Drying timber stacks, one approach...

Dear Doug,

Sounds like we're looking at the same problem, only from different perspectives, as I'm currently building a rendition of Cass circa 1958/59 too...

The difference is that I'm unashamedly building in a "small" (not quite "micro") space, for touring/exhibition duty, 
so I can take a few more liberties/"selective compressions", as long as the end-result visual matches an A/B comparison against prototype reference pics... (Hint: I _love_ telephoto fore-shortening... sometimes....   )

Anywho, my solution to the drying stack dilemma was to reach for :

Ingredients

- sheets of Artmil or similar 1.5mm balsa sheet (AUD$6.55 for 915mm x 100mm sheet)
- my trusty Master Airscrew Balsa stripper tool
- and my equally trusty NWSL Chopper
- my ever-present-on-workbench Isopropyl + Black India Ink "Oil Wash"/stain
- ACC glue of choice

Recipe

- Use the MA Balsa Stripper to rip the balsa sheet into scale 12" wide strips
(goes easily and quickly, just make sure to keep the sheet aligned as you pull thru the tool.
100mm / 3.5mm wide strips = approx 28x HO scale 12" wide 260'-long planks)

- Use the NWSL chopper to bulk-cut _most_ of the strips to your nominated plank length
(remember, Cass did "cut to order", so looking accross the stacks,
some variation in length and stack-height were not un-usual,
but common lengths were usually even numbers, and above 8' long were divisible by 4'...
IE 8', 12', 16', 20', 24'. Much longer than 16' became problematic loading into a nominally "40' boxcar..." )

- Save maybe 2 or 3 of the "long strips", and use the NWSL Chopper to cut them into 100s of 3-4' long "slabs". These are _Important_! You _will_ need _more_ of these than you realise!

- Grab a handful of your cut "planks", and roughly split them lengthwise with an X-acto knife,
(by hand/eye is fine, dimensions not critical), to form approx 4-6" wide "sticks",
as opposed to "planks".

- Decide if you want "fresh cut" (no stain),
"4-6 month seasoned" (light/1-dunk stain),
or "8-12 month seasoned, ready to ship" (heavy/2-3 dunk stain)

appearance, and dunk the pieces in the India Ink "Oil Wash"/let-dry as appropriate.

Now, the actual "assembly" bit...

- grab 7-10 planks as you feel a stack should be _wide_
lay the planks side-by-side on a plate of glass,
and ensure they are butted-up against each other and "square-ish" (with an engineers square, jig, or similar)
as they lay

- using ACC, glue one of the "rough split sticks" accross the middle of the layer-of-planks,
and one-each maybe 2-3' in from the edge. This should form a "deck" of planks,
which when-flipped-over, sits on the "cross sticks", and forms the lowest layer of the "stack".

- glue a "plank" along one of the "long edges" of the "deck", ensuring it is aligned L<> R and F<> A.
- glue a line of the short "slabs" along one of the narrow ends of the "deck",
IE each "slab" will align with the end of the "plank" below it, and look like the end of the "next layer of planks" in the stack.
- glue a full plank on the other "long edge" to complete the 2nd layer, in a kind of "U" shape
Hopefully it becomes clear that this will create a situation where the bottom "layer" is full/complete,
the sides will be a "pile of full planks",
but one end will be completely open, the main body of the stack will be hollow,
and the "visible end" will have a wall of "slabs" which look like the end of the "stacked drying planks"...

- Repeat above for between 3 and 5 "layers"

- then, to form the "top layer", you can either:
1- create another "planks + cross-sticks" deck layer, and place it on top of the "hollowed body" assembly
(simple, easy, but runs the risk of the top layer looking obviously "not aligned" if the stack-up of the body layers has leaned off-course)

OR

2- glue _only_ the "long side planks" onto the existing "stacked-up" assembly,
slot planks in-between the "side planks" to fill in the gap,
and glue the "cross-sticks" accross the top to bind the "top deck" of planks together in-place.

this should give you a (say), 9-plank-Wide X 7-plank-Tall "open ended box",
which from the _visible end_ looks like a "low cubic pile of drying timber"...

now rinse and repeat, stacking these "low piles" to form "complete stacks"...

