The Little River Rail Road in Doc Tom's Back Yard

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Smoky Mtn. Travelogue on the Little River Rail Road Here is a 1920's style black

Here is a 1920's style black and white travelogue filmed on the Little River RR in the Smoky Mountains of my back yard.

Col W.B.Townsend (owner of the LRRR and lumber operations) did advertise for tourists to ride his trains in to the Smoky Mountains. While following the rails of his logging outfit the RR did expose thousands to the beauty of the Smokies. This influx of folks eventually led to the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park after all the trees had been harvested.

Here is my attempt at playing up the fun tourists would have on this nifty rail road in the mountains of East Tennessee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu5uOr-0hrw

Hope you all enjoy it.

Tom


Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
New Flat Car for the Little River RR

This was a fun build.It is a 30 foot logging flat in 1:20.3 scale. I used "bits" salvaged from an old junked B.mann Big Hauler flat car given to me by my model RR friend Bill.
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I never turn down anything "free" in large scale. I used 5/8" poplar wood for the frame and steel strap iron from Lowes for weight. The deck was built up using cut down tongue depressors (craft sticks).
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The wood was stained with alcohol and india ink. The small plastic bits were painted with acrylics, weathered and attached with Super Glue.
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Metal wire was bent to form the coupler lift bars and some of the grabs.
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I have always enjoyed this prototype picture from the Little River RR:
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I am hopeful my model captures some of the spirit of hard working wooden flats doing the heroic work of moving the timber.
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Thanks for looking. Tom



Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
1920 Class A Climax at work in Australia

I found this be a very rare B&W movie of a Class A Climax in action. Notice the peculiar jacks the men are using to roll the logs at the beginning of the movie. I have never seen these before..........Aussie equivalents of Peaveys???

There is also some really good footage of the crew applying brakes on the disconnect trucks to avoid a run a way train.

I hope you like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64RSnXNdDEs&feature=youtu.be

Doc Tom


Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Its Cold and Icy on the Little River RR

Boss Crumb and the boys just cannot figure on the right set of clothes to wear when it comes to an ice storm in Tennessee. Well at least that "infernal combustion" engine in Motor Car #1 keeps everyone warm this time of year on jaunts up in the Tennessee Mountains.

Doc Tom, Cold on the Little River RR.








Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
We got a little more ice on my side of the river; fortunately, none of it got on my RR. It did build up considerably on the logs I had skidded up on my front yard last weekend. most of it came off today as I cut , split, and stacked that wood on the front porch, in advance of the predicted second round of winter weather they are calling for tonight and tommorow. weather like this makes me glad I drive a Subaru, and have a 4wd Suburban for back up. The wife is driving her Subaru outback, and the Miata is in the garage, probaply till spring.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
A neat 1:1 logging video

Here is a nice video of logging on the Long Bell Rail Road I ran across on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aWszU7S4Ug

Stephen Cutting found this in a dump and had this to say:

"Weed & Tenant - last of the steam railroad days - rescued from Black Butte Dump years back from a Video Cassette and converted to digital. Shows logging train leaving Weed to Tenant, rail construction, cutting trees with electric chainsaw, taking logs via tracked arch behind a bulldozer to landing, loading with McGriffert loader, and hauling to Tenant, some camp scenes including meal, train of logs heading to the Long-Bell Sawmill in Weed California. There is NO SOUND, as it was originally recorded with a 16mm camera.The years and seasons are unknown. It is understood the company photographer died and the family took all his films to the dump. Had I known that those reels of 16mm film contained the information they did, I would have grabbed them too but it was too late when I discovered what was there and the landfill bulldozer had buried them that night."


  • Standard YouTube License
I found this to be interesting review of a hard working logging outfit.

Doc Tom



Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
smallpictureofloader.jpg
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
A neat 1:1 logging video

Here is a nice video of logging on the Long Bell Rail Road I ran across on You Tube:


Stephen Cutting found this in a dump and had this to say:

"Weed & Tenant - last of the steam railroad days - rescued from Black Butte Dump years back from a Video Cassette and converted to digital. Shows logging train leaving Weed to Tenant, rail construction, cutting trees with electric chainsaw, taking logs via tracked arch behind a bulldozer to landing, loading with McGriffert loader, and hauling to Tenant, some camp scenes including meal, train of logs heading to the Long-Bell Sawmill in Weed California. There is NO SOUND, as it was originally recorded with a 16mm camera.The years and seasons are unknown. It is understood the company photographer died and the family took all his films to the dump. Had I known that those reels of 16mm film contained the information they did, I would have grabbed them too but it was too late when I discovered what was there and the landfill bulldozer had buried them that night."


  • Standard YouTube License
I found this to be interesting review of a hard working logging outfit.

Doc Tom



Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
smallpictureofloader.jpg
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Workmen finish the stairs to the Fish Camp Commissary,a Company Store of the Little River Lumber Company.


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Boss Crumb, exhausted, enters another fugue state



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and dreams of Sales, and selling, and making sales, and sales people .............

and a GRAND OPENING!!!!



