The first of two extraordinary DVDs showing not just logging railroads on America’s West Coast, but the whole range of techniques used to fell and extract the timber from the woods to the railroad, and from the railroad through the mill. The films (very largely shot on 16mm film) date from the early 1900s up to the mid 1960s and are of very high quality, as is the production of the films themselves.
The techniques covered in Vol. 1 include felling, topping the spar tree, rigging and the evolution of yarding. The railroad footage from operations shows the railroads of Westside, Long-Bell, Weyerhaeuser, Pickering, Fruit Growers, Union Lumber, Crown-Willamette, Michigan-California, Holmes-Eureka, McLoud and Yosemite Sugar Pine and many more. Shays in particular abound, plus mallets, Heislers, and rod locomotives.
If you ever wondered what logging was really like, these films will show you in considerable detail - it was horrendously dangerous!
Produced by - Catenary Video Productions
Running time - 72 Minutes
Colour and B&W
Stereo sound
DVD only
Released - 2015