Track plan for a small logging line


malletman

malletman

Alcohaulic
Below is a picture of what I am working with benchwork wise. Out of sight on the right is a narrow shelf about 3 foot long along the wall that dead ends at the door to the room. The other side of the layout will eventually have a 5 foot shelf that is narrow above my work bench(which is in front of the window) but will be 24" deep after its past the bench, so a 2x2 area roughly. I just bought a brass 2-6-6-2t, which will require me to keep the bridge across the narrowed middle area(necessary for me to reach the storage shelves at the rear on the wall). If I had gone just geared, I could have removed this pain in the butt item. I do plan to get a geared engine as soon as a couple other brass pieces sell. My thoughts are a 22" radius(mostly) level loop at the bottom for the Mallet to run on. Then a switch back, diverging off the mainline at the front right corner, using that shelf for its head room, then climbing at 3% along the rear of the layout, bridging over the lower mainline at some point, then again at the left front corner, going above my work bench, then arriving at the reload camp on that shelf space just past my workbench. The "hill line" will be the domain of the geared engine, with the mallet handling the loads to the mill and emptys back to the base of the "hill line".

Here is the left side prior to the front bridge section being installed infront of the control shelf 15" radius Atlas track can make a circle in this space, same for the other side. Ok for geared but not sure the Mallet would like that.
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And here is the right side and you can see some of the extension shelf where I could put the pull back track to start up the hill line.
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Here is the Mallet, which should arrive here later this week. I sprung for it as its the brass version of the very first logging loco I owned at age 12, the Mantua Booth Kelly Logger. That engine started my logging obsession. This is the NWSL brass version of it. I already have a Canon can motor on order for it. But I doubt it will handle 15" radius track, but I will try to tune it for that. If I can, then I will remove the bridge section as the layout looks much better without it.
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If I can get my brass diesel and caboose sold, I know of a NWSL 3 truck Willamette geared engine, which Booth Kelly Lumber Co had as well. So a natural stable mate to the Mallet. I am open to suggestions to track plan and layout ideas. While I can tune, repower and rework brass locomotives, I suck at planning track laoyuts. I will be using Woodland Scenics foam inclines and spacer blocks to build up the elevation of the line and keep weight low. Mike the Aspie
 
Brass, other than geared models, tend to be less tolerant of tight radius track. That being said I have a Overland GE Dash 8-40B(thats for sale) that goes around 15" radius curves as well as it does 22"! So go figure. The Mallet will be here later this week. Then I can evaluate it and start drawing up track plans.
 
Here is a video of the Mallet running around the roughed in mainline. The buildings in the middle are stand ins for where the mill will be in the future. I have decided what sawmill to get yet. I may not put any mill, just the log pond where the buildings are standing since the real Booth Kelly Lumber mill was huge. The high line ties into the main line at the left side, just behind the finished lumber loading shed. It will do a double switch back, crossing over my work bench on a narrow shelf to reach the reload camp where the high lead line drags the logs off the mountain. The Mallet still needs remotored, even with a strong magnet, the motor runs hot and is unstable at slow speeds. She just barely squeaks around the tight track work. A geared engine has been purchased and will arrive soon, it is a 70 ton 3 truck Willamette Shay from NWSL, and will become Booth Kelly #7.
Enjoy! Mike the Aspie
 
Both sets are powered. Only HO mallets I have seen driven on the rear only was the very early Redball 0-4-4-0 and some of the extremely early Big Boys. All the rest had both sets driven. Mine is a NWSL import, Toby built in Japan and was imported in 1975. She was the last of the 2-6-6-2 logging Mallets imported by NWSL. Quite expensive to buy, I got this one about half price as it was lacking its original box. The radius at the front of the layout is 15" Atlas snap track, cant fit anything larger, the rear curves are Atlas 22". I am cursed with a very small layout space, the desire for continous running. Geared models will do much better on the curves, but the "pocket mallet" does ok and will be much better once she gets a new can motor. I have a NWSL brass 3 truck Willamette Shay on order from brasstrains.com. Its very difficult to find much info on the Booth Kelly Lumber Co, despite it being one of the bigger logging shows in the early years, but they were done by the mid 1940's, so that might be one reason for the lack of a good locomotive roster. They did stable two very similar Mallets, #2 and #6, along with a 70 ton, 3 truck Willamette #7.
 
