bigkid said:
Hardwoods have another big flaw, they have pine trees that grow pretty rapidly (like the stuff they use in the paper industry), can reach a pretty good size in a relatively short time (like 10 years), hardwoods grow pretty slowly and as far as I know, they haven't been able to create hybrids that grow fast with hardwoods.
When you buy a bunk (500) of 2X4 SPF #2 studs for framing you can look at the ends and they will all have the heart of the tree (center ring) in them. So they can't be letting them get to a very large size. There are are great number of homes being built even with the cost of lumber these days. In my adult life I have seen the area from 30 to 50 miles west of Chicago go from open land fields, woods, farmland turn to roof tops for as far as you can see. I wonder how many of those rooftops have model train owners within and someone trying to figure out what to build that layout with.
