The Little River Rail Road in Doc Tom's Back Yard

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tom, that looks really good, as we get more logs, you will want to cut some shorter. the mill would have a preferred size or a maximum size, but they are after clear lumber, so if there were limbs that would create big knots, they would cut the log shorter. as a shorter board, that was clear would grade higher, and thus be worth more than the same board, longer. with knots at the end.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Tom, that looks really good, as we get more logs, you will want to cut some shorter. the mill would have a preferred size or a maximum size, but they are after clear lumber, so if there were limbs that would create big knots, they would cut the log shorter. as a shorter board, that was clear would grade higher, and thus be worth more than the same board, longer. with knots at the end.

That is interesting. I did not realize that bit of info. It makes good economical sense.

I had wondered why some logs were cut 8 foot in length while others 16 foot and sometimes on the same logging flat.

You know your lumbering facts good Bill.

Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Little River #1 strikes a pose.

Little River #1 strikes a pose.

Little River #1 an 0-4-0 is an Ex Pennsylvania RR Class A2 built about 1889. It was the first locomotive used by the Little River RR in the early 20th century. It helped build the rail road.

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It did spend part of its time on the RR actually IN the Little River.

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I always loved this shot of a well weathered and used/abused little tea kettle still pushing logs around in the 1920's about 30-35 years after it was built.

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So I just had to model this scene. I started with the LGB 0-4-0 I started outdoor railroading many years ago.

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I was able to locate the correct wires and splice in to them for eventual battery/RC power and control with a trailing car in the future. The locomotive was spray painted flat black from a rattle can. The draw bar was shortened and 30 years of grime and use were put on the model. I was able to stage my own vintage photo from the 1920's.

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Here are the full color 21rst century digital images we are usually accustomed to seeing.

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Let me know what you all think.

Doc Tom Doc Tom and the Little River Rail Road in Tennessee
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Now There are Two of em'.

Now There are Two of em'.

My logging crews needed some neighbors so I just finished the second "set off house" AKA "skid shack." It is a little different but follows the basic layout of the prototype.

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I have a long way to go before I can recreate this scene on the Little River RR in the Great Smoky Mountains.

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Tom Doc Tom and the Little River Rail Road in Tennessee
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Museum model

Well I completed this model of the Hilton Garden Inn for the Clarksville Montgomery County museum Lionel train layout. After a small ceremony at the museum a lot of the museum crew came over to run a train at night on the Little River Railroad.

Kids are a big part of the Lionel layout and a couple came to have fun running a train outdoors on a winter's eve.

Doc Tom
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Tree Farm sign

I always enjoyed seeing "Tree Farm" signage along Tennessee's highways and always wondered what it would be like to be a tree farmer.

Bill Nelson's dad was very successful at timber and tree farming and taught Bill a lot about logging and lumbering.

I was very happy when Bill provided me with a 4"X 4" sticker for a tree farm.

I have been figuring a way to make miniature signs for the forest out on the Little River Garden RR.

Scanners are getting better and better so I scanned the sticker and got it down to a 2 foot by 2 foot scale 1:20.3 sign. I will laminate these signs and mount them on wooden posts and plant them throughout my miniature forest.

So now I gots me a tree farm.

Tom
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Homes for the loggers at tremont

HOMES FOR THE LOGGERS AT TREMONT

I have finished my "winter build" project of three "set off houses (skid shacks)" for the Little River Rail Road in the backyard.

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So, the set off houses were loaded on an out bound log train and sent to the Tremont Tennessee logging camp .

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There they were off loaded and I tried to replicate some of these scenes from the prototypical logging camps of the Little River Lumber company high in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

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Here are my guys in 1920's photos getting ready to leave Tremont Camp and get to work on the motor car:

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And back to the reality of the scene in the backyard.

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I hope you liked the pics and the story of my winter modeling project........ready for Spring.

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Doc Tom Doc Tom and the Little River Rail Road in Tennessee
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Looking good Tom, I have found that building several similar models is a good way to hone one's skills and push the envelope to become a more accomplished modeler; did you notice that effect with this build.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Looking good Tom, I have found that building several similar models is a good way to hone one's skills and push the envelope to become a more accomplished modeler; did you notice that effect with this build.

Hi Bill,

Yes I did feel skills were being "honed." Also the three shacks were built using different techniques.

#1 Was built using plexiglass walls and roof with wood laminated to the interior and exterior.

#2 Was built using the shell from a styrene PIKO building from your Dad's great stuff and laminated with wood and a metal flashing roof was applied and tar papered.

