I'm looking to have a landing on my layout thats still in planing and I'm interested to see what others have come up with that is available in HO to make a Yarder. If you don't know what I'm talking about it's kind of cool. My landing is going to be up hill of the logging itself so a device called a Yarder is used to pull up the logs to the site known as the landing were the logs are processed and loaded. The Yarder is sort of like a crane but a bit more complicated. It is something to see in action however.
Are you talking of a tower or spar, which carries logs (high lead) in the air? Or the type which drags them along the ground?
You know, I haven't decided yet. I'm planning on modifying a Kirbi telescopic crane, I just can't decide what direction to go in. My stepdad was a logger in the 70's in Washington so I've been running some ideas past him, but I don't have the crane yet so I don't know what I can and can't do with it. I'm not thrilled with my loaders but I got what I could get from places I trust. I'm still interested in what others are doing. All the logging scenes I've seen in HO are steam era with donkeys and no yarders. Should be interesting to see how others ran their lines.
After thinking about it, I could also convert it to a swing yarder since it already mostly looks like one.
Based on my rolling stock and paint schemes for SP and SP&S, mostly 1940-1958, but with some liberties taken. I do after all have a lot of current Amtrak stock along with a few AC4400cw's, a AC6000, and 2 SP&S C-636's on order. By the 1950's logging was mostly diesel anyways. I'm planing on having a very tight spur at the bottom of the hill with a loading area since I already have the cars and a Shay. I know we had a few of those still running around here in the 50's from the time I spent interning at a county museum. I'm SO glad they don't float logs anymore. My stepdad worked mostly with guided swing yarders but also did work with the bigger high flyers a little. When the crane gets here he'll take a look to see how it should be changed and setup.
So based on the look of the Kibri crane and the stock setup, along with the blue and white paint scheme it looks like I'm making a Skagit Yarder. Someday I'll get to making this layout.
Ah, it's okay if you haven't. In the Northwest and probably elsewhere too, modern logging uses several types of devices known as yarders to pull logs out from where they're cut to a zone where they are further processed, also known as a landing. Most yarders pick up most of or all of a log to prevent it snagging or grounding, but that doesn't always pan out. Most of the ones I've seen in person are high flyers, as in the entire log is picked up with cables known as chokers and a rather complex system of pulleys and in some cases a R/C skyline carriage is also used or a grapple. The Yarder itself is diesel powered with a operator cab and depending on the make or model, a boom or a mast. Once they're erected they run a series of stabilizing cables from the top of the mast or boom assembly(s) before they run the skyline and/or guideline since I have yet to see a yarder with counterweights on lit like a crane. These wires are often wrapped around trees or stumps. The pulley wire drums are on the yarder itself and most have brakes to stop runaways. Around here the Yarder and Landings are setup uphill of the logging itself and they cut from the landing down. This method of logging is a lot faster then winching or dragging logs and isn't as prone to snagging or grounding. The down side is you have a LOT of 1/2"-1.5" high tension wires running everywhere and they do snap sometimes. Logs also come free sometimes which isn't pretty since they are above the ground and uphill of the loggers. I'm going for postwar-1950's, maybe early 60's logging scene so things like a steam donkey and portable sawmill had already disappeared. During and after WWII the Pacific Northwest went through a huge boom in logging so anything to make it faster was welcomed since companies get paid by the load most times rather then the hour, so more loads in a day, more money made. For something like 20 or 30 years Northwest timber was and probably still is used around the world. Immediately after WWII said timber went to rebuild Europe and then into the baby boom urban growth. Fun fact, some of the early postwar Yarders used Sherman tank tracks and assemblies. They sort of look like a half tank, half dowser with no scoop and a mast attached to the front. This is just the tip of the iceberg though. Yarders come in all different sizes and setups like cranes. My stepdad worked on the landing as a delimber and choker back in the day so I'm only going off of the 2 hours or so of what we talked about.
I found this on Youtube. It's a Swing Yarder like I'm planning on having but mine'll have a grapple rather then a carriage. It's even a Skagit. http://youtu.be/fY6IgTazQl4
Note: Terminology varied some, from region to region. Usually is was pretty much the same. In logging they once used a real tree as a "tower" or "spar" for high lead style moving of logs. One man would climb the chosen tree, limbing it on the way up, topping it when the desired height was reached and then rigging it. Lifts up to a landing preferred, but also down hill when necessary. (Down hill, whether lifting or skidding is more dangerous.) A donkey was attached to this to power the lifts. As noted above, post-WWII, surplus army tank chassis were adapted, and some are still in use. A major manufacturer of spars or towers is Skagit. When on more level terrain, a skidder was used. Old days just a donkey, later using wheels or tracked vehicles. The latter two styles are fast and efficient, but a down side to these is they can really chew up the terrain. The donkey would just be skidded to wherever needed, unless it could be loaded on a rail car. When in use, they were chained to nearby tree stumps to keep them in place. This picture is of a fair sized unit. Note the rollers at right end. This was used to drag ("skid") logs, by Polson Brothers. The little fellow in the red cap at left is a former operator of this machine, my grandfather:
That thing is insane! How did they hall that beast around? Tillamook has a few of those, but that thing makes them look tiny. I grew up in Lincoln City, just south of Tillamook. That area isn't flat so I guess they couldn't hall your grandpa's skidder around. Lincoln City's Taft District still has the logging docks' poles for the rafts. Thanks for sharing. That thing is impressive.
I think I set a new personal record. 5 orders placed, 2 halves received, another half in the mail, one in process that is probably going to be a half order as well, and one order that's completely back stocked. It's been a long time since I've placed a order, let alone 5 that couldn't be shipped in one go. So looks like the yarder is on hold while the crane gets restocked, along with my loggers, trucks, flatbeds, trailers, and donor grappler loader-but my Cat loaders are in stock. I literally got just under what I needed to start planning my turntable section and logging section. I had to laugh at the last order, but my two stores are willing to eat the shipping costs as a result and one is even eating the cost of a flatbed kit so I'm not going to complain to much.
They'd move these several ways. One was by rail. Being logging operations, they didn't really worry about clearances, weights, safety and all. Another way is they'd actually skid themselves to a new location, if not too far to move. Or, they'd disassemble them, and rebuild them on new logs the next site.
Good news, I got the crane. Bad news, it is a kit so I'll have to put some time into it before it's ready to be shown, unless you want pictures of a box full of parts.
Found this chain saw I ordered a couple, cant tell if it is a one or two man saw but thinking I can make a one man saw. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Evergreen-H...416930?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item5af8371862
Cool man thanks. Almost everything I've ordered is a kit of some kind so it'll be a while before everything is together, or here for that matter. If you are looking for logging trucks, trailers, loaders and flatbeds I can PM you the ones I've found.
Update: Started assembly on the crane/yarder. Thats really it. Everything else I need is still backordered. Little bummed about that.
Eastern seaboard and California. Well that's where the stores are anyways. Who knows where the suppliers are located.