It's the kind of "assembly task" which goes surprisingly-fast while sitting in front of the TV,
only half-watching whatever drivel is being trotted out at the moment...

...If you've gotten this far, and the words are swimming, maybe some pics might help?

Near Scale-view level, Newest-Cut to Old-Seasoned L--> R.
Note the "rough-split cross-sticks" which seperate the layers 

Higher-level (Drone?) shot, note the few "random planks" on top of the "Old Seasoned" stacks, as per prototype pics

...and a pic of the "not visible end", which is open and hollow...
(saves material and cost).

Tthe total time for all stacks shown in these pics was 3-nights worth.
- One night to rip the sheets into strips and slabs
- One night to NWSL-Chop and then stain the lumber to the required states
(Stain dried during the next day)
- and One night to "zen-assemble" the stacks from ground-up, production-line style,
while sitting in front of the TV...

Yes, we could argue the seperator "sticks" being every 6-7 layers of drying-planks,
as opposed to separating every layer,
(there are protoype pics of many/various configurations,
just _be_careful_, as many "period B&W pics" which purport to be from "location C, in W.Va"
end up being from another logging operation,
a different era, a different species-of-tree cutting-scenario,
or even another state entirely,
...and there are even proto pics of different "stack configs" within the one "seasoning yard"!?!?!?)

but for my mind, against known Cass circa 1958/59 pics, this will pass-muster for the majority of viewers,
and allows me to use the "hollowed-out" technique as described/shown...

"...Yeah yeah, that's great, but there's a big difference between building 10, and building 100s of drying-lumber-stacks..."

True enough, which is where rat-cunning and subterfuge are your friends...

For "second row back" stacks: 
- I'd bail on using individual planks for the bottom and top "layers" of each 5-7plank-layered box,
instead simply cutting a sheet which is "7-9 planks wide, and the appropriate length"
- the "slabs" could be replaced with "cross-grain strips", which are scribed/nicked to look like "ends of planks"

"3rd row back" stacks:
- I'd consider changing to 5mm or even 9.5mm thick balsa sheet material as base material,
and simply cutting each "7 layer box" from a single lump of balsa
(IE a piece "7-9 planks wide, to the perscribed length", with scribed long-narrow edges for the "plank layers",
separated by more of the "rough-split separator" sticks.

...and what-the-hell, for "4th row and beyond" stacks. I'd seriously consider just cutting "blocks of balsa", to the full-height+length+width diemnsions of a complete "stack", and scribing in any "layer" lines as positioning, visibility, and time/effort/motivation led...

Anywho, that's just how I'm doing it, squeezing an entire "Cass Sawmill Seasoning yard"
(or at least enough of a visual clue for the general-public crowd to "key into what's happening"),
into a strip of benchwork < 6" deep x 12" wide between the layout fascia and the "Log pond spur"...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

PS if you have access to a laser engraver/cutter,
you could speed-up the all-manual process above by laser-cutting all the planks/slabs/sticks,
and simply "engraving" the "plank layer scribing" for the 3rd and 4th-row "balsa block as full-stack" units...

Tops and bottoms

One might even be able to get away with not making the top and bottom layers of the middle stacks, only putting a bottom on the bottom one and a top on the top one and all the other stacks just have ends and sides.

I wonder if I can cut a

I wonder if I can cut a pattern looking like the random offset of the wood (sort of a square wave shape) on my cutter and stack those for the infill.

The scale IS what truly  gets you.  
I would need (ballpark) something like 250-300 of these stacks...  that is a LOT of work a a HUGE amount of wood.  
 

Frankly short of a laser cutter I doubt there is a fast solution (not that the laser is fast but it beats hand cutting). So I will probably have to suck it up.

