We’re back with part of our look at the cars from the Secret Santa Rail Car Exchange I participated with in 2020. If you are just joining us, take a look at part one and two of this series to catch up on the what, how, who, and why and see the cars you missed. We won’t start without you

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 2

Alright, let’s dig in to the next group of cars.

New Haven Depressed Center Flat Car: Cam’s Gift to Matt C

Cameron drew Matt Csenge, Matt is a fan of New York area roads so a New Haven depressed center flatcar was the model Cam came up with. Here are some word from Cam on his build.

As soon as we started talking about this game in June 2020, I knew there was a car type I wanted to model. I wanted to do a drop center flat car for high and wide loads. As a kid, I had tried to make one but was never successful. Now almost 20 years later, I had mulled over the problem off and on and knew how I might do it. As long as the road and era fit, I was going to attempt to build this car type for my recipient. 

Then I drew Matt Csenge as the person I was building for. Matt’s road of choice is the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. NH definitely ran transformer cars. They served a GE transformer plant within their system and were also largely known for their electrified rail lines. They needed these cars for revenue and MOW service. 

I built a few test builds to get the structure in place.

I then dug into my research on the car. I ended up buying a copy of the Shoreliner®️ magazine put out by the NH technical society. It covered all things transformer cars. I found there was a class of these made that fit my needs for size and it only had 2 road numbers. That was perfect! One for me and one for Matt! I finalized the design and got my parts ordered! 

I made the first one in brown and decided on my load. I wanted a LEGO brand tie in for my build so the 40th anniversary set worked well as a load. I also had one NISB that I could send along for Matt to build!

From there I built the Black NH version and got it all lettered for shipment. 

Matt sent this photo a week or so after we opened all our gifts and it really sells the look I wanted to achieve but I couldn’t get a transformer I liked well enough to include as a load. 

My gift to Trevor: Lumber Flatcar and Logging Engine

I was delighted to have pulled Trevors name for the Railcar Secret Santa last year. I really enjoyed building this model as it gave me a chance to work in a theme I always wanted to try, and that is logging railroading. When I see Trevor’s chosen era (1920’s) and theme (Continental US and Logging), I knew this would be a good project. I always wanted to try building some logging railroad models, and the 1920’s was a perfect time frame for the build.

I played around with several ideas for the car before settling on the flat car type. I was paging through an old Railroad Model Craftsman book I had recently purchased when I came across plan for a Virgina & Truckee 34ft. flat car. The look was perfect for what I wanted. It was a wood frame, truss rod car. Just the right fit for an early 20th century logging outfit.

These V&T cars were built by the Detroit Car Works in 1875. By the 1920’s these cars would have been nearing 45 years old, but still perfectly serviceable for a typical small logging railroad operating on a shoe string budget.

Two of the cars from this series survive in preservation, car nos. 55 and 56, which last saw service as wood rack cars in maintenance of way use.

The V&T flat car was perfect for my logging railroad plan, but the V&T was not a dedicated logging railroad. Enter the Hoosier Pines Logging Company. The HPL Co. is a proto freelance railroad. Proto freelance is a fictional railroad that follows, in form and function, accepted design and operating practices for that type of railway in the era, and region, in which the layout is set. Since Trevor lives in Indiana, I chose an appropriate name for a logging railroad set in Indiana and went to work designing the car. The car itself closely follows the original V&T cars, only differing in road name.

Steam Donkey

The flat car was settled. I had the right car for the job and the look I wanted. But a simple flat car wasn’t enough. The reason I chose a flat car was that I wanted to build more than just a car for this gift. I also wanted to model a really interesting load to go on it. For this I chose a subject I always wanted to try modeling, but never had the right opportunity. The Steam Donkey. 

The steam donkey, or donkey engine, is the name for a steam-powered winch widely used in past logging, mining, maritime, and other industrial applications.

Steam donkeys used in forestry, also known as a logging engines, were often attached to a yarder for hauling logs from where trees were felled to a central processing area. The operator of a donkey was known as a donkeyman.

John Dolbeer, a founding partner of the Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Company in Eureka, California, invented the logging engine in August 1881. On Dolbeer’s first model, a 150-foot, ​4 1⁄2-inch manila rope was wrapped several times around a gypsy head (vertically mounted spool) and attached at the other end to a log.

The invention of the steam donkey increased lumber production by enabling loggers to cut trees that they would not have previously been able to transport. They also enabled logging in hot or cold weather, which was not previously possible with the use of animal power.

Later, the invention of the internal-combustion engine led to the development of the diesel-powered tractor crawler, which eventually put an end to the steam donkey. Though some have been preserved in museums, very few are in operating order. A great number still sit abandoned in the forests.

A logging donkey consists of a steam boiler and steam engine, connected to a winch mounted on a sled called a donkey sled. The donkeys were moved by dragging themselves with the winch line, originally made of hemp rope and later steel cable. They were used to move logs, by attaching lines to the logs and hauling them.

The larger steam donkeys often had a “donkey house” (a makeshift shelter for the crew) built either on the skids or as a separate structure. Usually, a water tank, and sometimes a fuel oil tank, was mounted on the back of the sled. In rare cases, steam donkeys were also mounted on wheels. Later steam donkeys were built with multiple horizontally mounted drums/spools.

In the simplest logging setup a “line horse” would carry the cable out to a log where its tree had been downed. The cable would be attached, and, on signal, the donkey’s engineer, nicknamed a “Donkey Puncher”, would operate the steam donkey to drag, or “skid”, logs towards it. The log was taken either to a mill or to a “landing” where it would be transferred for shipment by railroad, road or by river. Later, a “haulback” drum was added to the donkey, where a smaller cable could be routed around the “setting” and connected to the end of the heavier “mainline” to replace the line horse.

A donkey was moved by attaching one of its cables to a tree, stump or other strong anchor, then dragging itself overland to the next yarding location.

For times when the donkey engineer was too far away from the end of the line for verbal communication, whistle codes were developed similar to those used by tug boats employing steam whistles). The whistle operator was known as a whistle punk, was placed between the men attaching the cables (choker setters), and the donkey puncher, so that he could see the choker setters. When the cables were attached, a series of whistle blows signaled the donkey to begin pulling and the choker setters to stay out of harm’s way. The process was a closely orchestrated sequence of actions, where mistakes were often fatal. Although the steam engine, and its whistle, have been replaced by gasoline and diesel engines,the whistle codes are still used in many current logging operations. The whistle though has been replaced largely with airhorns today.

The steam donkey may have been the most fun part of this build. While the flatcar was designed in LDraw and then built with parts purchased from Bricklink, the steam donkey was a pure sit down with a pile of bricks and see what comes out of it deal. I had a basic idea of what I wanted, but just let creativity flow with whatever parts I had in my collection. I’m really happy with the result.

This really was a fun build, and I think Trevor is very happy to have received. I may just have to build a second copy for myself some day.

Part 4, the Final Set of Cars, Coming Saturday

We still have 3 more models to go. Come back tomorrow to see the last group of cars.