Almost Completed ...Sawmill Module

With the coming of fall and colder temps here in NE Ohio, it's time once again to head to the basement and put some serious modeling efforts into the layout.  Throughout the year, I keep a notebook of potential projects and what particular work and details may be needed to get the project started and more importantly, move it towards being finished.  So this fall, I looked at the sawmill area and decided that it would become my major effort for November.  The sawmill is a 2-ft by 6-ft module located along the backside of my paper mill and connects to the Niagara Distribution scene.

Starting the project meant I had to put away all of the other diversions on my work bench, such as weathering some rolling stock and assembly of some vehicles, so that I could concentrate on the module and what was needed to complete the scene. I had already assembled the walls of the various buildings and laid out the track, so I had a decent start on what I thought it would look like. Here's the way the project went:

Man down..looks like all of the workers have been overwhelmed by something toxic (or I'm trying to find out where to place them). I'm really happy with the way the weathering of the roofs turned out. An evening with three colrs of Pan Pastels was all it took.

View looking towards the log conveyor.  This will be where trucks are unloaded and logs placed into the yard or onto the conveyor.

Week 1 - finished assembly of each of the buildings and began the painting process. Only problem with using water based colors from the craft paint department is that it requires several coats of paint (3 in my case) to get full coverage.

Week 2 - all structures built and painted, now comes the time to test fit them into place.  I usually like to place buildings and look at the potential rail traffic patterns for off-loading as well as truck movement on the scene.  After several nights of looking at buildings and just not happy with their placement, I decided to consult some photos I had taken from Bob Mitchell's Algoma Central layout from this years HOMES tour in Hamilton, ON.  Bob's scene is similar to mine, as it is located at the end of his layout room and takes up a far amount of space along his wall.  I'm not sure what the length of his scene actually is, but it's a little deeper than my module, as he has a mainline running behind it.

Week 3 - opted to remove the log pond and tepee burner due to space restrictions. I had roughed both of these features into the scene but decided that they just were too much clutter.  Decided that the space previously occupied by my control tower could be altered to hold the wood chip truck equipment.  This means ripping up all of the previous scenery and starting new.

Week 4 - home stretch.  Buildings are in place and completed installing the concrete pavement around the planer building, including the truck loading area.  Began to weather the rooflines of all buildings with Pan Pastels.  Installed piping runs from the planning mill building out to the sawdust collector for rail and truck. Scavenged the back yard for small pieces of branches, which will become my log piles.  Still need to place the workers, cut dozens and dozens of twigs to represent the logs and then add some of the smaller detail parts.  But that's another day when the snow is flying and I have a few evenings to catch up.  Now it's on to the Niagara Distribution and paper mill modules for some intensive work. Maybe hold an operating session or two to check my car card system.

View looking bottom part of module. Left track is for loading centerbeam and other cars while right track is for chip loading. The lumber piles are there to show that logs will be dropped and stacked alongside the rail.  Still need to take the vacuum and remove excess scenery and other materials

Over the next few months I'll continue to add scenery elements, such as workers, lumber piles, finished goods, etc.