LOGGING, LOCOMOTIVES
AND OTHER STORIES.

This section of the site is for stories of interest or humor, relating to logging.  Anyone may submit a story to "camp2" site for posting, but it will need to be in a word processor format such as: MS word, works, notepad, word-pad or Corel word perfect.  Please send the file with your story, attached to an Email, to camp2 and we will try and post it to the site.  Please be sure to credit the source of your story to the author, magazine, etc.  The stories on this page will change periodically, as we get material to post.

“ I'd rather be Loggin' ”                         TO MERV                                         It’s Saturday night and all thru the house, Nothing is stirring, not even a mouse. The wife went to bed a little while back. Fritz our dog is also in the sack. I turned on the TV and nothing to see. Sometimes that junk really gets to me. If a logging show would come once in a while, That would be great more to my style. I’m writing this cause I got something to say, Can’t wait to get logging, can’t wait to play. I’m bored to death – no place to go. Can’t wait for our next logging show. I’m thankful I met you Merv old boy. You have brightened my life and brought me joy. Your logging shows are the very best. Alan’s place is the greatest logging show in the west. A flat landing and a side-hill so steep Its too tough for mountain sheep. A good rigging crew can handle this side These guys are tough and full of pride. We get enough logs to satisfy the brass, He’ll never find anyone setting on his ass, Steam whistles blowing real fast Reminds me of logging days in the past. The old days are gone, but please no tears, We are still hanging on to those good old years. A breed of men almost lost in the past We’re trying real hard to make them last. So come on all you young un’s give Merv a call. Come log with us and you will have a ball.   LEROY JOHNSTON 2-08-2003

Millard Wood has another one for us, which I will repeat as closely as I can. This one is a railroad story, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. SHAY POWER I remember events of the old days when something jogs my mind. A recent TV ad just did. The ad was about a large auto transport truck that got off the road and sat there spinning its wheels . A pickup pulled it to better ground. In the late 1920's, Schafer Bros. bought out several smaller logging companies in Gray's Harbor County and Lewis County. One of them was Leudinghaus Lumber Co. of Drydad, for which they paid a half million in March of 1929. This price included the timber, logging equipment, the camp, the railroad, saw mill, and town site. All lumber was hauled from the mill by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The intersection of the mill track and the Northern Pacific railroad was named the Yard Limit. The main line had heavier steel, better ties, and was kept up better than the mill spur. The N.P. wasn't supposed to go beyond this point with their engine. Instead, they were to use empty cars ahead of the engine to reach the loaded lumber cars. Well one time they didn't. They went all the way into the mill yard for some reason. In a hurry, thought they could get away with it, or what, I don't know. When the 135 ton N.P. rod engine got about 100 feet past the yard limit, a rail turned over and there it sat. Helpless. This was in 1930 with a lot of trainmen out of work. Now if word of this got to headquarters in Tacoma, the conductor and maybe all of the crew would be looking for a job. Seeing no other way, the conductor was about to call for a locomotive crane. However, the mill foreman suggested that their Shay would be returning soon with a train of logs, and they could pull the rod engine out with it. The conductor had doubts that the little Shay would do any good, but what else could he do? As the Shay came in, they dropped the log train back a ways, ran out on the N.P. track, and then down the spur to the mill. Using a cable, the doughty Shay towed the 135 ton rod engine back to heavy rails. They next spiked a couple of "frogs" to the ties and pulled the big engine up on the tracks. I don't know if Tacoma ever found out about it. Those Shays of the day would go with a pretty good load where a rod engine couldn't. As opposed to the four power strokes of a two-cylinder rod engine and large drivers, the Shays with three cylinders were also geared lower, giving them 18 power strokes per revolution. They sounded fast, but moved slow; were dependable, and did the job. I remember the other geared locomotives. The Climax with a cylinder on each side at an angle, geared to a central drive shaft, appeared to be the minority in my memory. The Hysler, also with a central drive shaft, using a "V" configuration of cylinder angle, was perhaps more popular; but the Shay geared engine built by Lima and the later, almost identical Willamette Iron and Steel Works locomotives, were the favorite geared motive power of the loggers. MILLARD WOOD Article from "Timbertimes" magazine.

“Removing Tree Tops With Dynamite” The Manley-Moore Lumber Co. are using dynamite for removing the tops of trees selected as spare trees at their Fairfax, Wash., camp.” “Instead of using a saw or an axe, the head rigger puts on a pair of long-spurred climbing irons and ascends the tree to a height of from 100 to 150 feet.  He carries with him several sticks of dynamite tied together, end to end, like a string of sausages. This he puts around the tree trunk, which is usually about 12 inches in diameter at the point where he wishes to take off the top, tying the powder securely in place. A detonating cap, to which a long piece of fuse is attached, is inserted in one of the sticks of dynamite.  The rigger descends twenty feet or so, lights the fuse and makes his way to a safe place on the ground some distance from the tree.  After a few minutes the powder explodes, the tree-top leaps into the air and comes crashing down.  The limbs are removed from the trunk before the top is shot out, so after the explosion the stub is ready for attaching the blocks of the overhead logging system.” ”This method of getting the tops off, which is only experimental at present, is expected to prove safer and more economical than sawing or chopping off the top, Which makes it necessary for the faller to remain in the tree until the top has fallen.” “Removing Tree Tops With Dynamite” The Timberman.  July 1916 P 64A: 1, 2 submitted by: Jim Bryant lassen.logger@worldnet.att.net

