Barry and Penarth Model Railway Club

Members layouts - S: Bear Bottom Lumber Company

On3-gauge (7mm : 1foot)

Layout built and owned by Tony Woodward, who also took the photographs.

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The railroad was originally driven up Black Bear River in the late 1880’s to tap the redwoods that lined the upper reaches of the river. A small log pond was built at Bear Bottom to float the timber down to the estuary. Unfortunately, after a few years of operating at the edge of profitability, disaster struck. A major landslide up-river diverted the river to run down the next valley and the river at Bear Bottom virtually dried up and the log dump became unusable.

But there was a silver lining. The landslide exposed silver and lead seams which looked profitable. This proved to be the case and the new investment enabled a short tunnel to be blasted through to next valley where a new line was built to service the mines. The new river course created a new natural lake, accessible through the tunnel, which became the new log pond.
Bear Bottom was developed to provide an intermediate base for both the timber and mining branches of the railroad. A small sawmill was built in the valley to provide lumber for the both the logging and mining operations but the original log pond is in a sorry state.

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