Steam & Excursion > Air Brakes on Logging Railroads?

With Martin's recent post, it's obvious that many logging railroads (intrastate?) didn't have to convert to automatic couplers like other roads, so it came later. What about air brakes, how soon did logging roads convert to air brakes? It would seem very advantagious on steep grades like many logging roads, even if locos were placed on the downhill side of a train.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/19 18:36 by wabash2800.

I don’t know how common air brakes were on logging roads generally, but I’ve read that about a century ago the Beebe River logging railroad in New Hampshire had to get a special waver from the ICC to operate its trains on the B&M’s Lincoln branch because they lacked air brakes which were required on common carriers by that point.

Dave

The Safety Appliance Law (SAA) had several exemptions: 4-wheel cars exempt,  8-wheel logging cars exempt if coupler height was below 25".  This was because logs are industry and are not way-billed commerce, same as coal not coming under Act to Regulate Interstate Commerce.  Logs are not commerce. Federal Government does not regulate industry, states do that.
Locomotives used exclusively in logging service exempt. That meant all  geared engines that did not have air pumps could continue doing what they were doing.

Correction to DavidP post, the Woodstock Lumber Co. operated over the Boston & Maine's Pemmegewassett Branch by a lease giving it full non-common-carrier right at night and on Sunday.  The ICC was not involved because it was not interstate commerce. This in effect connected the Beebe River RR to  the East Branch & Lincoln RR to make the longest logging railroad in New England in the 1920s. The nightly move was made by EB&L locomotives (that passed ICC inspection per B&M Lease request) to move large logs from Sweetwater on the EB&L to the saw blade in Beebe River mill to make piano boards, and then they used homemade cars to carry the sawing waste back to the paper mill furnace to burn there.  Brake power all controlled only by the one geared Shay engines.Two engines at Lincoln were kept legal for that run over B&M.

There were several places in New England which ran non-air brake cars over common-carrier track and they were ecempt because of the SAA exemptions..  One was from log branches near Jefferson to  Berlin using log bunks but also used a 8-wheel coach as a caboose and that had to be overlooked by the ICC.  The Somerset RR in Maine bought 170 log bunks and ran its common-carrier railroad without any air brakes. 

The Deerfield River RR ran non-air brake log cars over the Hoosic Tunnel & Wilmington RR from Mountain Mills,,VT to Monroe Bridge, MA and that crossed state line.
Everyone knows the Sandy River & Raingley Lake RR 2' gauge lines as being a common-carrier but they ran many log trains to saw mills along their lines without any air brales because they were log bunks or the coupler height on flat cars was lower than 25 inches.  That was not only over the Eutis RR which was considered a logging RR.

Edit:
The attached photo is a Deerfield River Railroad [1906-1922] train of log bunks (no air) on the Hoosac Tunnel & Willington RR {CC} next to the Readsboro Dam showing the main highway that still runs east out of Readsboro, VT.  Several of the houses are still there.  The locomotive is HT&W #10 a Baldwin consolidation class 56.  The HT&W had 3 of those class 56 engines and the DRRR bought 2 of the same class 56 design that came from C&S #32 and #35. Former DSP&P engines built for the D&RG but diverted to South Park when completed.  Plus the DRRR first logging engine #2, consolidation #6733 was from the same design via the Conglomerate Mining Co., Calumet, MI  

Log trains with no air were operated the same any train during the history of railroading from 1834 to 1893 using Brakeman.  The Brakeman would apply just enough hand brakes to stop the train if and when the engineer shut off the steam.  The engine dragged the trains against those brake shoes touching the wheels.  The train would stop for letting the Brakeman to adjust the hand brakes, such as at the top of a summit.  The Engineer would use the whistle signals to tell the Brakemen what he wanted done to change the brakes on the train.  Sometimes the Brakemen would climb over the lumber to reach the hand brakes.  That was the job in those years. The ICC had no jurisdiction on any of the log trains that were exempt from the SAA law as they only could police what was in that law, or police what was company policy.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/19 09:49 by PlyWoody.

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The Red River and Gulf was a common carrier railroad in Louisiana that operated from 1905 to 1954.  During that time, not only did it host log trains from its owning company, it hosted log trains from at least 3 other logging companies as well.   All were required to have ICC inspected engines and air brakes.  After 1945, when a portion of the railroad was converted to an industrial line and log trains over the common carrier were suspended, the owning company removed the air brakes from all of its log cars, and converted the locomotives used in logging service over the industrial tram to steam jam brakes.  From then until 1954, the tram line operated 20 car log trains, up and down several grades of 2% or more with simply the steam brake on the locomotive.

Thanks for sharing all. I can add a little tidbit of knowledge to my noggin. That photo is very interesting.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

In some of the above posts,it is talked about the brakemen and hand brakes on the log cars.  The Crowell operation utilized log cars with NO Brakes at all.  The existing cars have all brake equipment removed, no hand brakes or air brakes.  All that was used on the trains were the steam brakes on the engine, or the independent air brake on the engine.