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Quite the celebration.



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The latest creation for the Garden RR will be planted soon.



Thanks so much for looking and following along.

Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Excellent work Tom It looks like the grand opening was held inside, good decision. I did get out today in the sunsine, and got some excellent firewood, but my feet are still cold. I'm getting a goodly pile of rocks in my farm truck, from picking them up when they hapen to be in the middle of my woods trails; so let me know when you are ready for them.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Excellent work Tom It looks like the grand opening was held inside, good decision. I did get out today in the sunsine, and got some excellent firewood, but my feet are still cold. I'm getting a goodly pile of rocks in my farm truck, from picking them up when they hapen to be in the middle of my woods trails; so let me know when you are ready for them.
Hi Bill,

A mountain logging Rail Road can always use rocks. Bring em' by anytime you have a moment.
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We remain greatly appreciative........the boys and the bunny on the Little River.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
A 1:20.3 Southern Passenger car for the Little River RR.

One of the interesting stories about the Little River RR in the Smoky Mountains, in East Tennessee, is that the RR hauled passengers and tourists up in to the beautiful mountains.



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While it started as a logging outfit the creative management of the company realized that people wanted to escape the cities and travel high in to these beautiful Smoky Mountains.



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I wanted to model this Southern RR combine that was attached to Little River RR trains. Here is a shot of the combine off loading luggage at the Wonderland Hotel in Elkmont way up in the mountains.



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As you all know it is hard to find inexpensive models of 1:20.3 passenger cars. So I thought, "Why not scratchbuild one?" This turned in to quite a drawn out experience that I thought I would share here.



Scratch building anything usually requires some sort of plans. I hunted all over the net and could come up with little in the way of plans.



The best I could do was the 1:20.3 plans from MLS Master Classes in 2006. More specifically "Master Class 1880 Combine Mini Coach, Class 2006." This is the classic Carter Bros Combine.



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I figured this was close and I set out to build a 40 foot combine coach that would look like the coaches coming up in to the Smokies about 1920 on the Little Lumber RR with the big ideas.



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Thanks for following along on this journey.



Doc Tom



Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
In the planning for this passenger car I elected to use as much hardware as possible from existing Bachmann passenger cars. They are rather plentiful. I bought this interesting specimen from eBay for $35.



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While it is a beautiful model from a RR up Nawth the razor saw showed no mercy and the trucks with the good heavy wheelsets, the frame, the truss rods

and underside details where used in this new build.



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I split the frame in three pieces to lengthen it and widened the frame using 5/8" wood from Lowes. Lowes, my go to hobby shop, also provided flattened metal bars to give the model strength and heft. I kept the original bolsters and trucks.



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Everything underneath the model was sprayed with flat black.



Doc Tom





Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
smallpictureofloader.jpg
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Looks like fun. If i'm not mistaken the picutures of the 2-4-4-2 in the canyon, with passengers out on the rocks were taken on a sunday school excursion, the coaches are all borrowed from the Southern. I moved from Ohio to Georgia before my junior year in high school (I was born in Mississippi); Making that move, I wanted to e imagine my model railroad from the west to the Southeast. hat very same picture of the 2-4-4-2 in the canyon with the passenger train was one of the reasons I chose Eastern TN. as the location of my RR. that was a couple years before I acuired my first 2-4-4-2. I ended up attending the University of the South, in Sewannee Tn, where I met my spouse, and we have lived in TN ever since. Kind of an odd situatation that my RR landed in TN 2 1/2 years before I did; The image of the 2-4-4-2 in the canyon inspired that. Now My RR has two of those 2-4-4-2s.. life is weird!
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Looks like fun. If i'm not mistaken the picutures of the 2-4-4-2 in the canyon, with passengers out on the rocks were taken on a sunday school excursion, the coaches are all borrowed from the Southern. I moved from Ohio to Georgia before my junior year in high school (I was born in Mississippi); Making that move, I wanted to e imagine my model railroad from the west to the Southeast. hat very same picture of the 2-4-4-2 in the canyon with the passenger train was one of the reasons I chose Eastern TN. as the location of my RR. that was a couple years before I acuired my first 2-4-4-2. I ended up attending the University of the South, in Sewannee Tn, where I met my spouse, and we have lived in TN ever since. Kind of an odd situatation that my RR landed in TN 2 1/2 years before I did; The image of the 2-4-4-2 in the canyon inspired that. Now My RR has two of those 2-4-4-2s.. life is weird!
Amazing how a photo can inspire.
I was moved ,in college days ,finding pieces of rail down in the Little River Gorge while on Hiking adventures in the Smokies. I remember thinking "how in the Heck did they get a railroad way up here." Who would have thunk that here I am studying on how they did it.

Doc Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
The next step in this build was to lay down the floor with a sheet of basswood from Hobby Lobby. The wood was scored to look like individual planking and stained with India Ink and alcohol.



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The wooden floor was put down using small brass screws.



Doc Tom



Doc Tom and the Little River RR guys in East Tennessee.
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