Small logging layout .

[randgust]

What you've got there is scarily similar to the actual track plan of the switchbacks used by the 'Bellefonte & Snowshoe' line - I've got that USGS map on my office wall as a reminder that nothing is actually impossible.

It had 4 full switchbacks to get up on top of Wallace Run.   Cass only had two at the bottom!   PRR ran this as a coal line until 1959.  Coal loads downhill.
https://centralpahistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-bellefonte-snow-shoe-railroad.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellefonte_and_Snowshoe_Railroad#/map/0

This absolutely awful line was one of the reasons PRR and NYC reluctantly decided to work together in the Clearfield Coal District.   Both of them had just awful connections out; PRR had terrible grades and NYC better grades but had terrible connections only to PRR.   That 'cooperation' was the ancestor of Penn Central.

The other PRR line down the mountain to Tyrone was the terrible grade that took out the Walter L. Main circus train.  No switchbacks but much steeper.

Note that on any given railroad you really wanted to have the locomotive on the downhill side, boiler pointing uphill, to keep the crown sheet covered.   Shays and logging locomotives were deliberately designed with a lower firebox and a deeper crown sheet to compensate for grades.

On my Ross Run module, the deliberate design of the switchback was to put an Atlas Shay cylinders out, nose up, going up and down that 4% grade.   
Once you've seen an 11% grade on Cass, you're desensitized for life on track design.

[Lemosteam]

@randgust , my whole concept was developed after a vacation excursion on the Cass Scenic. I loved it so much and yes, I have an atlas shay just for the task.  The tails on the switchbacks are just long enough for the loco and two log cars.  The top will be an unharvested pine forest and a logging camp, and downgrade along the track will be previously harvested rotting trunks.

I had a somewhat nearby friend that had an NTrak setup to run this on, but he lost his venue and the whole thing crumbled.

[randgust]

If you love shays, logging railroads, and Cass, you want this month's TRAINS about being a fireman on the line on all those geared steam locomotives.
I've been there several times, and managed to get cab rides in the #6 Heisler and the Durbin & Greenbrier Climax B.

Back in 1977 Railfan Weekend with a triple-header (communicating with whistle signals) they got a little 'confused' coming down Whittaker and started to slide down that 11% grade.  Got it under control with every handbrake locked up, true pucker moment.

The 'Brigadoon' of Shay switchback operations locally is the 2' privately owned Foster Brook & State Line; he has a beautifully restored 2' 3-cylinder Shay on his 300 acre or so property that is mostly steep hillside, he's put in all of six switchbacks to get to the top of the hill, just like your plan.  Opens for invites one weekend a year, and it's an amazing operation.   He has remote radio control for all the power switch machines on the switchbacks.   But his strict 'no public, no photo posting, no internet' makes it rather legendary - but it does exist.
https://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/factsheet/sn-3118.htm

[Chris333]

Is this that switchback?
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=768297531766366&set=a.531594905436631

You can see the roadbed if you turn on terrain:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=11wfSELoeH3PdgY81vjZQiMfvXuIKPmQ&ll=40.989994630551735%2C-77.8819546519419&z=15
Looks like there was a wye in the middle.

Never knew the trackplan was based on a real place.

[learmoia]

How but this.. but with Logs..
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=58122.msg800713#msg800713
 

Mostly joking but sorta not.. 

[randgust]

I'll put this one up as my most recent foray into 'how small can you go'.

Because I'm doing my Climax A kits now in Nn3, I needed a test track.   Well, if I'm doing that, I may as well do it right.   I was lucky in that my modeling area prototype actually included a very small local sawmill in West Hickory, PA - McCabe Lumber, that had a 3' gauge Climax A.   Other than the builders records and some newspaper clippings, no evidence of this operation remains.   It was hit with a flood, then a fire, burned to the ground, only lasted for 3 years and the Climax A ended up at a sand pit operation about 15 miles away - which then had a book written about it.
This is the 3' Climax A they had that ended up at Ross Hill Silica, what a classic, and dead-on to my kit:
http://www.gearedsteam.com/climax/images/r/ross_hill_silica_co_2-snX225=yd928jlo.jpg

