FOREST RAILROADS 281 
On an Idaho pole tram U miles in length, two horses hauled 
from 7500 to 9000 board feet daily, each car load containing 
approximately 1600 feet. On the Pacific Coast a team of eight 
horses hauled 20,000 feet daily on a 1^-mile tram road, each 
car averaging 5000 feet. 
Two horses are commonly used although on the Pacific Coast 
as many as eight are employed on some of the roads. 
Light geared locomotives have been used to a limited extent 
but they are not adapted to this type of rail. 
STRINGER ROADS 
The stringer road soon superseded the pole road on operations 
where a sawmill was available for sawing rails. 
The early stringer roads were operated by animal power but 
light geared locomotives or motor trucks are now used almost 
exclusively except for stocking very small mills. 
Stringer roads have a greater capacity than pole roads and 
may be used to stock a single-band mill. They are employed 
chiefly on operations where suitable hardwoods are abundant for 
rails, where the operation is remote and the cost of transporting 
steel rails is excessive, and when the length of haul is comparative- 
ly short and the daily output limited. Such conditions exist in 
the hardwood region of the Appalachian mountains where this 
type of road is common. 
The disadvantages of a stringer road as compared with steel- 
railroads are that the rails become soft and wear out rapidly in 
rainy and wet weather; wheel flanges climb wooden rails more 
readily than steel; the cost of repairs and materials for a year's 
operation will largely meet the first cost of steel rails; and the 
road is about 75 per cent less efficient. 
The right-of-way for a stringer road must be carefully graded 
and crib bridges or trestles built where necessary. The grades 
should not exceed 3 per cent on the main line and 8 per cent 
on spurs. The preparation of the roadbed is as expensive as 
for a narrow-gauge steel road, the only saving effected being 
the original cost of rails. 
A stringer road 3 or 4 miles in length is limited in capacity to 
40,000 or 50,000 board feet of logs per day. 
The rails are 6 by 6 inches in size and are composed of two 
sawed pieces, each 3 by 6 inches, placed one on top of the other. 
