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Re: Utah Coal Route steel gons in log service

Tim O'Connor
 

When I drove down the Olympic Peninsula in 2011 we stopped in Astoria OR. There was a
large freighter (ocean vessel) being loaded with thousands of logs just about the same
size seen in the photo of the UCR gondolas. Even by the 1940's I suspect a high percentage
of the really giant stuff that was easily accessible to logging railroads had already been
harvested. Of course we didn't know then that cutting down so many would ruin the moist
cool microclimate of those coastal forests, and now they'll never grow back.

Tim O'Connor

On 4/12/2020 5:04 PM, Todd Sullivan via groups.io wrote:
What's interesting to me is that most of the logs in the log pond appear to be similar in size to the loads in these gons. Perhaps the mill was using them for lumber, but maybe for chips or pulp for paper?  And there's that interesting tall building in the background which almost looks like it is connected to the log pond operation by a conveyor.

Also a thought about the crane at the far end of the gons.  It certainly looks like it is unloading the logs into the pond (notice the man on the log load dealing with the steel strapping).  If it is self-propelled, it could simply switch each empty gon out of the way and work on the next.  This was 1946 when processes like this were not always efficient as in later years.  On a model railroad, this could add some interesting activity!

Todd Sullivan
--
*Tim O'Connor*
*Sterling, Massachusetts*
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