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West Oregon Sawmill layout


jhock

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My home layout underconstruction.

 

Scale HO

Size 10' by 6'6???

style L shaped shelf 15inches wide in scenic area

period late 90's to present

location West Orego, USA

 

The layout is inspired by the Hull Oakes Saw Mill.

 

Track plan (not to scale)

 

TrackplanSawMill-1.jpg

 

Wood chip loader

 

2009_12010001.jpg

 

Main mill building where finished beams emerge, low relief, still in need of a room and internal details

 

2009_11300001.jpg

 

Old container used for storage in the pulpwood loading area

 

2009_11300004.jpg

 

The layout over 2 pictures

 

2009_11300005.jpg

 

2009_11300006.jpg

 

The loading shed

 

2009_11240003.jpg

 

Logging truck

 

2009_10310002.jpg

 

2009_10310003.jpg

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That container looks the part. You see them in industrial yards all over the place. The weathering looks right. It is pretty close to the average we see around here (Ontario). Oregon doesn't salt the roads like we do, but that is a international container (rather than a larger domestic one) so it would have seen a lot of salt air in its previous life.

 

That looks like Peco Track - Code 83?

 

Adrian

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That container looks the part. You see them in industrial yards all over the place. The weathering looks right. It is pretty close to the average we see around here (Ontario). Oregon doesn't salt the roads like we do, but that is a international container (rather than a larger domestic one) so it would have seen a lot of salt air in its previous life.

 

That looks like Peco Track - Code 83?

 

Adrian

 

Close, the track is Peco code 75. I have been putting loads of mud around the container and the pulpwood yard. Following tips in Great Model Railroads 2010 from Mike Confalone, I have made my mud using real dirt, PVA, Paint. The only issue is I bought some top soil to use which claims to sifted, not quite fine enough but it is OK.

 

Felt like a big kid running digger through the mud to put tire marks in it! Will post more pics when it is dry.

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Great Model Railroads 2010 has an article about modelling The St Regis pulpwood yard as one of the industries on a shelf railroad

 

Yep got that one, there was an article on another part of the railroad in 2007 Model Railroad planning, it is by Mike Confalone, it is with out doubt by favourite layout of all time.

 

Talking of which here is my take on the way he does mud:

 

2009_12030001.jpg

 

2009_12030002.jpg

 

Not done yet, still needs some varnish to give it a wet look, into which I will add some wood shavings and bark. There is also a trip to the woods to get my self wood for turning into pulp wood.

 

Pics are bit naff, still need to install some decent lighting.

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Good luck with your project. It is looking good so far. The details like the logging truck and the container look great. (Evergreen is a nice choice by the way.)

 

One thing that I think you will need to incorporate soon in your planning is the backdrop. In the logged parts of western Oregon the skyline is very distinctive and you probably can't get away with the sky dropping all the way down to the baseboard without it looking out of place - even with tall trees at the back of the scenic area. Usually the sawmills are located in the valley and do have a relatively unobstructed view.

 

The signature tree is the Douglas Fir. This has a very specific look. They can be (and frequently are) very tall (ranging from 20 - 120m). Even a 20m tree in HO is 23cm tall. Since you've chosen a modern theme, you could determine that this is in a managed regrowth area and not worry about really tall old-growth trees.

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I'll be following this with great interest. The former Southern Pacific Bailey Branch to Hull-Oakes was the topic of a well-written article in Trains magazine (February 1989). One of the interesting items is that the outbound crew shoved the entire train caboose-first up the branch to the mill (still extant, AFAIK) as there is no runaround track.

 

The Bailey Branch be a simple layout to model: one SP SD-9 would be the motive power, and nothing quite says railroading in Western Oregon like an SP SD-9 on a backwoods branch!

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Thanks guys,

 

looking at the mud I do think it needs a wash to bring out the detail, I have nice burnt umber color that should do the job.

 

I do need to do something with the back drop, I like the idea of the digital photo back drop, but I will need to see what I can find on the internet as I do not have access to real thing!

 

Thanks for the tips Ozexpatriate, from your location you are the local expert!

 

signalmaintainer, there ares ome great videos of the mill be switched on youtube, I have complicated the track plan to give me a bit more interest for operation.

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Let me go through my slides and see if I have some good Oregon Mountain and Tree photos. I grew up in Eugene Oregon but only visited Hull Oaks only once. I did chase the P&W out there one day at times I could have walked faster then the train. They made it to the mill and part way back and then derailed, this was the main reason they had the cabooose so whne they derailed they still could bring the locomotive and some of the cars back to Corvallis.

 

Also not to be astickler but the woodchip hopper youhave spotted up is a southern United Stated Prototype. I have only seen them in use in Oregon for a very short amount of time. They were used by the Central Oregon & Pacific but they discovered, the hard way, that these cars were not suited for the typs of woodchips they were producing. After around a dozen of these cars tipped over they were all put in storage and eventually sold off.

