LUMBEEING IlSr PIISTE KEGION OF CALIFORNIA. 63 



tracks at top and bottom and a 14 by 14 inch lowering engine, the 

 total cost was approximately $100,000. There are three trestles and 

 one bridge with a center span of 76 feet. Except for the passing 

 switch the track is perfectly straight. 



The method of operation is to lower a loaded car and hoist an empty 

 one simultaneously. A 1^-inch cable is used, which is supported by 

 steel sheaves. Because of the configuration of the slope, at three 

 points these sheaves are suspended above the track to hold the 

 cable down. The cars used are 80,000 pounds capacity 40-foot flats, 

 with a bulkhead on the front end. The average load per car is 

 about 6,000 feet, weighmg approximately 24 tons. One car can be 

 lowered every 10 minutes, though the customary working speed is 

 about four or five cars per hour. 



The loads and empty cars are handled at each end by gravity 

 swi tches without locomotive switching except for setting in and taking 

 out the loaded and empty trains. Oil is used as fuel in the hoisting 

 engine. The cable is used for one season and then taken to the 

 woods and used as a yarding line. 



Log hoists may be spurs built do%vn into coves at a grade of from 

 10 to 20 per cent where otherwise a chute would be required. An 

 extra logging donkey is ordinarily employed to let an empty car down 

 and haul it up again after it is loaded. Another type of log hoist is 

 one where the loaded cars are hauled up from one section of the 

 logging road to another. One such hoist located in the southern 

 Sierras is 2,200 feet long, with an average grade of 30 per cent and a 

 maximum grade of 40 per cent. The track is narrow gauge with. 35- 

 pound rails and is constructed and ballasted much the same as an 

 ordinary logging railroad. It is straight except for one 9° curve. 

 The engmecr in charge states that if there is more than one curve, 

 they must be in the same direction. A hoisting engine is employed 

 to haul the logs up this incline on skeleton frame cars, one or two cars 

 at a time. The cable used is a 1^-inch wire rope. 



UNLOADING. 



Unloading from horse trucks is usually done by hand with peavies, 

 other\viso the general method of unloading logs at tlie mill pond is 

 the following throughout the region. An uidoading track is con- 

 structed along the mill pond with the outer rail raised to give the cars 

 a slant toward the pond. Ordinarily a sloping deck is constructed 

 from this track out over the edge of the pond. After the bin(Hiig 

 chains are loosened, a cable terminating in a hook is used to roU the 

 logs from 1he car to tlu; log d(!ck. Since tlie pidl must bo toward 

 ihci poiu] and 1h(!r»; (;aii 1)0 no ol)stnic1ion ])<>,tweeii the car and (,h(i 

 pond, the. methods of operating and supporting this cable an) varied. 

 Olio method is to have a stationary boom ])uilt over the track from 



