Hi everyone! I finally got the construction mess cleared up enough to shoot a few photos of the progress. Johnny, very glad you stopped by and hope to see more of you. Sit down and have yourself a cup of coffee with a jelly filled donut while I try to find myself. If you run across me, please tell me to come home.
In the first photo, a Walthers curved turnout was installed in allow the mainline from the tunnel to join directly into the already installed reversing loop. This eliminated having an outer main and allowed a section of it to become the lead to the mill.
I installed this crossover for the coal haul from the tunnel to cross over to the lead into the mill. The Class A will come into the lead and back its hoppers to a receiving track at the mill. It will then come out and make a reversing loop back to the crossover. The mill switcher now has empties waiting w/caboose set in the right direction for a return to the mine.
This is a view of the throat leading into the mill. All the turnouts in view are #5 Walthers Shinohara. The upper far left siding will be an unloading station for fuel oil. Notice that in all the photos, I am not using any kind of roadbed. Instead the track is nailed directly to the plywood. The reason is to allow the tracks to be almost ground level and to be even with the buildings. The transition from roadbed to plywood was accomplished by using cedar shims bought at Lowes. With a little sanding, they are ideal and long enough to make the smooth reduction in height.
Photo showing all the sidings. The buildings in the front are borrowed from other scenes and will be replaced by some I will build custom designed for their use (office, parts/supply/maintenance shops, blower/boiler house).
An overall view of the mill and approximately how it will look. As you can see, I have a lot work to do in the detailing department and I still have to hook up the lights and track power drop downs.
...to be con't.