Washburn News March 8, 1890   TERRIBLE ACCIDENT! On the Bigelow Logging Road on WEDNESDAY MEN LEAP FOR THEIR LIVES Full Account of the Awful Affair. The Victims               A terrible accident occurred on the Bigelow Logging road Wednesday morning.  A train of logs left the camps in the morning as usual for the yards here.  On the way the engine for some reason got beyond the control of the engineer while going down a steep grade and the brakes seemed to be of no avail.  There were on the train at the time the engineer and firemen and two brakemen.  Seeing the engine was beyond control and thinking they were riding to a certain death the men concluded to jump from the runaway and trust to luck to save them.  This they did.  Wm. Carson, a brakeman was thrown under the train and his head severed completely from his body at the shoulders.  Thos. Walters, the engineer, also jumped and was killed.  The fireman and the other brakeman both jumped for their lives and escaped with a few bruises considering their awful leap.  The train rushed on to its destination and stopped when it reached the yards, the brakes being set. The remains of the two unfortunate victims were brought to Estabrook’s Undertaking rooms in this city and prepared for their last resting place.             Walters hails from Muskegon, Mich., and Carson is from Toronto, Canada.  Both are single…Robt. Sweezy, the brakeman, and Joseph Bushee, the fireman testified before the coroner’s jury.  The latter stated that the engineer ran out of sand, the former that he was thrown off the cars while endeavoring to set the brakes.  The real cause of the accident is supposed to have been that the brakes in the rear of the train were not set when the top of the hill was reached and the setting of the brakes in the forward cars by Carson was of little use as the hind cars forced the train onward in its mad fury.             Wm. W. Carson, the brakeman, had been a resident of Washburn for about three years and was well liked wherever know.             Mr. Walters, who was engineer of the train at the time of the accident, was not the regular engineer, but was general superintendent of the engines it being his duty to see that everything pertaining to the machinery of the road was in proper shape.  He is a single man and come here from Michigan             …It seems that no one can be blamed in particular for the terrible accident.  When the train left the camp, fireman Bushee suggested taking on some more sand but Walters thought they had enough for one more trip.  This was the first miscalculation.  Then the train was going faster than usual when the top of the hill was reached which of course was not wise, and the result was that the engine became uncontrollable and the awful calamity is the result.   Submitted by:  Kurt Larson            Battleax45@aol.com

Felling A Tree By A Headlight. In every logging camp we find real men-doing real work-brave, daring fellows who take a chance, and sometimes more than a chance, but it all goes in a day's work and mighty little is said about it.  The Timberman ran across an incident recently which is worthy of more than passing mention.  During the long recent dry spell fire started along the Columbia & Nehalem River Railroad, in Columbia County, Ore.  A summons in the night came for volunteers to put out the fire, which was blazing in the timber and seriously threatening to wipe out camps, buildings, railroads and bridges. A fir tree 225 feet in height and 78 inches at the butt caught fire in the top and was emitting sparks like a locomotive fired with soft coal going up hill.  This tree, if it fell, would have crashed into a high railroad bridge and put out of commission the entire logging operation of the Kerry railroad with a capacity around one million feet per day.  The mills on the Columbia River were dependent upon this line as a source of logs for shipbuilding timbers and airplane material for the brave boys "somewhere in France." A. R. Baker, superintendent of the Hammond Lumber Co., realized that something had to be done and done quickly if the bridge was to be saved.  R. A. Hunter, a trusty faller for the Hammond Lumber Co., and his son volunteered to fall the tree.  The fire was all around them and the top of the tree was ablaze.  The question of securing light to fall the tree had to be solved first of all. By the aid of the beams from the trusty headlight of a locomotive the tree was felled and the bridge was saved.  The chopping proceeded in the stillness of the night with the ring of the axes echoing down the canyon and fiery sparks blazing up like a bonfire from the top of the burning tree.  Two hemlocks close by also took fire and the livid lights and shadows cast by the forest fire was a scene that will not be soon forgotten.  The most unconcerned men in the bunch were "Dad" Hunter and his son-but of such are heroes made.  Hats off to the Hunters! Anonymously, "Felling A Tree By A Headlight."  The Timberman, October 1919 P 41: 1,2.   Submitted by:  Jim Bryant    lassen.logger@worldnet.att.net

WHERE ARE THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR? [1]   Dean Barbour took this shot of a pile driver near the locomotive shop at Mineral, Washington winter in late 2001.  Its an 8X10 Lidgerwood built in approximately 1909.  Last we heard, it was owned by Jack Anderson.  This is the location of the steam tourist railroad.    Snow is usually considered a time for loggers to get “next to a stove” with logging in the Northwest, but there have been plenty of exceptions.  Winters were especially bad in the Tillamook burn because there was nothing green to hold back the ravages.  See photos # A-17 one of which, was taken of “Burma Road” which, as I recall, is in the south portion of the Tillamook Burn.  (Both of those photos courtesy Bert Pickens.)    For those who are wondering, working in that kind of weather is not a joy.  One of my father’s first jobs was at Eastern-Western Logging Co. of Longview, Washington in about 1914.  His first morning on the job it was snowing, and they had to ride a flat car to get to the landing.  The train became snow-bound, so they had to get off the car and shovel snow just to get to work.  [That was not one of Lee’s favorite jobs.  About the same time Lee arrived in camp the day before, that flat car was coming from the other end of camp being pushed by a locomotive carrying two dead bodies!  Fatal accidents were common then.]  No matter what kind of gloves are worn, hands will get cold.  Grabbing a choker in freezing weather is like putting your hand in a freezer.  Also, the steel caulks conduct cold through shoes and into feet.  It wasn’t all that bad, however.  Notching a stump was warming.  Steam is of course, warming to those who work near it.  Donkeys with steam “jams[2]” warm the hands. [1] A quote from The Ballad of Dead Ladies, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti which had nothing to do with steam donkeys, but what better quote?   [2] A jam is a friction device.  Clutch.   Submitted by Merv Johnson

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