SW Twin Mills build with a little twist

Dwight

Nejc ,
Absolutely amazing modeling. I'm also building a logging railroad based on an area just 100 mi from my house. It's in south central New Mexico. To use Brett's kit I'm doing something similar to you. Due to space limitations I'm just using the new mill , sorting and loading platforms and boiler and engine house. Seems we both took the instruction manual and disassembled it then put it back together the way we wanted. I'll end up with lots of extras than can be repurposed elsewhere on the layout.
Fun , fun ,
Dwight

NejcR

Thank you both!

Well, it's been a while since my last post. I have and will have very limited amount of time available for modelling in the next few months, but I'll try to post progress as soon as possible...

I managed to finish the belt drive system and lighting - two of the most time consuming parts of the build I guess...

Enough of the words, here are a lot of pictures. First, some general ones:

NejcR

I tried to get the belt drive system as realistic as possible, in terms of HP used also. So I split the power between three steam engines and here's what they're driving - first big engine (~250HP) drives main machinery in the old mill:


You can see how everything is connected. Steam engine drives a shaft with bevel gear, and next shaft drives (respectively): winch for log buggy, main husk in the old mill, overhead log turner and the edger:






Next big steam engine (again ~ 250HP) drives main machinery in the new mill:


Similar system as with the first big steam engine - bevel gears are used to turn shafts 90 degrees:






There are two wheels on this shaft in the new mill, one drives the upper and bottom husk and one log chain drive plus overhead log turner:












Last steam engine (~150HP), smallest of the three, drives all live rolls and both cut off saws. Again, bevel gears are needed, to turn the main shaft:


Old mill cut off saw is driven from the first shaft, the one that is directly driven from the steam engine:




Next, friction cones drive live rolls in the old mill:






The main shaft also drives all remaining live rolls, grinder (with belt drive for the bin) and new mill cut off saw (via bevel gears):

NejcR

And here are some night shots:






















I hope I'll be able to post update as soon as possible

Nejc

KKarns

Brilliant modeling!...nuff said....

brownbr

I like this a lot.

Karl.A

Wow, just ..wow.

Karl.A

nextceo

Very Impressive...as a guy who likes to include lights in my dioramas, well done sir.

admin

Excellent!

KKarns

Noooo...the ? was suppose to be !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...fixed it, see above.

sdrees

That is some damn fine modeling NejcR. And the lighting puts it way over the top.

Wes

As realistic looking as a model can get. WOW

Joel

Beautiful work.

Bill

Superb!! Executed to perfection, Nejc!

NejcR

Wow, models from all of you inspired me through the ages and are still inspiring me of course, so hearing such comments for my work is exceptional.
All I can say is THANK YOU guys

Jerry

Beautiful work!!

Jerry

ironmountainlumber

Wow, the lighting and just the overall feel and execution is superb! Great job.
Jim

KKarns

What Ed said...

sdrees

The LED's available today really add a lot of great effects to a very nice model.

sdrees

But Ed, this model is fantastic and the lights make it even more so.

Karl.A

This kit is incredible.... as is the modelling.

Karl.A

KCSTrains

Nejc, beautiful, beautiful modeling. Forget putting on a roof. People are going to want to see the detail you have created. Phil

NejcR

Ed I know exactly what you mean

Phil, roof will be very ''mobile'' indeed haha

Thanks again to all of you for very inspiring words! Hope to update soon,

best regards from Slovenia, Nejc

NejcR

Hi all!

It's been a while since my last update - I haven't had much time for modelling lately, and even when I had, I wasn't always finishing Twin Mills roof, because some drastic changes regarding my narrow gauge tracks are going to happen. Plus the extend of the roof and the fact, that I had to make it removable as a whole, makes my long forum pause reasonable

Enough talking, here are the pictures of the finished roof:










































Removed roof:








One more shot of the mill:


Next I have to paint all the details (benches, tools, crates etc.), but I intend to do all of them (so for the whole layout) at once - so it will take a while I guess. But before that, I'm going to rebuild all of my tracks

Jerry

Well that is really well done. Excellent coloring.

Jerry

KKarns

Wonderful work and the entire removable roof and the weathering is amazing, so well done.

NejcR

Thanks guys!

NejcR

Two more close up shots of the corrugated roof:

NejcR

I mentioned drastic changes at the beginning of the roof update. If you look at the second, third and fourth picture in this thread, you can see finished tracks. Here's how first module with the sawmill looks like at the moment:


...so I have dismantled all tracks. Reason? I've had a problem with Tillig H0e tracks from the beginning, they were simply too big. Profiles on those tracks are code 70, which is absolutely too big for logging railroads in Slovenia. For example, real profiles on the railroad in Mislinja had width of the head approx. 25mm (T. Brate, Gozdne železnice na Slovenskem), that is 0,3mm in 1:87. That cannot be achieved in this scale of course, but I wanted it to be closer - Tillig profile's width of head is 0,8mm! Not to mention profile hight, which is way too big also.
You can see some pictures of the Mislinja logging railroad on the following link:
https://fototekamnzs.com/2017/10/04/

Fortunately, I found out about Railboys from Austria. They produce H0e tracks that you have to build yourself and have code 55 profiles (width of head a bit less than 0,7mm). I ordered one straight track and one switch an I was amazed...

You can see straight track left and switch on the right (profiles are not pictured):


...but I still had one problem - profiles were still too big. Code 55 is good for some regular passenger narrow gauge railways, but not for logging railroads here in Slovenia.

Let me show you an example of one of the last logging railroads in Europe: Mocanita in Romania. This screenshot:


...is from here:
)

...you can see how small the profiles are and their ''waveness''. I tried to achieve similar weathered effect.
I had to try to build those track with even smaller code 40 profiles in order to achieve what I want. Comparison between profiles (Tillig is left, code 55 (originally with Railboys tracks) is in the middle and code 40 on the right):


All nails, track plates and all switch parts had to be grinded off, because of the smaller profile. A LOT of work, but I'm very happy with the finished product. With grinding of the nails I also achieved it's individualism, because nails for those rails were hand made then, so they were all slightly different.
First let me show you the finished switch from up front, where ''waveness'' can be seen. It's very close to reality on Mocanita:


Pictures of the finished switch and straight part of the track:






Rails in Mislinja were 7 metres long in reality. So I will make around 8cm long parts of the profiles and join them with such joints:


With locomotive:


Comparison between all three tracks. Tillig is at the top, Railboys track with code 55 in the middle (without nails, because it is just for demonstration) and Railboys with code 40 at the bottom:


Difference between code 55 (bottom) and code 40 (top):


...and comparison with Tillig switch and straight track:


I'm posting this here, because those tracks will be a part of the module 1, where Twin mills is located. First on to do list is finishing the track on this module, so this will be next update I guess. Then, as mentioned before, I'll start finishing the details for the sawmill.

That's it for now

Karl.A

Superb attention to detail, and descriptions of the differences, this will set your models apart, (even further).
I can seriously appreciate your work, and love to see it and admire.

Karl.A