# Log Pole Railroads



## tommatthews (Jan 6, 2008)

I am looking for information on locmotives and cars for a log pole railroad.

Any information and / or assistance is appreciated.

Tom


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## R.W. Marty (Jan 2, 2008)

Hello Tom.
What information, specifically, were you looking for? 
Pole roads were a cheap and easy substitute for iron rails used by logging companies into the 1930's.
A lot of times they laid these lines without much grading or ballast so tried for additional stability by using extra broad gauges. 


Below is a photo I scanned from Kramer Adams book,  Logging Railroads of the West.
This picture shows a pole road in Washington State using a class A Climax with double flanged wheels for use on pole rails.









Hope this was of some help.
Later
Rick


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## tommatthews (Jan 6, 2008)

Rick, 

I am looking for pictures, diagrams, plan drawings to build a open car that might have been used to haul freight.  I found a couple at gearsteam.com but they are at a distance.  I can't get any detail from them.

I don't mind purchasing a book or two  that might have good pictures or illustrations as I love reading about various railroads especially something unique as the log pole.

Tom


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom, 

I've been fascinated by them for years, so it will be interesting what photos/books/etc., are known to have good pics. In my experience, the photos are few and far between.

Here's a really interesting loco, from the steaminthewoods site.










Here's another gem from the same place:










Ahah!  (Amazing what you find when you plug the clues into Google.)  It's a Tanner & Delaney "Goliath", and gearedsteam doesn't appear to have found the above pic:










It would make a really interesting model!


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## tommatthews (Jan 6, 2008)

Pete, 

Thanks for the pictures. I have googled myself to near death today. 
I played with different words, changed the phrases, etc. and have not 
found any good pics of rolling stock. The locos are awesome.... 

We'll keep looking and asking for help ......


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## R.W. Marty (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Tom,

Pole road were installed to save money!  Almost everything ran on them was hand-me-down 
or cobbled together in the "company shops"
Having said that, I'll add that Climax Locomotive Works (among others) and car builders saw 
a chance to turn a buck and offered wheelsets to fit their locos and cars to adapt them to pole road running.

With that in mind I think just about anything you could build (within reason) would be prototypical, unless you
are trying for a particular car the way it looked at 5PM on July 23, 1921

Here is a shot from "Logging The Redwoods"









For your "flat car" you could just copy this "log trailer" and add a deck.  That would be perfectly prototypical.

Are you going to use battery power?  I think track power would be a bit problematic on round wood poles/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif.

Hey Pete,
Those are great shots from Marc's site.  I don't know where he comes up with them.  Sometimes I think he has a time 
machine and he goes back and gets the shots as he needs them

Great topic, more input.
Later
Rick


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## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

So who will be the first to divulge their best ideas for creating the wheels?  I certainly don't have any useful thoughts on the problem.

Robert


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## tommatthews (Jan 6, 2008)

Robert

I was thinking of wheels from a die cast antique vehicle that the rubber tires would come off.

Tom


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## R.W. Marty (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom,
I think I read somewhere that they were trying pully wheels from the hardware store. 
Don't remember how or if that worked out.
Later
Rick


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## Eric M. (Jan 3, 2008)

Hello,

I have been watching this thread.  I myself teeter on the brink of wanting to make a model of just about any logging contraption you might imagine.  I had a thought for wheels.  You could remove the wheels from a normal wheel set. Then place these wheels facing BACKWARDS on the axle stubs of a second wheelset.  The result would essentially be a double flange wheel. Spoked wheels would really look nice.  Perhaps these ones:










You might have to make custom axles though-- especially if you want the broad gauge effect.

Regards,

Eric

p.s. this thread is giving me thought of building one of these in live steam.


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## FH&PB (Jan 2, 2008)

Eric, I remember seeing a pole road module on the BAGRS portable layout several years ago - probably around 2000. The onlyi person I remember knowing at that display was Bruce Jahn, but he's still around. You might see if you can track down the builder of that for data, ideas, etc. And maybe he or she would be willing to share with the rest of us?


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## Eric M. (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Vance,

I used to see Bruce quite regularly because Jack Verducci organized an advanced modelers group.  Bruce and I were both part of this group.  We haven't had a meeting for a while now but I'll ask him when I get a chance.

Usually at BAGRS events I don't spend my time at the sparkie track-- Especially now because we have a logging module that attaches to the live steam track.  It allows us to run the steam donkeys and do some REAL steam logging!  That would explain why I might not have noticed the module that you are speaking of.

This idea of a pole road locomotive is very appealing to me though.  I just remembered that I have a spare boiler and Graham 1cylinder steam engine sitting around.  Could be fun to whip up a chain drive engine for this idea.

Regards,

Eric


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## D-n-H - Kirkville Branch (Jan 14, 2008)

Was reading about these in a D&H book a while ago. The author was saying they took 2 sets of regular wheels, chopped the wheels, welded them together and that was it, So why not just do the same for a model. and if its rc, why not just use plastic wheels that we all replace and use for the yards/cargo 

just a thought


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## HMeinhold (Jan 2, 2008)

Eric,
the wheels for pole roads were mostly concave, though obviously some looked like what you described. If you really start building a pole road live steamer, I offer to turn the wheels.
Regards


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## flatracker (Jan 2, 2008)

Those are neat pictures! There sure are a lot of possibilities lurking around that idea, and talk about some cheap track! Buy a lot of dowels and you are in business!! I don't know what diameter you would need to run, unless all of those roads were just point to point, which I imagine was the general use. Still...lots of neat possibilities for a logging R/R.


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## Joe Bartolini (Jan 2, 2008)

For some time now I have been interested in the use of pole roads in general and specifically in logging operation. This interest also includes wood rails or stringer roads. In some context these are collectively known as tram roads. As such I have spent the past five years scouring the Internet for anything about this style of railroad operations. This web page is a compilation of what I so far have managed to find on the subject. I'm fairly certain that additional nuggets are hidden in my computer's hard drive which will be included here as they are rediscovered. Hopefully I will receive more info from you to add to this collection. 
Joe in the politically burned out state of SC

Hum, the link doesn't really stand out in the above paragraph, so here it is all spelled out:

http://bartoliniville.us/scrr/poleroads/


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## michael hilliar (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Joe 

Just looking through your web site above 
in two of the picture you state you don't know where the file came from 
the one with the corragated boiler clading was built by DISPATCH 
of Greymouth which is on the west coast of the south island of New Zealand 
It was built in 1915 

Michael


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## farmerted (Jan 2, 2008)

There are several good pictures with somewhat detailed captions of both pole roads and tramways on pages 42 through 44 of "Railroads in the Woods". 

-Jon (a.k.a. Farmer Ted)


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

My favorite pole road lokey...thought about building one in 1-1/2" scale live steam.








Here is a pic that sort of shows some cars, wish that guy wasn't in the way


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

My favorite pole road lokey...thought about building one in 1-1/2" scale live steam.








Here is a pic that sort of shows some cars, wish that guy wasn't in the way


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Mik,

That second photo looks like a 'normal' class A climax with different wheels.  You can get some of the truck parts from David Bailey (DJB Engineering,)  Graham Eng sells a neat 2-cylcinder steam engine, and then all you need is a boiler and some wood for the frames.

The first photo says it is a climax, though I don't know what category it would fit in.  Neat loco though.


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