LOGGING MUSEUM VISIT

[Rick_Marty]

Hi all,

We just spent a week in South Eastern Oregon’s Klamath basin enjoying the cool weather. This area was/is famous for its pine logging industry back in the hay day of railroad logging. The main attractions now days for the railroad/logging buff besides scouting out old grades and sites are the Collier State Park Logging Museum and Train Mountain.

The Collier Logging Museum is an outdoor hands on display of logging equipment used from the 1860’s to the 1960’s in a pine forest setting. This Park is located about 30 miles north of Klamath Falls,Or at the juncture of the Williamson River and Spring Creek. There are also two large day use picnic areas and a full hookup RV park. All of these areas can be reached on foot using the trails along the river/creek and the foot bridges provided.
https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=park.profile&parkId=165

Train Mountain has been discussed on these forums before so I will just add it is a great place to visit. They now have the Klamath & Western operational and open to the public every Saturday for rides.

Link-- http://www.trainmountain.org/

Link-- http://www.knwrr.org/

We try to get up there every couple of years but for some reason it has been almost 4 years since our last trip so I had to take a bunch of fresh pictures because they have added some new things and rearranged some of the old displays as well as sprucing up the entire park and adding interpretive signage for the visitor. Anyway, hope you enjoy the following pictures, I will add them a few at a time over several days, lots of great stuff for the model builders out there.

Wheels and Arches, seem like a good place to start this picture log. Most everybody knows about them and the roll (no pun intended) that they played in logging history so I will just add a few comments as picture captions.

This set of “Big Wheels” were developed/adapted for tractor logging and were manufactured by the Redding Iron Works, Redding, CA probably in the early to mid 1920’s. Note the brush guards on the inner side of the wheels this protected the spokes from the logs and any debris they may have thrown up while being transported.

The Redding Iron Works were the west coast’s leading producer of “Wheels” for many years and their products were very distinctive. Note the slant or angle of the spokes and the shape of the cast hub. This “dodged” hub was more or less their trademark in the industry.

An early steel wheeled arch for use with “cats”.

An early plate fabricated tracked arch with fair lead. This one has been altered with the addition of the upper A-frame and cable, not sure what that’s about. You can also see my tape measure in the reference shot.

A late era tracked arch, probably late 1930’s. Notice the frames are all pressed and cast metal and the Fairleads are built in. The track sections on these were built to “walk over” that is flip over from top to bottom if they were to hang up on a stump or rock.

Another early version of a steel wheel arch, this one has a geared lifting system.

More early steel wheel arches, these were manufactured in Canada and were not very successful because they were built too lightly for the rugged work.

Yet another version of an early steel wheel tractor pulled logging arch, this one has a mechanical lifting mechanism.

Maybe trucks and loaders next time.

Rick

[michael_mccarthy]

wow thanks for the pics

[Richard_Smith]

Nice collection of arch photos Rick. Never saw such variety in one place. Thanks much.

[Gary_Armitstead]

Great photos Rick. Now I see how the tracked-arch on my Toys 3000 model were used (my flatcar load).

[grabnet (Tom Grabenstein)]

This is very interesting and I too have never seen such a variety of logging arches in one place. That is one great state park!!!

Looking forward to the loaders. Future plans do include an AH&D log loader for my logging flats

(http://i542.photobucket.com/albums/gg412/DrGrab/DSC04327.jpg)

Tom

[Bill_Hunteman]

Great Pictures. The park has realty improved since we visited in the early 70s. Did you get any pics of the Clyde Track Laying Machine and the Barnhart loaders?

[Rick_Marty]

Here are a few loaders of various types, some are direct boom loaders and others were parts of jury rigged hi-line systems.

Bill,

Yes the park has definitely expanded/improved since then. No Barnhart’s but there are two McGifferts, a stiff boom from the old McCloud Lumber Co and a swing boom from Big Lakes Box Co.

I didn’t take pictures of them this trip because I have a whole file of picts on them.

I did take a couple of more of the Clyde track layer, will post them later.

Speaking of jury rigged systems check the one in these first two pictures. At the back of the truck bed you can see the boom log harness and part of the rotted boom laying on the ground. Not shown is the tag axle/trailer with steering that the boom layed in for transport.

Another home-made loader from the 1950’s. Even the “big companies” did it, note the Simpson name on the door.

A purpose built loader by American (if I remember correctly)
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Another home-made rig from an Mack truck.

The engine sled from a Willamette tower rig. You can just see part of the steel tower (yellow) in the left background. A display of blocks in the front show the size of the rigging used in the later high-line operations.

A purpose built “heel boom” truck mounted loader from the early 1960’s.

I’m not sure if this unit was purpose built or a general use crane adapted to logging. But the log grapples on the end of the line show it was used for log loading at some point.

Rick

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

Interesting equipment. Thanks for the pics.

[Ray_Dunakin]

Wow, great stuff! Thanks for posting the pics.

[joerusz915 (Joe Rusz)]

What they said. Thanks.

[Ric_Golding]

I’m impressed! Those damn mountains keep getting in the way. On the bucket list.

[Rick_Marty]

Glad your enjoying the pictures, it is a cool place to visit.

Here are a few more.

First up some Straddle Carriers.

When I was a kid in the 40’s-50’s these things ran all over town between mills, lumber yards, and shipping points delivering stacked lumber. They were commonly called Hysters after the manufacturers name, like all vacume bottles are called Thermos. Some common brand names were; Hyster, Gerlinger, Ross, Clark, Miller and Valmet.

Logging and Lumber trucks from “the day”.

My step-dad had a couple of the GMT trucks before WWII and they had the 216 six engine in them. He claimed that each truck had two engines, one in the truck and one on the bench being rebuilt.

The Clyde “Track Layer”, these machines were pretty common on the larger logging railroad operations as the spur tracks were layed and lifted so often. In the background of this picture can be seen the Spars for the “high lead” operation. Also through the trees can just be seen the “swing boom” McGiffert loader.

Now this one is different. I don’t know if it was a portable bathtub or a soup kettle for the chow hall. The top is an open tub with the fire box below so it is for sure a portable hot water supply for some purpose.

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More later.

Rick

[Bruce_Chandler]

Cool stuff even if it’s 8 years later!

Any plans?