#3 Was built using pink foam board insulating material and laminated with wood and a metal flashing roof applied.

The rolled tar paper roofing material was made using 3' scale strips cut from clear acetate school note book covers and painted with spray "texture" paint.

On all three buildings I had to experiment with a variety of adhesives I had never used in HO modeling.

I also had to construct wire anchors to hold the buildings in the ground and Thompson Water Seal the life out of these puppies. So far the big winter winds have not moved them. The rain is beading on all surfaces and the Titebond III glue is truly waterproof.

I have learned a lot!!!!

Thanks for looking.

Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Another 3 Feet And A Bridge On The Little River Rail Road

Another 3 Feet and a Bridge on the Little River Rail Road.

The unseasonably mild winter has had the construction crews out at work on the Little River RR mainline. Another 3 feet of curved large scale track has been laid in Nelson's Gap high in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.

To cross a creek branch running in to Nelson's Gap the intrepid workman used a log crib bridge like this one from the 1920's.

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The logs created a very strong tower and the stringers were also built from rounded logs.

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In looking at these photos the log crib pier may be a little too high....about 15 scale feet.

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I would love to hear from model rail road engineering folks as to the appropriateness of this pier. I could always build up the creek bed to shorten the pier if need be.

Tom Doc Tom and the Little River Rail Road in Tennessee
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tom, I can see too much daylight between the logs . They would have to be notched pretty good and spiked to a fare the well to get the kind of stability needed for such a narrow tall pier.


cribbing without notching happened, but generally in wider or shorter applications; generally with rock fill in the middle.


Bill
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Log tower take two.

Thanks Bill. I just did not feel the log tower looked right at all. It certainly is way too high for the prototype pictures I have seen for the Little River RR.

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So, I just exercised a little modeler's license and raised the bottom of the little creek bed. Now the tower is about 6-8 scale feet tall and looks better to me.

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Doc Tom learning as he goes. Doc Tom and the Little River Rail Road in Tennessee
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Let a Logger do it.

Thank you fellow logger and modeler Mr Bill Nelson for the very good advice on log crib towers. This just did not look right:

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The logging crew from Tremont agreed and told management, "Let a Logger do it." So with axe, adze and froe they took apart the tower notched the logs and built a much more sturdy and appropriate structure for the Little River Rail Road. Here is the pride in workmanship of the intrepid loggers.

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The loggers worked so quickly that they moved the extra logs from the dismantled tower to the site of a recent washout and shored it up in record time. In fact is was done before the surveying crews could record the fix on company documents of the right of way. These guys love to cut and move timber!!!

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Doc Tom and the Little River Rail Road in Tennessee
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Spring Time

We have Spring bustin' out here in the Southern Appalachians . The LRRR took out combine 310 for a little trip to Tremont.

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Doc Tom and the Little River Rail Road in Tennessee:wave:
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
That layout is really looking good. More warm weather ought to bring about some additional work for you.

Thanks res911.

Yes the warmer weather has me outside more......and hopefully I will get a little more done on the Little River RR in the back yard. Thanks for looking at the pictures and welcome to Zealot.

Doc Tom:thumb:
 

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Z

Zathros

I'd love to go for a ride in something like that though that narrow gauge would scare the bejeezus out of me! I guess that's the attraction, I imagine everyone must fantasize riding in these trains, I couldn't be the only one!!
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
When I was about eight, my folks took my four sisters and I on an extended western trip, where Dad took us out into a a lot of the Indian country, where he had worked for the forest service in the summers while he was in undergraduate school studying Forestry .


We made a side trip to Durango, and rode the Silverton branch when it was still run buy bu the D & R G W I was doing ok riding on the man made ledges through the gorge until I noticed the old rails in the river 180 feet below. I later learned that that rail was down there from washouts, but it made the whole proposition seem rather precarious to my 8 year old mind. That , along with my dad pushing the 3 point suspension on his model T as far as it would go at the end of the long down hill driveway ; (thoroughly safe if you understand the mechanics as I now do, but terrifying to the 8 year old mind, as the front of the car is kicked over to 45 degrees off center as my Dad whips the model T on to the main road. I used to think "This guy is going to kill me." I'm sure if I had a model T I wouldn't push it that hard, but Dad's first car was a Model T, and it seemed normal to him. Likewise he didn't tell me that the rail down in the river of lost souls (el rio de las animas perditas) were down there from a washout upstream 50 years before, and not from last years disaster.

Narrow gauge isn't scary to the adult mind, some of those guys survived1

Nelson
 
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