BTW, if you put one of the NWSL logging mallets next to the Mantua variation, you can see how out of scale the Mantua one is. Mantua scaled up the narrow gauge Unitah Mallets to create thier "Logger" model. Still an excellent and much less expensive model. The NWSL brass ones capture the squat look and size correctly, but will empty your wallet much more to own. Also, for those doing sound in a Mallet, a true Mallet only has 2 chuffs like a normal 2 cylinder steam locomotive. The rear cylinders are the high pressure ones(smaller in overall diameter) and they exhaust directly into the front low pressure(much larger diameter). The low pressure ones then exhaust up the stack. Simple articulated models, of which some were logging models, or monsters like the UP Challenger and Big Boy, have 4 chuffs, the out of sync to the chuffs and most simples have multipule smoke stacks. such as the twins on the UP engines or on the simple articulateds on the Rayonier and Weyerhauser logging roads.
 
I have owned and tuned both the Mantua and a couple of the brass ones. My brass NWSL Mallet is the same as yours, she will do 15" if you use nice soft RC airplane fuel line or NWSL univerals between the gear boxes. The Mantua you have is a newer run with the can motor, it should be fine without any mods. They are a bit overscale as Mantua just upscaled a narrow gauge mallet to create the model. With the various sizes of real engines, it will just blend in, despite being a bit over scale. The AHM/Rivarossi Heisler is about as bomb proof as one can get in a non brass geared model. The real ones had thier side rods on each truck "clocked" at the same position on each truck, so they move around in unison, easy to correct on yours if you chose to.

The tubing in the drive line of my brass one was very stiff when I got it, so it didnt like any curves really. I replaced it with softer tubing and you can see in the video how well she runs, despite the weak open frame motor. A Sagami will go in the model soon, and this will improve its operation ten fold. Always try to solve any running issues with brass prior to painting the model. Drilling out the headlights for micro bulbs is a bigger pain in the arse than remotoring the model. Cheers Mike the Aspie
 
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malletman said:
I have owned and tuned both the Mantua and a couple of the brass ones. My brass NWSL Mallet is the same as yours, she will do 15" if you use nice sold RC airplane fuel line or NWSL univerals between the gear boxes. Cheers Mike the Aspie
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Thanks for that info, I've never taken my apart. But I did have a another older engine (Big Boy) that I replace that 'fuel line' shaft on and it worked very good.
 
I now have a NWSL Willamette Shay. The clone of the Lima Shay made by the Willamette Iron Co in Washington state after the patents ran out. In near mint condition, quite stiff. Has a genuine USA made Pittman open frame motor in it. But a newer NWSL 1630 can motor is in its future to quiet it down. Shame there is no good way to quiet down the noise from an open frame motor. Pics tomorrow maybe. Mike the Aspie
 
I had a PFM Climax, but the more modern class C with the walscherts valve gear. From what I can tell, Booth Kelly had 2 shay, a 70 ton and an 80 ton, both 3 truckers. So those will be next on the buy list, probably after the holidays. I need to get both of these remotored and painted first. Then decide if I want to just model the log pond or put a small mill in there. Mike the Aspie
 
The Mallet wasnt the happiest camper on the super tight curves, I have to use. So I traded her for a pair of PFM/United 2 truck Shays. Geared power has no problem with my tight curves. I am shifting prototype to the Crown Willamette Paper Co and my home road Turtle Creek Timber Co. The big 3 truck Willamette is a Crown Willamette prototype, and will be lettered as such when painted and will handle the mainline run to the mill. Turtle Creek Timber will handle the logs from the camps to the interchange point. The smaller 2 truck Shays will be lettered for TCTCo. Mike the Aspie
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