Notes on Track
Construction and Maintenance
by W. M. Camp1904
Editor of the Railway and Engineering Review
Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers
147. Loading Logs.On roads where logs are handled
as traffic it sometimes becomes necessary to reload logs which
have rolled off the cars, and on any road running through forests
large trees will occasionally fall across or into the cuts and
have to be removed. One way of handling trees is to roll them
into the track, drag them out of the cut with the work train,
and then roll them down the embankment, if there be one near.
If the logs or trees must be loaded onto cars, however, it may
as well be done in the cut, at the first handling, or once for
all. For lifting the logs the derrick or wrecking car can be used,
of course, but with this means only one car can be loaded before
it becomes necessary to switch the cars in order to get an empty
car next the derrick. A convenient
method quite frequently resorted to is the use of a parbuckle,
the hauling being done by the engine or train. The arrangement
is quite simple and is shown in Fig. 370. The car to be
loaded is placed opposite the log and the brake set. A rope is
then passed around the log, near one end, one part (A)
of which is passed over the car floor and, after being looped
around the rail under the far side of the car, is made fast to
the snatch block C. The other part (B) is passed
through the snatch block and is pulled on by the locomotive, the
part A remaining stationary. Two sets of ropes and snatch
blocks being arranged as shownone set near each end of the
logboth are pulled on at the same time, so that both ends
of the log come up evenly. On the car the log should be rolled
onto skids, so that the ropes can be easily taken from under it.
It is better to use a ¾ or seven-eighth-inch wire rope
than a hemp rope, as a hemp rope would be rapidly worn out in
being drawn over the edge of the car. A chain might be used for
anchoring the snatch block to the rail, instead of looping the
rope. The log can be slung or raised by a straight lift, over
the edge of the car, but it is easier on the ropes and a better
plan every way to use skids, as shown in the figure, pieces of
rail answering well for such purpose.
Logging Page
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