TAKE A PHOTO TOUR OF THE LAYOUT, showing the major points AT FERNWOOD, MAGNOLIA,and THE LOGGING CAMP, and points in between..
There are eleven pictures. Click on any of them to see a larger view.
1 of 11. The layout tour begins at the yard in the mill town of Fernwood, MS, with the turntable ( a Backwoods Miniatures kit) in the foreground. Logs are brought here from the logging camp, and empty logging cars are sent back. The layout also supports some commercial freight and other traffic. The engine facility has a water tower, wood rick, sand house and ash pit, and a small shop in addition to the turntable.
2 of 11. As we leave the yard, we pass the small Railway Express office mid-scenne, with the Illinois Central transfer freight house to the left. This building serves a standard gauge Illinois Central track in the rear, and the narrow gauge FLC track in front. It facilitates FLC shipments to and from the standard gauge world.
3 of 11. Leaving Fernwood, we can see an Illinois Central standard gauge boxcar as it is being loaded from the freight house dock. Just to the left of this is the virtual end of Fernwood and the virtual beginning of Camp 2. No Fernwood traffic would proceed left from here; it would all go the opposite direction to Magnolia, and from there to Camp 2. A loaded log train is in the foreground, ready to depart left to Magnolia and on to Fernwood.
4 of 11. Here at Camp 2 we can see a pair of oxen which have come in from the cuttingoperation, bringing the felled logs in on "big wheels" to the railhead for transport to the sawmill at Fernwood. Off to the left, out of site, is a stock pen and loading chute, where the draft animals are cycled in and out, and meat cattle are brought in for the woods crews.
5 of 11. In the upper right in this scene is the freight house at the camp. this was built from plans for the actual building on the real Fernwood Lumber Company Railroad. To the left is a blacksmith shop, which rents goats as a sideline, You can see a few of them in this and the next shot. A mule trader's corral is in the back between the two.
6 of 11. Almost to Magnolia now, we pass the goat yard at the blacksmith shop, and a hobo camp to the left.
7 of 11. Entering Magnolia, we pass one of three turntables on the layout. This one is converted from an Atlas HO model. The other two are kits. The engine facility in Magnolia is sparse: just three tracks, with a water tower and wood rick.
8 of 11. Magnolia is the mid-point between the logging camp and the sawmill at Fernwood. It has a few small residences (shacks), businesses and a passing track, in addition to the small engine facility.
9 of 11. The most imposing structure in Magnolia is the box company, which receives rough and dimensional lumber from the sawmill at Fernwood and ships out boxes and pallets. An auto repair shop and "Miss Kitty's," a pet shop, are in the background.
10 of 11. The United Package Service (UPS) is tucked away behind the tree. It provicdes a service similar to Railway Express for LTL (Less Than carLoad) shipping. Here is the boundary between Magnolia and Fernwood, with the log pond for the Fernwood Lumber Company sawmill in the picture to the left. A steam log loader is visible behind the tree.
11 of 11. As we leave Magnolia and approach Fernwood, we pass Bayou Bon Temp, with the bayou barely visible to the left, and the Bon Temp Farmers' Co-op lower left. This used to be a siding in better times, but the switch was pulled, and now occassional farm goods are loaded on a hand car and trailer on the remains of the spur to flag passing reefers.The next stop would be in the Fernwood yard, as seen in picture 1.
