I scratched out a track diagram, and am posting it here. Due to our long and painful experience, Tom and I are following the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) here; The track we are hand laying (everything between the switch off the passing siding, the backdrop and the crossing that leads to the coal mine) is having gentile curves and #6 switches.
We don't have much depth to work with, and the log pond is taking up most of that. When I first started working with this area there was a hideously malformed lump of mountain that filled the space from the upper deck to the passing siding. In order to get space for a big sawmill, I tore out the mountain and installed a backdrop to get the room for a scene . To get room for proper operation, the loading docks are off scene, behind the back drop. We are going to try to hide where the track goes through the backdrop behind stacks of drying stacks and perhaps an elevated tram for green lumber handling . I likewise am putting in a long storage track for empty log cars, also behind the backdrop. Due to the angle of the backdrop, and the proximity to the creek that feeds the log pond. I'm thinking that I'll run the storage track through a building flat representing the car shops. Not a ideal solution , but better than a viable hole in the back drop.
The sawmill and planing mill , and powerhouse will be represented with narrow flats on the backdrop, with the burner and most of the drying stacks painted on the backdrop. If we can pull this off, we will have the look of a big sawmill, and with the hidden tracks we will hopefully be able to deliver big log trains, and have enough to to pull long trains of lumber out of the mill.
This is a minimalist plan, I don't have any engine or car facilities , a rip track, a track for machinery delivery. the only extra I have is the Company store/Office/warehouse. The one on my own railroad in Crooked Creek has been very useful operationally both as a delivery location for boxcars, and also a place to pick up boxcars of supplies for the log camps.
I really like the way I have used the sawmill track to access the coal mine at the wall side of the peninsula. this will help keep the mill switcher busy, if we have a dedicated mill switcher. the whole complex uses #6 switches and gentle curves; the plan is to make the track work bulletproof, so that big trains can be built up or delivered here without undue hastle.
Before I started on the sawmill itself I did a whole lot of work to the mainline at this end of the club, to get it more reliable. It is a lot more fun when everything stays on the track, and a derailment is an unusual occurrence.
Bill Nelson