Why include lumber companies in a railroad certificate catalog?

Currently, about 10% of the names in my "railroad names" database are lumber, logging, timber, and wood products companies. In the formative days of this project, I decided to list them because books on logging railroads are rather numerous.

My first consideration was that prior to about World War I, practically all logging companies operated and depended almost 100% on railroad equipment. In some cases, the only difference between logging railroads and their mainline counterparts were formal reporting requirements.

A huge percentage of smaller locomotives and rolling stock ended up, at one time or another, on logging railroads. Logging railroads often interchanged with standard railroads and they often served as branches for mainline railways. Many carried passengers and some even issued annual passes. Some logging company lines even became parts of larger mainline railroads still in existence today.

My second consideration was that very few logging companies were officially incorporated. Fewer still issued certificates and only tiny percentages of those exist today. Only 46 logging companies (0.18%) are represented in the database by certificates. There are so few certificates from logging companies that tracking prices takes very little time.

My decision about including logging companies is not carved in stone. There may be a time at which I spin off logging companies into their own database and remove them from the railroad database.