I've been spending time trying to locate the structures I do have into logical places on the railroad. Getting water served mills located correctly (so they look right, and fit the layout!) can be a considerable challenge. My admiration for Bob Van Gelder and Dick Elwell's abilities to do this on their railroads has increased ten fold as I try to do the same with mixed success. Short work session yesterday led to determining the logical place to locate Ben Thresher's mill. I like how the model came out, and want to use it on the railroad. I've plopped it down in a number of locations over the past few months, but in the end the most logical place to locate it was between the track and backdrop by the Williams Creek Bridge. Not only does it seem to fit here, it will also give a different look to the scene which has been photographed and featured perhaps a little too much!
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Williams Creek, stripped of its landform, trees,
and even some of the riverbed.
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After determining the best position to place the building, the footprint served as a template to trim a piece of foamboard to fill the somewhat odd-shaped site of the building. The piece of vertical black foamboard is a stand in for the dam. It needs some tweaking but I think the final location looks pretty good. I've included a test shot to show how the various elements will (hopefully) work together.