 

Be Wise Beware Be Safe

 

"Mountain Goat" Greg

 

 

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Let me go through my slides and see if I have some good Oregon Mountain and Tree photos. I grew up in Eugene Oregon but only visited Hull Oaks only once. I did chase the P&W out there one day at times I could have walked faster then the train. They made it to the mill and part way back and then derailed, this was the main reason they had the cabooose so whne they derailed they still could bring the locomotive and some of the cars back to Corvallis.

 

Also not to be astickler but the woodchip hopper youhave spotted up is a southern United Stated Prototype. I have only seen them in use in Oregon for a very short amount of time. They were used by the Central Oregon & Pacific but they discovered, the hard way, that these cars were not suited for the typs of woodchips they were producing. After around a dozen of these cars tipped over they were all put in storage and eventually sold off.

 

Be Wise Beware Be Safe

 

"Mountain Goat" Greg

 

If you have some images that would be great.

 

I have only got one of those cars, my other cars I have the more traditional gondola type cars, being in the UK it can be difficult to source some US type cars and at the moment for some reason no one seems to have woodship cars in stock. I am hoping that I will have one of the Exact Rail Woodchip cars in the new year, depends if Model Junction can get one for me.

 

But thank you for the advice, one day I might get to go to Oregon, but it is long way on plane for me!

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If you have some images that would be great.

 

I have only got one of those cars, my other cars I have the more traditional gondola type cars, being in the UK it can be difficult to source some US type cars and at the moment for some reason no one seems to have woodship cars in stock. I am hoping that I will have one of the Exact Rail Woodchip cars in the new year, depends if Model Junction can get one for me.

 

But thank you for the advice, one day I might get to go to Oregon, but it is long way on plane for me!

 

I googled Oak Hull and found some very good sights with pictures, the terrain is hill (not big ones) covered in forest. very green. I will look for the link.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a quick update.

 

Due to a bit of a move around at home I have got to swap the layout into another room.

 

The plus side is the room is bit bigger, the down side is the walls are not as long so I have got cut the main scenic part down by 12 inches and swap the fiddle yard to the other end of the layout.

 

This is not going to be easy but it does mean I can make the fiddle yard longer.

 

Where did I leave the jigsaw!?

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I assume that you have done some web browsing - but in case you haven't:

 

There are nice pictures of Hull Oakes sawmill here and some less interesting pictures here. The first link has a nice view of the end of the valley. The Hull-Oakes mill is in the foothills of the eastern side of the coast range - it is some way northwest of the small town of Monroe.

 

This link defines the sizes of the logs that Hull-Oakes purchases.

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This is looking good.

I am edging towards starting my own Hull-Oakes mill inspired layout but mine will in P87.

My sketch of the concept is on yet another one of my layout building blogs here http://protocrastinator.blogspot.com/2010/01/another-plan.html

I'd seen Mike Confalones layout in GMR 2010 and was curious about trying out his mud method for the ground cover as I'm not entirely convinced.

But you seem to have it sorted out. I also like his method for recreating piles of dirty melting snow.

Ian

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This is looking good.

I am edging towards starting my own Hull-Oakes mill inspired layout but mine will in P87.

My sketch of the concept is on yet another one of my layout building blogs here http://protocrastinator.blogspot.com/2010/01/another-plan.html

I'd seen Mike Confalones layout in GMR 2010 and was curious about trying out his mud method for the ground cover as I'm not entirely convinced.

But you seem to have it sorted out. I also like his method for recreating piles of dirty melting snow.

Ian

 

The trick with the mud is to make sure you have filtered/sieved the dirt so it is very fine, I bought some top soil as it was sterilised, did not fancy some of the stuff in my garden on the layout!

 

The stuff in the picture is take 2, the first time the dirt was not fine enough, I ended up destroying a HO digger putting the tracks in the mud!

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Following tips in Great Model Railroads 2010 from Mike Confalone, I have made my mud using real dirt, PVA, Paint.

That was exactly the article that came to my mind as I looked at this thread !!

In fact, I mistook the first picture of that article for a picture of a real location, the first time I saw it - an awesomely realistic layout indeed, especially the piles of melting snow..!!

 

Not my particular "thing" for US outline, but this layout will still be one to watch!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sadley this layout is not going to see the light of day, the move around at home means that I can't really work the exsisting layout into the new space in a form I am happy with.

 

So this wil be be broken down for parts.

 

It has been a very useful learning experence and chance to try out some new methods.

 

The new layout will be 8' by 2' on 2 boards and will be able to taken to shows as opposed to this one which is built in.

 

Back to the start again!

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Sadley this layout is not going to see the light of day, the move around at home means that I can't really work the exsisting layout into the new space in a form I am happy with.

 

So this wil be be broken down for parts.

 

It has been a very useful learning experence and chance to try out some new methods.

 

The new layout will be 8' by 2' on 2 boards and will be able to taken to shows as opposed to this one which is built in.

 

Back to the start again!

 

Thats too bad.

Good luck with the next project!

Ian

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