FOREST RAILROADS 247 



The rails are spiked to round crossties from 8 to 12 inches in 

 diameter and 7 feet long, which are cut along the track and are 

 spaced from 18 to 24 inches apart on main lines, and from 24 to 

 30 inches on spurs. The gauge is 3I or 4 feet. 



The cost of maintenance of a stringer road in constant use is 

 heavy because the rails sliver badly and break, requiring such 

 frequent repairs after the first six months that the road will be 

 practically rebuilt in two years. 



The cost of constructing stringer roads, exclusive of the value 

 of the timber used, ranges between $800 and $1200 per mile, 

 but if many bridges are required the cost exceeds this. 



Geared locomotives are used, the weights varying from twenty- 

 five to thirty tons on main lines and from fifteen to seventeen 

 tons on spurs. Larger ones are too heavy for a wooden track. 



A light-weight, 2 -truck, 8-wheel skeleton car is preferred for 

 these roads. The wheels are 20 or 24 inches in diameter with a 

 6-inch tread which helps to keep them on the tracks where the 

 gauge is too wide. Cars of this character, built for handling logs 

 up to 20 feet in length, are from 22 to 24 feet long with bunks 

 7I or 8 feet wide, and are equipped with hand brakes. Each 

 car weighs about two tons, has a rated capacity of from 15,000 

 to 20,000 pounds weight and usually carries from 1000 to 1200 

 feet of logs. 



STEEL-RAIL ROADS 



The successful use of steel-rail logging roads began in 1876, 

 when Scott Gerrish, a logger in southern Michigan, built a 

 railroad for transporting logs from Lake George to the Muskegon 

 River down which they were driven to the mill. The number 

 of logging railroads increased rapidly and in 1881 there were 

 seventy-one in operation in Michigan and five in Wisconsin. 

 In 1 910 there were approximately 2000 logging railroads^ with 

 about 30,000 miles of track in operation in the United States. 



Rail transport is gaining in favor in all sections of the country 

 and with high stumpage values will become the preferred form 

 of transport except where conditions are especially favorable for 



1 See The American Lumberman, Chicago, Illinois, March 19, 1910, p. 34. 



