THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOGGING OPERATIONS 



277 



tramroad had its limitations, and an extreme length of 

 two or three miles was one of the limits; and the tend- 

 ency of the car wheels to cut into and crush the wooden 

 rails was another. The cutting was severe when the 

 rails were of softwoods and the loads heavy; and an 

 early improvement consisted in nailing hardwood strips 

 or laths on top of the rails 

 to provide a hard surface 

 for the wheels. 



The next step brought in 

 the iron strip in place of 

 the wooden lath ; but that 

 change took place generally 

 about the time the draft 

 mule that had pulled the 

 loads retired in favor of 

 the light locomotive which 

 was stronger than a mule 

 and more speedy. Develop- 

 ment followed development 

 in track building and mo- 

 tive power in logging op- 

 eration until finally the 

 present stage was reached. 



Many logging roads are 

 now built in a manner 

 about as substantial as trunk lines, with regard to track, 

 rails, ties, ballast, bridges, and equipment. Some lines 

 which are constructed primarily as logging roads, de- 

 velop into public carriers as business grows along their 

 lines, and they finally become parts of the country's 

 regular railway systems. Thus the tapline may be the 

 first link in a trunk line. It is not unusual for logs to be 



THE FIRST OVERHEAD SKIDDER 



The work is here being done on a rather small scale, yet all the principles 

 of the modern skidder are present. The cut is from an old photograph 

 taken near Luddington, Michigan, back in the eighties. It marked the 

 beginning of a revolution in handling logs. 



expense of some of the speed. Enormous loads may be 

 hauled up steep grades and round sharp curves where an 

 ordinary locomotive would be useless. The geared loco- 

 motive hauls commodities other than logs, but it does 

 better work nowhere than in logging operations among 

 mountains. It will pull loaded trains up grades as steep 



as fifteen or even seven- 

 teen per cent. 



Powerful machines 

 Known as skidders or load- 

 ers have been invented to 

 move logs rapidly and at 

 relatively small cost, and 

 to operate in localities too 

 rough for ordinary rail- 

 roads or for ordinary meth- 

 ods of moving logs from 

 the forest to the loading 

 platforms. These machines 

 drag or carry the logs 

 which are attached to 

 cables. They represent the 

 acme of engineering skill 

 as applied to lumber opera- 

 tions. They quickly trans- 

 port logs hundreds or thou- 

 sands of feet, across rivers, or over ravines, or out of 

 swamps, or up hill or down. They have made logging 

 practicable in situations where it would otherwise be 

 impossible. 



It is said that the first successful skidder was used 

 near Luddington, Michigan, in 1883. It was an over- 

 head machine, and with its success began the triumph of 



PRIMITIVE TRANSPORTATION OF TIMBER 



The above drawing is based on an old Jesuit description of the transportation of logs about the year 1774 from the Cuayamaca Mountains to San 

 Diego, California, to build the mission at that place. The logs were carried sixty miles on the shoulders of Indians. That was indeed getting 

 'back to first principles." , 



hauled by rail a hundred miles from forest to mill, and 

 the transportation of logs in that manner has become an 

 important business. 



Railroads built for logging purposes must frequently 

 be constructed up and down slopes too steep to be negoti- 

 ated by ordinary locomotives. To overcome that handi- 

 cap, engines have been built with geared wheels, by 

 which arrangement great power is made available, at the 



American ingenuity in moving logs by steam machinery. 

 Skidders appeared quickly in various parts of the United 

 States, and from this country they were introduced into 

 all parts of the world where lumbering is carried on in 

 a large way. 



Green logs, as they come out of the woods fresh from 

 the axes and crosscut saws of the cutters, are heavy. 

 They vary, of course, in weight, depending upon species 



