Click on the trackplan for a larger version
The visible part of this small layout is 55 cm x 174 cm (22" x 68") with a two track sector plate hidden behind a door. Think of it as a photo stage with a bit of animation.
The key to
making a reasonably credible layout in a small space is to focus on a specific
part of a rail operation. If I try to represent too many aspects of a logging
operation, each part will be shrunk to a Disneyland caricature. Inspired by Tom
Beaton´s “Broak & Kantifordit” I have focused on the maintenance yard of a
small logging camp. This gives me a reason to display a variety of funky logging
equipment, which is my main modeling interest. Housing, mess hall etc, along
with the log dump, are located off scene, east of the boat landing.
I love the
primitive equipment used by early loggers, along with the sternwheel steamboats
used to develop the Pacific northwest, so my logging camp is located on a river
bank somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, around 1880-1900. The loggers have exhausted the lumber within
easy reach of the shore, and built a small narrow gauge railroad to reach
farther. Regular railroad service is still in the future, so the logging
operation's only connection with the outside world is by water.
Supplies
for the logging operation and its crew are brought to the landing by steamboat.
Logs are dumped into the river, and bundled into log rafts which are towed
to a sawmill on the Pacific coast,
Finished lumber will be loaded on ocean-going lumber schooners for the booming
economy of California.
I am
considering to use a simplified form of link-and-pin couplers described by
Harold Minky. Rolling stock is equipped with L&P coupler sockets, but for
normal operations, I would couple equipment with a simple U-shaped wire staple.
Proper links and pins can be added for display and photos.
