Question about logging industry layout

[kdgrant6]

I have a layout question.  There are three images below of the left side of my layout: one distant, two closer up, showing a locomotive storage area and a lumber operation.

I've laid the track for all except the lumber area.  I've done some research but would like to get your input on the track in this area.  I imagine logs coming in on flat cars from the right side of the layout from behind the locomotive building and being backed into lumber area.

Would there need to be separate areas for off-loading the timber and loading the processed lumber, chips, etc.? Or would the big gravel area be sufficient and let fork lifts and bob cats sort things out?  Or is this a bad plan from the jump?

By the way, the layout is on a one inch piece of foam board.  The lumber operation sits above the layout on another 1" piece of foam board.  The outer loop is a 3% incline to the mountain on the other half of the layout.  The incline begins in the bottom curve, rises one inch, then flattens enough for the turnout into the industry, then continues up the mountain to its 4.5" top. 

Thanks for any input you can offer!

[Len]

"Logging Operation" usually refers to where the trees are cut down. What you have would be more of a "Timber Processing" area.

You might consider some type of crane for lifting logs from the train to trucks for delivery elsewhere. A forklift for handling finished lumber, and a payloader/Bobcat for chips could work.

Len

[kdgrant6]

Thanks, Len. 

You're right. It's a lumber company, similar to the Poinsett Lumber and Manufacturing Company, in the town where I grew up.  It was served by the Pickens Doodle.  The Doodle came up in this forum a few days ago because of a picture I posted of an old Baldwin loco.   

On the other side of the layout, I have the logging operation that feeds this industry.  That logging operation shares a spur line with a granite quarry (does that idea sound familiar?).

Is the way the tracks are arranged in my lumber company work, or would another arrangement be better?

I invite any suggestions.

[jward]

I don't think a bobcat would be used to load woodchips. they are too small to reach the top of a hopper car. remember, woodchips are lightweight, and the cars used to haul them are usually taller than regular hoppers. a much better way to load them would be some sort of overhead hopper fed by a conveyor belt from the sawmill. there are structures of this sort sold as "gravel loaders" which would fit the bill. another possibility is a "truck dump" which is a ramp that elevates trucks to the height of the car. they back up to the car and dump their load.

[rogertra]

Go to the library and borrow a book on logging in the era you are interested in.  There are lots of books on the subject out there.

Then you can decide what you want to do and how to go about it.

Cheers

Roger T.

[kdgrant6]

Thanks, Jeffery.  You're right: the bobcat would be too small to reach those high-sided hoppers. 

I like your ideas of a conveyor belt and a truck dump.

Also when I was looking for hoppers that would carry wood chips, some of them were too long to fit the 18" curves of my layout.  I've seen them more than 60'.  I'm figuring 50' or so is about as long as I can handle on my layout.

This link (http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/199266.aspx) indicates old boxcars and gondolas are used, too, not just hoppers.

[kdgrant6]

Go to the library and borrow a book on logging in the era you are interested in.  There are lots of books on the subject out there.

Then you can decide what you want to do and how to go about it.

Cheers

Roger T.

That's always a good suggestion, whether research is carried out in libraries or in other ways.

I was wondering about specific suggestions, such as Jeffrey and Len gave, that could help out. 

[kdgrant6]

In particular, I'm wondering about the arrangement of the three-track spur.

Specifically, is it reasonable that the unloading of logs and the loading of lumber product, whether planks, plywood, or chips take place on that same inside track? 

Or would it be better to rethink the placement of the tracks.

If there's something that needs changing, it's convenient for me to make the changes now. 

[jward]

Thanks, Jeffery.  You're right: the bobcat would be too small to reach those high-sided hoppers. 

I like your ideas of a conveyor belt and a truck dump.

Also when I was looking for hoppers that would carry wood chips, some of them were too long to fit the 18" curves of my layout.  I've seen them more than 60'.  I'm figuring 50' or so is about as long as I can handle on my layout.

This link (http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/199266.aspx) indicates old boxcars and gondolas are used, too, not just hoppers.

while there are some massive cars used in woodchip service, there were also many smaller cars as well. I distinctly remember western Maryland using old 2 bay hoppers, with extensions added to the sides to make them taller. more recently, I have seen a lot of former seaboard coast line woodchip cars in coke service (coke is a refined form of coal used in blast furnaces in steel mills) which are 100ton 3 bay hoppers with taller sides. th3 2 bay cars were about 32-35 feet in length, and the 100ton cars about 45 feet. both will run around your 18r curves.

[Len]

I should have been clearer.

I was thinking of the Bobcat for cleaning up woodchip spillage around the tracks, not loading cars.

Len

[kdgrant6]

I read that because of the advent of rugged portable log chippers, chipping of the logs is often done at the logging site and hauled by dump trucks to a rail spur.