Welcome back olesmokey. If it is a small mill, a few company houses crammed up against the hillside could do. In some of the plans I see room for the lumber yard, in others it disappears. You'll need to contemplate how you wish to portray that, it is literally why the mill exists after all. No output, no money, no mill. Since I don't see a center divider backdrop, you can't 2D it. Keep at it, it'll all come together eventually. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Thanks guys. The scenery can be moved to acomodate lumber loads and company housing. There will be more buildings around the sawmill btw.
Here is the final iteration of an eastern-style logging layout I designed for part of my basement, until I commandeered the other section where I have a lot more room to play. You'll notice all the logistics are there. The mill has its pond, the stacks where finished lumber is sorted and air dried, a town for the workers including family homes, single homes, duplexes, a school\church, boarding house, stores, bar and brothel, station, freight house, small secondary industries that rely on the mill for material, water tower(s), coal tipple, engine house, etc. etc. etc. The logging camp has a mess hall, office, saw filers shed, housing, etc. as well. You can take this plan, eliminate the fluff i gave myself room for (like the bar, school, church, auxiliary industries, different types of housing, logging camp, etc.) and retain the necessities and fit it on a single HCD. A smaller mill won't need as large a pond or stacks area either. Mine is Long Valley Lumber sized.
Jeepy, I love your layout. Wish I had the room. I've been considering a 6x16 shed/layout room in the backyard. Shelf type layout 18 inch width, but not sure I can handle the expense. I'd sure have room then. I could really have a logging RR then. Have considered a double deck layout with the whole upper deck devoted to logging. That's a lot more expense 7thhough. I need something I can handle.
The nice thing about model railroading versus my scale RC hobby, you can spread the project out and budget for it piecemeal. Budgeting an RC means you have a non running project. I had planned on that layout to take years to build, possibly even decades. The new one I'm planning will be even longer. One other advantage, is other than DCC decoders and other electronics, I can scratch build nearly everything else if I desire. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
After pricing a new hollow core door and two Styrofoam sheets I'm considering a 4x8 layout. No Styrofoam, lots more room for everything. A sheet of plywood, a few 1x4's and I will spend the same amount of money. Folding saw horses are way more expensive to. Don't know where I'll put it, but I'll figure something out. Renting a 10x10 storage costs about $75.00 a month, but I may have no choice. Summer temperatures will be ungodly. 120 degrees. Still considering options. A cargo trailer is an option. ?????????
I built my first layout in N on what amounted to an HCD - 36" x 72", at 16 I had few carpentry skills. That size limit is what locked me into N. I had abandoned model railroading HO because the basement I was in as a kid was cold, damp, low-ceiling, and poorly lit - and also home to my fathers wood shop that produced copious fine sawdust no matter what he tried to do to filter it out. I finally gave up HO and moved to my bedroom, cramped as it was for space. Nine years later as my modeling skills matured I had a fully-finished and sceniced layout that had been published in RMC, got married, and moved. I couldn't tip it sideways and fit it out the doors the same way I got it in as a raw sheet of material. And all the grades were more or less lightly nailed to the surface, and broke loose when tipped on edge. Pretty much complete destruction. Meanwhile I'd also built my 'portable layout' in a carrying case to fit on top of a dresser, the 18" x 36" Hickory Valley starting in 1976, and that layout is still running today at the Altoona show. That was my demo layout for N logging concepts that have grown now to six portable modules. Life lesson: Never build a 'permanent' layout that can't possibly be moved. All future layout construction semi-modular, no wider than 27" and no longer than 48". That lesson was a good one, I've moved the current ATSF layout three times since then with no damage, and the HVRR is now, OMG, 41 years old. Current new building is all T-trak modular, too, as I have no more space anywhere. But it's pretty easy to set up a module on a folding table and work on it. You'll find a permanent place to locate at some point, better to build small modular for now. Heat, dirt, and humidity are not compatible with N.
I sure agree with the module cokept you talk about. Have been out measuring my 8x8 shed, and i think I can put my layout in it, hanging from the ceiling. I can run trains in the backyard. Probably the best I can do.
Took a bit of hunting, and he commented earlier about the worker's quarters, but check out what OleSmokey did in your proposed layout footprint. http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/the-greenbrier-logging-and-sawmill-r-r.84509/ You can always salvage most of a HCD layout if a move is necessary. Modules work too though.
After listening to Randy, I'm considering building 2x4 modules. On Craigslist I found hollow core doors, new, for $5.00. I could sit two modules on one, as a table, modules not attached. Still considering options.
That's kind of the approach I'm leaning toward, and always have, but I'm not going to go with rectangles. I forget which one of the single track module group standards it is, but they're more organically shaped. If I remember which one it is, I will edit this post. it might be FreeMoN, or ONEtrack, I'm not sure.
I decided this plan to have more room for housing and more sawmill buildings. Moved the two staging tracks under the mountain, red lines. A lift out section will allow access to both the main line and staging. What do you fellows think? Am I on the right track?
I'm not sure what happened, could've swore I hit Post Reply. Maybe the pic was too large, I dunno Anyway, I was mostly concerned with the height of your logging area in relation to the storage tracks. You weren't going to get much elevation off the back side. If you get that scene up higher, you can use removable fascia to hide the storage and mainline under the mountain on the lower right, instead of a lift out. I also put in the more prototypical runaround instead of the parallel spur. Some outfits didn't even make runaround moves, but instead shoved empties all the way from the mill. In N scale, that's a sketchy idea on a steep incline, so test it A LOT before deciding if you want to eliminate it. The brown line is a divider to separate the mill scene from the log landing scene. By doing this, it gives a better illusion that the trees being harvested are far enough from the mill to warrant a railroad. You can also 2D a lot more town if you like. It's of course movable to where you can make best use of your scene spaces. Reduced your log pond feeder to a stream so it is less prone to flooding, though you will also want a spillway which i forgot to put in. The green is either trees to hide the portals in the backdrop, elevated ground, or both.
It doesn't matter, my layout got nixed today. Instead, I get a circle of track to run trains now. I'm done folks. Was fun to dream for a while.
Planning and dreaming requires no space, no money, and no permission. Keep working on your layout plans in the hope that you can build in the future.
