Saturday, May 2, 2009

Screen Accurate Jammer Anyone?

My latest scratch building project has been a slide ass jammer. We have one at the Historical Museum that came from the BBRy and I've led many a school group around it. So following the building of a dock on my previous layout and seeing the price of a commercial kit I figured why not build one myself?
My first attempt was not grand. It fills up a 50-foot flatcar and is more akin to a skidder then a jammer. but it was a start. So tonight I started working on an improved version. This one is designed for either a 20-foot or a 40-foot flat car. I'm also going to use round poles for the A-frame. In looking at the prototype I've found a better way to rig the A-frame as well. So here without ado is my first attempt and the beginning of my second.

I highly recommend the Loctite Super Glue Gel. It's very accurate during application and it holds very well.

And here is a scan of one of the many prototypes used on the BBRy, courtesy of the Bateman book, and is from the UM Library, A.C.M Bonner collection. The locomotive pictured is either Shay #6 or Willamette #7.

In this photo you can also see how the logs were loaded using the jammer. It is hard to imagine this kind of operation today. OSHA would blanch! But it shows the way the western lumberman got the job done and done well. In my minds eye I can see my own Camp 3 looking like this. No fancy loading apparatus, just grunt and hard work.

1 comment:

  1. The locomotive in the B&W pic above IS a Willamette.

    David Thomas of
    www.gearedsteam.com

    ReplyDelete