The links below are to snapshots of the layout and trains running on the layout.

This shows a high level view of the layout.
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This shows another high level view of the layout.
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This shows the layout looking over the porthole that was visible in some of the previous images. Note the cemetery on the hill, the stream running along the tracks from left to right, the bunkhouses on the porthole cover, and the log cabin in the background, complete with a corral and garden.
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This picture shows a view of part of the layout as seen looking over the cemetery.
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This is a closeup looking over the finished porthole cover.
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This is a closeup of the log cabin, corral, and garden.
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This is a closeup of the log cabin and corral. As purchased, the log cabin and corral were a uniform brown color that looked very "plastic." I added white paint to represent chinking between the logs on the cabin and touched up both the corral and cabin with gray weathering to make them look more real. I also painted the "plastic" chimney various colors to represent a stone chimney.
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This is the garden. Note the deer eating the produce. Also note the hunter in front of the cabin. Thanks to James VandenBerg of Michigan, who saw an earlier version without the hunter, noticed my note that I was looking for a properly scaled hunter to put in front of the cabin, and sent me this hunter.
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These two buildings represent the village on the layout. On the left is the general store. The building on the right is "Sully's Tavern." Note the light on in the windows on the lower floor of Sully's Tavern.
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This is another view of the two buildings that make up the village. Note the stream that runs beside the tracks on the left in the picture.
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This is a picture of the general store in the village with a couple sitting on the bench in front of the store.
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The buildings inside the circle are the logging camp. You can see that the rail shed is lit. In the foreground is a loading dock with a hoist. Note the outhouse beside the rail shed. The cars from the logging train in the foreground go under the hoist.
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This is another view of the logging camp. Note that the machine shop attached to the rail shed is still being roofed and that a roll of tar paper is partially unrolled on the roof. You can see the light inside the rail shed.
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This is another view of the logging camp. Note that the machine shop attached to the rail shed is still being roofed and that a roll of tar paper is partially unrolled on the roof. You can see the light inside the rail shed.
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This is a closeup of some of the buildings in the logging camp. You can see the water tank and the pipe running from it to the cook house. Note the ladders against the water tank and the machine shop attached to the rail shed.
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This is another view of the logging camp. Note again that the machine shop attached to the rail shed is still being roofed and that a roll of tar paper is partially unrolled on the roof.
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This is a view down the track of the back of some of the buildings in the logging camp and the saw mill on the far right. Note the stream that comes in from the right, goes under the track and then follows the track until it meets and goes under another piece of track at the lower left. Also note the buck jumping away from the camera on the far right of the picture.
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This is a view where rails cross in the figure eight on the layout with the stream alongside the tracks. Note the father and son fishing on the bridge over the stream.
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This shows the saw mill and mill pond in the distance looking over the back of the logging camp.
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This shows the saw mill and the mill pond. Note the logs floating in the pond waiting to be sent to the saw.
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Another view of the saw mill. Note the workers handling the lumber and the stack of lumber on the ground to right of the building. Also note the pile of sawdust behind the building.
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This is another view of the saw mill. Note the weathered roof.
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This is another view of the saw mill through the trees on a "hill" overlooking the logging camp and saw mill.
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This picture shows the saw mill on the left with the Shay locomotive parked beside the mill.
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This picture shows a close up of the saw mill with men working in the mill.
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This picture shows another close up of the saw mill with men working in the mill.
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This picture shows another close up of the saw mill with the An Arbor Railroad locomotive parked behind it.
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This is a closeup of the mill pond with the logs waiting to be drawn up into the mill. You can see a mother bear and her cub on the banks of the pond in the right foreground.
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This is a view of the pond into which logs are floated before being fed into the saw mill. Note the boy laying down on the bank of the pond and fishing. He is on the left front of the pond. Also note the mother bear and cubs just to the right of the railroad bridge over the stream.
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This is another view of the scenery.
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This is another view of the "hill" that overlooks the saw mill and logging camp. You can see another mother bear and two cubs on the hill on the left. A little harder to see are a deer on the right lying near one of the stumps and the buck jumping off the top of the hill.
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This is a view of the layout looking out over some of the train cars in the logging train and a freight train.
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This is another part of the scenery and shows the stream exiting the layout when it goes under the outside loop of track.
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This is a picture of my Michigan Logging Wheels or Big Wheels, which I made. Michigan Logging Wheels were invented by a farmer who lived near Manistee, Michigan, which is about 50 miles west of where I grew up near Cadilac, Michigan. I remember seeing them at holiday celebrations when I was young. I understand there is a set of Michigan Logging Wheels in a park in Manton, Michigan, which is about ten miles north of Cadillac.
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In keeping with the logging theme, I created a Paul Bunyan Park. Babe, the Blue Ox, was purchased from Toys "я" Us and was originally brown. Paul Bunyan is a model lumberjack from a larger scale train.
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This is another image of Paul Bunyan Park.
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This is another image of Paul Bunyan Park.
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This is a closeup of the Shay locomotive. As noted in the introduction, I had to buy a Shay locomotive because Ephraim Shay invented the locomotive within about two miles of where I grew up. The unique thing about the Shay was the vertical pistons instead of the normal horizontal pistons, and the unique power shafts to the articulated wheels in both the front and back of the locomotive. The gearing of the locomotive and the unique, articulated drive train made it possible to pull trains of heavily loaded logging cars up steeper hills and around sharper curves than other locomotives available at the time. This Shay locomotive is one of the later designs. There is an early Shay in the city park in Cadillac, Michigan, which is the nearest town to where Shay invented the locomotive. As a kid growing up near where Shay invented the locomotive, I never knew about the locomotive. However, I was well aware of the logging history of the area and was aware of old logging road beds in the area. Even today I can spot in satellite imagery an old railroad road bed running from the southeast to the northwest, crossing the Boon Road about a half mile east of where I grew up. I can't help thinking that Shay locomotives were used on that line.
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This is a closeup of my Ann Arbor Railroad locomotive. When I discovered that Lionel had made an Ann Arbor diesel locomotive, I had to have one, for two reasons. First, at least three of my uncles worked on the line. My uncle Lee Scarbrough worked on the Ann Arbor Railroad for many years, probably his whole career. And Uncles Wilbur and Harlan Nixon also worked on the line when they were young according to one of Uncle Wilbur's daughters. Second, the Ann Arbor Railroad line ran about a mile east of where I grew up and had a spur that ran about a mile south of where I grew up. Lee Scarbrough was the husband of Florence "Irene" Holly Scarbrough, who was my mother's half sister. Uncles Wilbur and Harlan Nixon were Mother's brothers.
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