Sunday, February 05, 2017

logging truck, 1914, on a plank road, possibly with the trailers on rails


the wheels under the logs certainly appear to be railcar steel wheels.

Why a plank road then? If they were using the truck as a locomotive engine, and rail cars, they wouldn't need a plank road is my question

http://www.blackdiamondnow.net/black-diamond-now/2014/04/more-big-logs.html

3 comments:

  1. I don't know for sure but if you look closely at the truck that is hauling the railcars, the wheels look like standard road wheels. So maybe it was easier to plank the railroad so it could be used for road traffic as well as a railroad, especially if it was the only road into the logging site.

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  2. Just taking a guess here... I wonder if most of the company's logs moved by rail but some spur lines had too steep of hills for a locomotive's wheels to maintain traction. Add a plank road and a rubber-tired truck to get the load over the hill before attaching it to the main train. Would hauling the logs out on a highway truck and trailer and then transferring them onto waiting railway cars have been more cost effective? I don't know, but as Tim mentioned, the bonus is having a multi-use road for other vehicle access.

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