Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-08-25
over SNOW trails.
RAILROAD" WORK CALLED A
TRIUMPH OF ENGINEERING.
Claim That 1t Has Solved a Problem
of the Northwest Lumber Camps
Seems to Be Well Founded
How 1t Operates.

One of the problems of the lumber
camp in the great fiat Northwest is
that of haulage. In fact it is about the
greatest problem. 1t is one thing to
chop down and saw into lengths cen
tenarian of the primeval forest, 1t is
another to transport the lumber to the
railroad line.
AS the camps move from year to
year it is not profitable to build and
keep clear of snowdrifts a private line
then do the same thing all over again
the next year.
So, until recent years the system
has been to load the cut lumber on
great sledges, drawn by horses or
teams of oxen.
The oxen are very picturesque, but
they also are slow, and their capacity
is limited too, and their first COST to-
gether with that of food and wages Of
the requisite number of men to handle
them, was no small part of the eX-
pense of a camp which was carrying
on a large operation.
Hence the American engineer got
busy once more, and, deciding that the
building of a private railroad line was
too expensive a proposition for a sin
gle seasons operations, he decided to
run the trains just the same, dispen-
sing with the tracks-and he did.
He built locomotive which would
run over the hard-packed snow of the
logging roads, hauling, not a single
sledge, but a train of them, and capa-
BILE of moving 100000 feet of logs ev-
cry "a hours, whereas the same
amount of money invested in horses
would move only $4,000 feet, or one
fourth as much.
Enter the cross-cOuntry locomotive.
Exit the horse and the oxen team.
The crOSs-cOuntry logging lOComO-
tive looks very much like the common
or garden variety of switching engine,
with the exception that the front
trucks are replaced by sledges, and
Llltll lIOuIli Tic I"O VII NlllS hllCclo VII
each side have been wrapped traction
belts with Caterpillar treads. The To-
connective walks rather than runs, and
the ridges in the treads, pressed down
by the weight of the engine, Obeain
perfect traction, even on the hardest
ice.
With 200 pounds of steam pressure
they develop about 100 horse power,
and have a speed of five miles an hour.
While it will work over very rough
country, 1t is most economically OPP
Grated, of course, over easy grades.
In one other respect it differs from
the ordinary locomotive. 1t takes two
men to operate it, but one of them is
kept busy steering. He sits over the
front trucks, swinging the locomotive
in the desired direction by means OF
a iOw-geared wheel, very much like
that of an automobile truck. The en-
gineer, thus relieved of that respOn
sibility, puts all his attention on the
handling of his engine and doubling
up on the freman's job.
Naturally, with a few passages OF
the sledge trains, grooves become worn
over the route, and these, well iced
serve just as well as rails, so that the
trains slip easily along, and do moi
have to pillow q fresh path each trip.
With roads well graded and iced the
locomotive will handle from Z to Il
heavy logging sleds with 5000 or 1000
feet Of logs on each, making as higl
as so miles q day, and doing the worl
of from II to IS four-horse teams. Al
only two men comprise the crew, it i!
easy to be seen that there is q sub
stantial saving in wages.
Furthermore, the logging locomotive
is tireless. 1t is only necessary to pro
vide a shift of crews and run tn,
trains at night as well as In the day
time to increase the locomotives ca
pacity to that of "a or SO four-hors,
teams on the 24-hour basis.
Clam Shells for Fertilizer.
| firm situated i'm n small town II