LANGTOWN

Langtown is the wellspring from which the lumber industry on my SR&RL Railroad flows.  It was a huge logging operation in real life, and it's the main source of logs on my layout.  The track plan is about as exact as the plan from the real railroad survey as you can get on a layout. 

Langtown was up on the old Eustis Branch, not far from Eustis Junction.  It had it's own rail yard, full camp facilities, and sent millions of board feet down the line.  I used my usual foam base, covered in plaster cloth, but to fill the contour, I decided to try Gypsolite for the first time.  I don't care for it, and won't use it again after I'm done with this container.

I want to display as many aspects of the logging industry from my homeland as I can on the layout, so I'll be incorporating a spar tree, steam derrick, logging arches, steam skidders, and as many other aspects of how it was done in the day as I can here.  Above is the beginning of lotsssssssss of molding of stumps and pulpwood piles for Langtown.  The latex molds are home-made using a couple of different brands of commercial log piles and stumps to make the molds with.
  To the left is the diagram for the spar tree model that will be in place for lifting and moving logs.

 I learned on Rangeley that bending masonite for curved backgrounds really is the way to go, and did the same for Langtown.  I had to move the lightswitch off the wall for the module, and did curves at both ends to do this backdrop.  To the right you can see the 1/4" plywood I'm using on the back sides of the backdrops where needed.

To the left you can see the re-positioned light switch on the back of Langtown, and how nice the A grade plywood and skirting look.  This will be covered with framed original documents and whatnot from the railroad.  Above the photo backdrop, again from Train Junkies, unrolled to see how it looks.

The backdrop is now glue-sticked in place, and the hill curved and trimmed so that there is a 1" gap between the hill and the photo, to help provide depth to the finished scene.  Structures and whatnot are placed temporarily to help develop the scene.  To the right, the backdrop curves all the way around out of Langtown and into Eustis Junction.

The layout will have the control panel for Langtown under the left end of the Langtown Yard, and the Rangeley control panel will be under the Rangeley yard at the left end of that module.  Leg space is provided underneath, so that two people can operate the yards at the same time without interfering with each other. 

Beginning the process of filling out the woods and stump fields at Langtown.  I knew it would take many, many trees, stumps and logs to build this layout, and one of the smartest things I've done so far is make latex rubber stump molds for mass-producing stumps with resin. 

 For now, so that I can enjoy some of my original stuff now instead of thinking about it in folders, I've put many of my documents in document sleeves and taped them onto the display wall of Langtown.  The two buildings in the right photo are the bunkhouse and cookhouse. 

I'll make another page for Eustis Junction when the time comes, but for now, to finish developing ideas for Langtown, I did a little bit of preliminary work on Eustis Junction to mentally blend the "seam" between the two.  To the right, the logging roads have been added, and the rough work on the blacksmith shop done to figure that into the camp.

The Langtown spur left the main line at Coplin Junction, and the main line continued on to Greene's Farm.  I don't have the space to continue the main line, but managed to plan and fit in a spur with two tracks, shown below, with enough space to stage four more pulp racks or flats full of lumber as a source for traffic to the mills.

Several days worth of stump casting, pulpwood pile casting, log cutting, and painting took place, with each batch being absorbed at a furious pace, and another demand for yet more.    The operation is really starting to take shape.  I decided to do most of the scenery first on this module, as there were some track mishaps at Rangeley while doing scenery.

None of the trees are glued down, so all the trees on the aisle side of the module will be pulled out while the track is laid, and can be removed later for detailed track maintenance or repairs.  Below you can see a log rollover like the types used at Camp #6.  To the right is a hunting cabin, which is technically on the Eustis Junction module, but hey.

Above is the entrance to the Langtown camp.  The foreground hill is an experiment with scenery blocks.  By having to look down into the valley as the train rounds the curve and goes under the log rollover, it completely isolates you from the adjoining module, helping create the effect of trains "coming from somewhere" when they arrive, and "going somewhere" when they leave.  To the right is a bad idea to cram an engine house into Langtown. There wasn't one anyway. 

Above is a curve leaving Langtown which is to the left, going through a cut, and heading off toward Coplin Junction which is off to the right.  You can see lumberjacks dressing and cutting logs in amongst the stump fields.  

I see lots of steam skidders on layouts as loads on flat cars, but haven't seen one yet actually skidding logs.  So here it is.  The large cable spool had the heavy cable that was paid out for hauling logs out of the woods (skidding them).  The cable could hook directly to a chain on the log....

…. or use a block and tackle like I've used here.  The smaller cable drum had a lighter cable, and this was called a "cable mule".  This was paid out, and run through a block (pulley) attached to a stout tree at the top of the run (the path the logs were being skidded down).

This was then attached to the chain or hook, and as the log was pulled out of the woods, the cable mule was let out.  Once the log was out of the woods and detached, the cable mule was then engaged to pull the skidding cable back up the hill for the next log. The small building is the camp tool shed.

This is the camp cookhouse.  The camp cook is Augusta "Gusty" Merrill, my great-grandmother.  She was my great-grandmother on my mother's side, and my mother remembers her fondly.  She was a cook at one of the logging camps somewhere around Rumford, but my mother doesn't remember which one.

There were strict rules for eating in the logging camps, such as no talking at the tables, get in, eat and get out, etc.  That's Gusty standing in the doorway with the basket, and she doesn't tolerate MUD in her establishment! 
  The blacksmith shop, below, was a critical part of any large logging camp.

At this point in time, most logging is done using oxen and horses.  Horses need shoes, harness and tack needs constant maintenance, wheels need repairs, and tools and machinery need maintenance.  In those days, tools weren't thrown away, and everything was repaired

Axes and saw blades needed constant sharpening.  Without a blacksmith, everything would grind to a halt in days, and the breakdown of a major piece of equipment could bring everything to an immediate stop.  My blacksmith, hammer in hand, is contemplating how best to re-shoe Mr. Ed, because Mr. Ed likes to kick.