New Plan

[doctorwayne]

I can't comment too much on logging operations in that part of your country, but in Northern Ontario, the log ponds were the last step in getting the logs to the mill. Cutters worked the woods, mostly in the winter, felling trees and skidding them to the nearest lake or river, where they were piled on the ice. In the spring, when the ice thawed, the logs would be driven via water to the mill - wherever possible, natural currents did most of the work. I'd guess that trucked-in logs would simply be dumped, possibly in a shallow pit to keep them under control, then skidded to a storage yard or moved with a crawler-type crane, where they'd be piled until needed.
By the '60s, most of the procedure was mechanised, and often the fellers would work a tree harvester rather than a chain saw. That meant, of course, that not too many fellers were required, as those huge machines did the work of many men.
Since you're building a model railroad, you could use a little modeller's licence and bring the logs in on rail cars - not the dramatic west-coast logging with one giant log per car, but perhaps some flatcars with semi-permanent stakes. A small diesel, such as Bachmann's 44 Tonner or the little four-wheel switcher offered by MDC/Horizon would be sufficient. Trucks would be another option - a lot of the roads in Northern Ontario were originally logging roads, and as the industry mechanised, road construction boomed.

I visited a sawmill operation in the early '60s with my uncle, who had worked in the bush when he was younger. He knew the mill owner, so while they gabbed, I took a few photos, although I can't tell you too much about what they represent.

This is the log pond - not especially photogenic, and I imagine the whole area around it would be a mess when it rained, as much of it was bare dirt.




Another view of the pond, with the bottom of the conveyor to the mill just barely visible at right:




Part of the storage area, with stacks of both rough-sawn lumber and semi-processed logs:



I'm not really sure what this is....



.....but this may be the other side of it. I didn't see any type of locomotive around, but they must have had one. You can see workers loading planks on these buggies - they may be going to storage or perhaps to a planing mill (or this may be the dressed boards leaving the planing mill):



Another outbuilding:




Here's the slash burner, water tower, and the main mill building, along with some railroad-related debris:



The mill itself was steam-powered, with the saws belt-driven. I wish I had asked more questions, but it was difficult to get a word in edgewise with the two old-timers yakkin'.



Other than those lumber buggies, this water car was the only rolling stock I saw. It's for firefighting:




Wayne