets to tie down two at one go.  This is admittedly a fairly specific situation, with the train moving quite slowly, and the cars generally left facing the same direction.

David

The Brake Sticks are only

The Brake Sticks are only allowed in certain areas. When I worked on Norfolk Southern I worked in the Lake Division which is Chicago to Buffalo. Detroit to Cinncinatti. We were not allowed by the Div. Super to use the sticks. But if you went south into the Kentucky Div and the Pokey Div. Those guys could use the sticks. Go figure that! That was NS for ya........ Kevin

Trucks data

This may be a little too new for your purposes, but tells you a lot about the different types and mfrs.

http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/12/update-richard-hendricksons-truck.html