CHAPTER XIX 



INCLINES 



Loggers in mountainous regions often find it necessary to 

 raise or lower loaded log cars on grades too steep for the operation 

 of locomotives. These conditions may be encountered in bring- 

 ing timber over a ridge from one valley to another, or from a 

 ridge to a lower level on which the logging railroad is located, 

 or vice versa. Logging inclines are often used to overcome 

 difficulties of this character. 



A common type is one in which a heavy hoisting engine and 

 a large drum are placed at the head of the grade and the cars 

 are drawn up, over a wooden or a steel rail track, by a cable with 

 one end attached to the front car and the other wound on the 

 drum. 



The roadbed does not demand the heavy construction required 

 where trains pass, because there is no pounding action such as is 

 produced by a locomotive. An uneven grade is not a serious 

 handicap unless there are portions which are so gentle that cars 

 cannot be returned to the foot of the incline by gravity, in which 

 case a trip line must be provided which will pass from the hoisting 

 engine through a block at the foot of the incline and then back 

 to the summit. The main cable^ is usually i inch or i j inches in 

 diameter, and the trip line f-inch. 



The wear on a cable from friction is great and to reduce this 

 it is customary to place wooden rollers in the center of the track 

 over which the main cable may run. Overhead rollers supported 

 on a framework are used to hold the cable down where there are 

 sudden rises in gradient. 



Inclines should be built approximately in a straight line 

 because greater power is required when the direction of pull is 

 changed and the life of the cable is shortened when it passes 



^ The most satisfactory cable is one with 5 or 6 strands of 7 wires each. 

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