So I got that WS sawmill. I have no idea what they were thinking. It's way too small for HO, and the only 'giveaway' is the height of the dogs on the carriage levers. But other than that, it's N scale to my eyes for a 'normal' 8' increment softwood log (16, 24, 32 foot long and a little over). My Nn3 logs are cut to 16'. That sets the layout of the entire sawmill. My N ones are longer.
But your modeling leaves out an important issue. THOSE ARE TERRIBLE METAL CASTINGS. Full of flash, bent, and a little crude. I look at them and what you did with them and have to once again, go 'wow'.....
Here's one other thing about that sawmill. I consider myself a borderline expert on logging and equipment in PA, and have the entire set of PA logging history books as published by Kline, Tabor, and Casler. Covers every known mill in the entire state, and I was one of the contributors. My father was a lumberman, president of the National Hardwood Lumber association in the 60's. Sawdust in my veins.
Small mills weren't uncommon, but I was really surprised how few DIDN'T have a log pond. It was a matter of being able to sort the logs by specie, and get the dirt off them so that it didn't dull the saws. Absurdly small ponds in some cases, and piles of logs beside the track that hadn't been dumped in the pond, but in looking through the books, I identified fewer than six operations ever in the state that had oddball situations without a pond. So it happened, but wow, not very darn often. So I'm back to the drawing board on trying to come up with a small pond spot on mine. I found one with a tiny pond that also featured ground piles, like that.
The JV models kit....well, not impressed with the plans either. Yikes, thanks for the heads up. Now, while the front-end of a log to a carriage to a saw, that's only the start. The planks that come off a saw aren't usable. They have to go through a resaw to width, and usually a trimmer deck to cut to length. Minimum. The secret to production is to minimize the carriage cuts and pass it through to secondary cutting.
There are a couple exceptions - I found a couple prop-timber mills in the eastern part of the state (mining) that basically just squared up small logs and threw them out the other end for mine props. And my own mill, Wheeler & Dusenbury (where my Dad started) was cutting 120' ship masts out of white pine with three carriages tied together on a temporary trestle out over the pond, squared up white pine logs, and shot them out the back of the mill direct to multiple flatcar loading. And they did it as late as 1925. Luckily, hanging on to prime virgin white pine stands to the bitter end saved small stands of virgin white pine in PA that are still there today.
Oh, and on the static grass. I have silfor. I've used it successfully ONCE, unsuccessfully about five times. I still question my adhesive, and certainly my application method hardware. There's more to this that just the 'right grass'. Yours is just outstanding.
