A group of Evergreen members decided to take a tour of 2 impressive layouts located on the Northside of Spokane and the first was the "famous" portable On3 layout called the Hangman Valley Lumber Company. It was the hit at the narrow gauge convention in Seattle last year. They got a football team, we have a masterpiece! 
It represents the backwoods scene of logging in the Northwest in the 1930's. This portable layout comes apart in sections and is about 10 feet wide by 28 feet.
It barely fit into a section of home owned by Jess Dozier, one of 4 members of a group that spent almost 2 years in its construction. A permanent location is in the works.
The scenes cover the cutting of the timbers, moving them by rail to a mill, turning them into usable lumber so America could build homes, baseball bats and pianos.
Three locos worked the 2 lines while we were there including this 2 truck Shay with geared wheels to handle rough track and sharp curves, The craftsmanship is impressive!
How do you move logs in the forest? Use a steam donkey on skids to lift the logs onto the flats to move to the mill.
Below the steam donkey are these unuseable logs that did not meet standards. What the workers are doing is beyond my pay grade.
Every scene is a work of art and each tells a story of what it took to make a living in the forest. The detail is awesome... look at the shingles, cans, oil tank, workers doing something to make it all happen. Thank you Jess and Stan for the opportunity to visit the layout.
No comments:
Post a Comment