It's all in the Mill

Hi Everybody,

In the photo below you will see that I have rail down up to end of the ties. The last outside rail is only located for now as I will have to take it out to finish the roadbed up to the switch that leads to the coal trestle.

I've ordered another #6 switch kit from Red Cliff Miniatures. With the switch at the bottom of the grade being half in the road which includes the frog and guard rails, it is a shame that the detail can't be seen. The guard rails has a "C" style clamp which slides on to the rail and holds the guard rail in place. To save money, the railroad kept all of the mill sidings original rails intact. The mainline will be located right on the right side edge of the photo. The coal trestle will be located were the jars are.

And now a little back ground on the mill model. Here are a couple of photos showing it in place on Phil's O Scale railroad just before we removed it to bring it to my house.

The top photo shows most of the mill. Those buildings in front of the mill will be going back in after I get some foam in place. You can see Phil's coal trestle in the right fore ground. The prototype mill had the coal trestle located on the farside of the mill. It branched off the siding coming down to street level via curved switch located far up the siding. One of the problems with modeling this mill is that the siding came down from the railroad from the left as opposed to the right as Phil has in the lower photo. Both Phil and I have had the same problem modeling the mill.

Anyhow, in the background of the lower photo you can see a warehouse building. The prototype was located up on the railroad  and would be a mirror image of the model. And so because I had to rearrange  the mill from what Phil had I'm not able to use the warehouse building. At lest not here.

I've gotten back to working on the RS-2. There's more body work to do. That light at the end of the tunnel sure is awfully bright.

See ya next time.

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Hi Everybody,

I had to take some time off from the railroad for a while, but lately the stirrings to get back to it have been getting stronger. Two weeks ago, Mother Nature threw some of her nasty at the Northeast in the form of a very early snow event. My Power went out around 10:00 Saturday night. There sure isn't much to do when there is no electricity. Coming home from my sisters Wednesday night I could see that lights were again on, on my street. My power was back on and so was the heat. During a lot of the time I spent thinking about the railroad, so last week end I started the long over due track laying.

I started with the two sidings at the Mill first. This weekend I tackled the switch.

I still have to finish cleaning up the points and the head and back bars. The rail is code 100 from Right-O-Way. The #6 bolted frog, guard rails and points are Red Cliff Miniatures castings. The unfinished ties is the location of the street that comes out from between the two buildings. Its a good thing that all those ties will be buried, fore the front siding leaving the switch, the ties weren't laid in place very well. The problem comes from the wrong number of the different length ties at the frog end. Seeing the tie pattern, I can correct it on all further switches. I'll also be locating the switch ties first from now on.

Now with track being laid, there is the insentive to get busy and build some rolling stock, finish the RS-2, get the DCC installed on the layout, get the lighting up and working. Yup, lots to do.

See ya next time.