-Doug Meyer

Paper wraps, "thick card" layer systems, and other rememberances

Dear Doug,

Mulling over the issue, it occurs to me:

Option 1 - the "4th row back" blocks might be improved/not-need "laser engraving" if you can (simply) wrap them in a paper printout "stack"?

IE at "4+ rows distant", the actual texture of the plank-ends and longditudinal "layer strata lines" will be lost, and it only takes a _visual_ representation to fool-the-eye that they are "more detailed then they actually are"...
(Esp effective if the nearer Foreground, 2nd, and 3rd-row back stacks "set the visual expectation" by haaving the actual textural detail up-front and centre, where it counts and can be appreciated...)

As a starting point, ScaleScenes printable textures might be interesting?
https://scalescenes.com/product/tx37-cream-clapboard/(aka "fresh cut" seasoning stack?)
https://scalescenes.com/product/tx35-plain-clapboard/(aka "12-month seasoned, ready for shipment" stack?)

Option 2 - Again, for the "3rd and 4th + rows back" stacks,
use whatever "cutter" you have to cut the "layers" from manila-coloured thick (1-1.5mm) card,
and simply glue together? As long as you have:
- top and bottom "deck" layers, basically complete rectangular sheets
- "U shaped" layers forming the sides and "viewable end"
these could be rapidly cut and assembled to whatever height you desire, with "rough split stick" separators every soo-many-layers as required.

As long as the color of the card and the color of the foreground "physicall modelled" stacks is reasonably consistent (and again, that there are different colors in the prototype, based on seasoning-batch/length of time each stack has been in-the-yard),
it could work...

...and now that I think about it, IIRC there was a model-kit crowd producing exactly this kind of "stack 'em high" seasoning-stack system as a kit in the recent past, using injection-molded plastic instead of of "thick card"...

(Prof takes his own advice, and fires up every search tool he can access to try and confirm the rememberance...
"...I'll be back in a bit..."

"...Found them!!!!..." says Prof, as he comes running back to the laptop....)

Owl Mountain Models "wide" and "narrow" lumber loads
http://www.owlmtmodels.com/lumber/3001.html
/> http://www.owlmtmodels.com/lumber/3004_3005_Narrow.html

Wheels of Time also do something similar
http://wheelsoftime.squarespace.com/ho-scale-lumber-load/
/>
AMB have an offering in laser-cut wood, although no clue as to how it's internally constructed
http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm

...and, just because I found it while I was wandering-around...
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/261560.aspx 
/> (scroll down a little less than 1/2 way to see some interesting scratchbuild loads, inc weights!)

RE Laser Cutting

Maybe a quick word with Jimmy @ Monster Model Works
https://www.larkspurlaserart.com/might give some options for a "lumber drying stack" laser-cut cut?

TrainLife used to sell a laser-cut kit
https://trainlife.com/products/ho-scale-flatcar-lumber-load-kits
/> which, assuming they are now no-longer-available,
(and therefore "no-harm, no-foul", would buy from TL if they were still produced),
would give a clear idea to Jimmy @ MMW what you're trying to achieve...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

PS one thread the Search Box turned up was...
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/8908

...oh, hang on a minute....

Marvelous job Prof Klyzlr

Marvelous job Prof Klyzlr !!

Resin casting

I would fire up my full-sized table saw and go to my lumber yard and buy some cedar fencing. Here in the PNW cedar fencing is under $2 for a 6' board. Cheap enough that the waste isn't that much. With a zero clearance blade/table set up you can easily cut strips down  to 1/16". I would make them as wide as a pile of lumber. 

Then using the above approach, cut a handful into individual strips for the top layers. Make a few piles of different lengths. Then comes the mass production piece.

Resin casting! Take you handful of masters and make a RTV mold. This would be simple open one sided molds. The RTV molds probably won't last for the entire process so you may need to make a second set when the first wears out. But you'll have the masters still so that's easy. Then start cranking out resin copies.