For the model, I put it on a Ttrak template for a triple - so that got me set to about 34" x 12".   Well, that's murder.   Not much space left after you put in the T-trak mains, but I jammed in a loop of Rokuhan Z (Nn3) 4 1/2" radius sectional along with some Rokuhan medium switches and a pair of rebuilt Marklin curved turnouts.   My Nn3 Climax A's can negotiate this, and the Showcase Nn3 log cars are appropriate.  The little Nn3 boxcar is a Bachmann old-timer body on Nn3 trucks.  It will simply be a small sawmill scene if I ever get around to actually finishing it beyond the designated test track status now.

No, it's not a pixelization error, that is a dual-gauge front siding to both complete the loop and be the 'loading siding' for finished lumber from the standard-gauge T-trak side.   That actually worked, I did a build thread here on the conversion of those Rokuhan switches.  I'm astounded how well this actually runs and with the 25:1 gearhead in the Climax A's, it's run at walking speed in N.

The 'back loop' will be hidden inside a hillside and concealed with tree entrances, so 'logging' is somewhere else out of sight.

If you don't think it looks like Rokuhan sectional you're right, I hand-painted each piece to a dirt or cinder roadbed, painted rail, and weathered ties.  And the switches.

This was REALLY tight on the track spacing and the edge of the back siding is right at the edge of the back plywood.

But if you're looking for a T-trak and logging theme, and more headaches per square inch than any other module I've done, here you go.



Link:  http://www.randgust.com/McCabe1a.jpg

[metalworkertom]

Plenty to think about ya'll. Not sure how much Ttrak activity is close . I have thought about it.  Need to check.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Here you go....

https://sites.google.com/a/theaamr.org/aamr/welcome-to-the-aamrs-website

Thank you much.  This is an easy drive from Toronto, so it might just be in the cards!

[Chris333]

Randy, the Climax you linked. I'm pretty sure that is the exact one I drew up for HOn30:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xZrNtmHEU8EqWDwf7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2Qe3JnYGFYo49Dqp7

Mine was printed in wax and cast in brass by Shapeways, but here are the files, just resize down to N scale:
https://www.printables.com/model/528961-hon30-climax

I also drew up A-313, but the guy doing the CAD work doesn't want me to share his stuff. Once the 3D is complete I'll post it. I learned that the real Climax stake posts were tapered and the ends of the end beam were rounded.

[randgust]

Chris you always wanted me to finish off the Ross Run module, and it's finally happening.

Even though the entire back of the module is sceniced as a clear cut, there's still a ton of trees to make, but everything else is done.  I'm trying to get it finished completely by September when it will be at Altoona with the Hickory Valley again.

That Climax B shot over the log pond was last year at Altoona, I'd just poured the pond the week before.

[dem34]

Plenty to think about ya'll. Not sure how much Ttrak activity is close . I have thought about it.  Need to check.

The fun thing with TTrak is that the barrier for entry is low enough that you'll find full setups even with full HO dedicated clubs. Build the corners and they will come.

[Chris333]

Rokuhan just announced a USRA 0-6-0 in Z scale so maybe a Nn3 logging loco?
https://www.rokuhan.com/news/2024/07/1802/

[nickelplate759]

Rokuhan just announced a USRA 0-6-0 in Z scale so maybe a Nn3 logging loco?
https://www.rokuhan.com/news/2024/07/1802/

Is it my imagination or is this better proportioned than the Bachmann N scale model?

[Chris333]

I ordered the book on Silica at Torpedo PA. Meanwhile I found another photo of their Climax:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=6562674890453941&set=g.566965193855204

[metalworkertom]

I'm doing some drawing as I like elements from each of the layouts shown. I like the split level and continuous running of the plan 2x4001. The camp layout of Michigan and California Lumber Co. The grades in Little River railroad Co. And the Mill in Randy's Hickory Valley. 
Now to see what I can actually fit in my layout.  Or do I want a removable section also..........