Logging Railway Operation

[Brakie]

Here's my question, was it "common" that railroads devoid of any reversing device would run "standard" locos? Wouldn't it have been wuite risky to shove trains for miles up a hill then run back to the mill or the log pond the tender first? Sounds risky to me. I can understand they could build a runaround somewhere to make sure the locomotive pull the train uphill with empties. The, on the return trip, we would still have the tender running first.
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Absolutely..There was times when a steam locomotive had to be operated tender first such as mine branch lines,on interchange runs,urban locals that switch urban industrial leads,logging and mining railroads may not have had any means of turning there engines or running around there train.A Shay could tiptoe through a shallow creek since the rails was under water..No need to get fancy since once the timber was cleared the operation would move to another area and more temporary track would be laid.

Now shays could climb 7-10% grades and for safety and for loading the shay would push the log cars upgrade and would reverse back down grade with loaded cars with the engine lead for braking since most log cars only had handbrakes.

Logging locomotives could be 4-4-0s to small 2-6-6-2 (some of these was 2-6-6-2T) if there wasn't any extreme steep grades.