Yesterday I finally began laying track on my layout. This morning I hooked up the DCC and promptly got a short. A little research and I found the problem and I was able to run a locomotive. Only about 8 feet but I met my goal and ran a train before Thanksgiving! I got a second 8 feet or so laid as well today and ran two locos at once. Fantastic. I’ve got about 8 feet of main and a nearly equal passing siding. 
I posted on the RRL that one thing I discovered from running the trains is that my perception of the size of my layout has changed. When I got the risers in and was putting down roadbed it all felt a little crowded. But seeing the locomotives running on the track I realized that I’m going to have a lot of room for scenery and enough track for some fairly long trains. I think I was starting to lose perspective 16′ x 11′ is not a small layout. It’s not a big layout but it’s not a small one either.
Posted on November 12th, 2007 by quinn
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10/27/07
I haven’t updated in a while but I’m moving along with it.
In the background you can see across the aisle to where the yard will be. Right now it’s holding my saw and grinder.
Today we picked out where the bridges are going and what types and got those odered. I cut away some of the foam from one of the locations.
I’m at a point where I really have no clue what I’m doing and wishing I knew someone who did know what they were doing to help out! I’m sure I’ll muddle along and get it done. My problem now is I really don’t know what to do next. I suppose I should wire some turnouts and get those laid down.
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by quinn
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From 10/17/07
Now that I’ve got the base in place I’ve moved on the starting the structures that have their feet in the pond. I can see in the photos that I need to touch up a few spots with stain.
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by quinn
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From 10/15/07
The next step was building and installing the dam. It has to be measured against the base since the size depends on how you choose to cut your pond.
Here it is in place where it’s going on my layout. Ignore that mess in the background. Things are getting cluttered and cleaning up is the next thing on my agenda.
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by quinn
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From 10/13/07
I got the base put together today. It was easy enough to do but I really hate working with hot glue. It always sets up long before I want it to.
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by quinn
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I’ve been remiss about updating! Here are a bunch of posts all at once.
I had a question about the layout of the track around the mill and posted it to the RL-
This is the map of the area:
As you can see the track (the curved dashed line) appears to loop around the mill and exit at lower left. Here’s where the mill is going on my layout (obviously roughly drawn!):
My question is do you think it would look ok if the track didn’t loop around the mill and depart but simply ended at the lower left edge of the map where it is shown leaving? It would be difficult to get it looped around and it would end up encroaching on my town. I see logs arriving from the logging area and lumber departing from trains that using use the black or red main that turn into the mill to collect it and then move on to the waterfront or yard to deliver it.
So my shay would go back and forth between the logging area and the mill and a local freight would pick up the lumber at the mill. Does this seem workable?
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by quinn
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I finished the Rough Drying Shed today. I was hoping to have it done by the weekend because the next step is to start laying out the base and you need to have the structures complete to this point to do that.
I wanted to post this first picture because it shows an area where I decided not to follow the directions. Brett has you add the vertical pieces before that top horizontal piece. I’ve found though that I have a hard time keeping the top perfectly straight that way. No matter how careful I am to cut the vertical pieces there always seems to be a bit of wobble when I add the top piece. So now I reverse the order of doing it and I found it much easier to get an exact fit that way.
I was ridiculously happy to see this piece of stripwood with an actual knot hole in it! Way out of scale for HO no doubt but I didn’t care. I used it anyway.
I can’t imagine trying to get this square without these.
Here is the drying shed up against the back of the old mill.
I’m up to page 29 of 120! It’s going faster than I thought it would but I assume things are going to slow down the further along I get.
Posted on October 12th, 2007 by quinn
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I had some time Sunday and yesterday morning before work so I was able to get the boiler house completed.
If I’ve learned one thing from the Railroad Line forum it’s that you can never have too many squares.
It’s just propped against the old mill here:
Posted on October 9th, 2007 by quinn
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Last weekend I made the double crossover:
You make two halves and then solder the two halves together. I’ve got the first half mostly done and I’m really pleased with the way it came out. I had just washed it when I took this photo (with my new Canon XTI!) so it has some water drops on it.
Partially complete in the fixture.
Nearly done. It’s just been washed (again) so it’s wet in this photo.
I can’t recommend the fast tracks fixtures highly enough. Before I started making turnouts I’d never soldered anything in my life. The directions, videos and tools make it possible for someone like me (a total newbie) to make something that’s going to look great on my layout. Now if I can just figure out how to install it I’ll be all set.
Posted on October 6th, 2007 by quinn
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I made a lot of progress this week.
The craft paint looks fine and I’m happy I went with it rather than the solvent.
With the sides done I’ve moved on to the front and back. I’ve been working for an hour or so before work in the morning and then sometimes I get in a little modeling time in the evening as well so while I don’t get a lot done on any given day I’m making steady progress.
I started and finished the siding on the front and back of the old mill.
The lower part of this wall doesn’t use the painted siding because it will not be seen in the end. The drying shed goes up against it.
Here are the two walls with the windows and door openings trimmed out.
I started gluing up the old mill.
I’ll assume most if not all of you are going to pick up on the mistake I have going on here. 
Fortunately the glue hadn’t set up when I finally noticed I’d glued one wall on backwards. I was able to take it apart and redo it in the correct place.
And here is the old mill completed as far as it’s going to be for quite some time.
Brett’s instructions and methods make building a kit this huge very manageable. Taking each step and marking it off and then moving on to the next suits my style of working and reduces everything to much smaller tasks so I don’t feel overwhelmed by the size of everything. As you can see from my photos the templates (and there are a lot of them!) are crystal clear as to where everything goes and in what order.
Next up is the boilerhouse.
Posted on October 6th, 2007 by quinn
Filed under: The Twin Mills | 2 Comments »