Seattle Daily Post Intelligencer

The Northwestern Lumberman of recent date gives some information concerning steam logging roads East that may be of interest, if not also of benefit, to lumbermen on the North Pacific coast.

It says the best gauge of track for logging railroads is 56 inches, unless connection is to be made with the main line. The standard 4 feet 8½ inches gauge is entirely practicable and costs very little more to build, except when heavier cars and rails are needed. In the South the 5-foot gauge is used. Odd gauges are to be avoided, as the rolling stock is almost unsalable. The gauge is the space in the clear between the rails.

The best rail is T iron, of the weight demanded by the amount of business to be done. Rails from 16 to 30 pounds weight are commonly used. The best pattern of rail has a wide head. A lighter weight of rail may be used if laid on a stringer, in which case reversed point spikes are used, and the stringers should be tied across by flat pieces let in on their top faces to prevent rolling or spreading. Wooden rails can be used, and if the labor of keeping them renewed is not objected to are desirable because cheap, but are only fit for a small business or for temporary use on branches. A locomotive can only haul about half as much on wood as on iron, and snow and ice are hard to clear off a wood rail.

The cost of track for a logging railroad depends very much on the location and the character of the country traversed. The following estimate may serve as a guide for the cost per mile of light road with 16-pound rails, suitable for a six-ton locomotive on four driving wheels: Rails, 16 pounds per yard, $1508.57; cross-ties, 2640, at 10 cents, $264; spikes, 1710 pounds, at 4 cents, $68.40; splices, 440 joints, at 25 cents, $110; clearing, track-laying, etc., $750. Total, $2700.97. For a road with 24-pound rails, suitable for an eight-ton locomotive, the expenses would reach $3441.88; and for a road with 30-pound rail, suitable for a twelve-ton locomotive, about $4161.60.

The same authority (Northwestern Lumberman, of Chicago) says that the cost of hauling logs by light locomotives on iron rail, including interest and depreciation and all expenses, varies from about 80 cents to 60 cents per 1000 feet according to the length and general character of the road, and the amount of business. The daily cost of operating one locomotive, including the wages of an engineer and the cost of fuel, oil and repairs, is not far from $5 per day. No fireman is required on most logging roads. The cars used may have four or eight wheels, the latter being preferable, and for hauling long timber, two four-wheel trucks, with an extension bar, are used for each length of logs. There should be enough cars for two trains, one to be loading while the other is on the road, so that the locomotive need not wait for cars to be loaded. The unloading can be done so quickly as to cause no delay.

A logging railroad often pays for itself in less than a year. When prices are high the output can be doubled without additional investment by running 24 hours per day; or when prices are low and operations suspended, all expenses are stopped. The entire outlay for a steam logging railroad with iron rails is generally about 50 cents for each 1000 feet of lumber readily reached by it. When the tract is cut off the road may be moved to another tract at slight expense. Tracts that were of little value and inaccessible under the old style of logging, are utilized and made a more profitable investment than lands nearer streams that are held at higher figures. Logging railroads solve the problem also of the profitable production of lumber where the cost of moving logs as the haul increases in length with each season's cut, since logs can be hauled 10 to 15 miles by locomotives cheaper than they can be skidded or sledded for short distances. This low cost of transportation enables poorer grades, which would otherwise be left to rot in the woods, to be marketed at a good margin.

The best locomotive for logging roads must be of simple design; strongly and durably made with a liberal use of steel and wrought iron, and of such construction as to be quickly and cheaply repaired, which is attained only by a thorough system of duplicate parts requiring a heavy outlay by the builder. There is no service requiring reliable, well-constructed and properly designed locomotives, more than is required for the severe work of logging railroads, and no place where a cheap locomotive is more costly investment. It needs no argument to demonstrate the folly of saving a few hundred dollars in motive power, and by so doing running a constant risk of breakdowns and of enforced idleness of a camp of men, and of failure to fill contracts.