Starbird's Mill
Milepost 12.1
There was a massive mill complex, owned by Raymond Starbird, situated on the old Franklin & Megantic, a short distance north of Strong. I made no attempt to model the facilities prototypically, but instead relied on the "McCabe Planing Shed" kit from B.T.S. Structures. The tracks curving around to the left are dropping downgrade, and headed for Strong.
A few more images of the mill complex. If you look at the right-hand side of the left image, you can see the plexiglass barrier (useful for ensuring that wayward elbows do not bump into trains), a small portion of green fascia, on the opposite side of the aisle, and beyond that a portion of the lower yard at Farmington, with portions of narrow-gauge and standard-gauge freight cars just visible. The aisle here is by far the narrowest on the entire layout, so this is obviously where visitors congregate!
A photo of the opposite end of the mill complex -- tracks just barely visible through the open shed are headed for Salem and Kingfield, to the right is Strong. Note the piece of 2x2 and PVC door stop material visible behind the top of the water tank. This will eventually be the bridge located north of Kingfield (which will be in the room behind the right-hand wall, above Strong). To the upper left (above the top of the pine tree) will be Carabasset, with tracks curving around behind the photographer (me) to terminate at Bigelow, located on the upper level more-or-less above the Box Shop Crossing. Someday . . .
A closeup of the company photographer at work -- note that the sign sets sets the date for the operating sessions! If you look closely at the tall man in the red shirt, standing fourth on the left, I really think that he looks like the photo of Elliott Steward, on page 6 of Sunset on the Sandy River.
Leaving Starbird's Mill behind, the F&M heads to a small (single-track) staging yard, located above the hole in the wall that takes the main stem of the SR&RL into Strong -- note the single red dot above the hole, alerting operators to the proper signal indication that will allow them to enter Strong. Long caboose 553 is scratchbuilt.
Eventually, there will be a lifting section across the doorway that will take the F&M up to the second level, first to Salem and then to Kingfield. Note that the south end of Strong is located behind the right-hand wall, on which the staging yard is mounted. To the left, you can see the doorway leading into the "Strong" room. On either side are the linear actuator motors that raise and lower the lifting section (a portion of which, in the raised position, is visible at the extreme upper-left-hand corner of the photo). On the wall to the far left are my National Model Railroad Association Achievement Program certificates and Master Model Railroader #630 plaque (sorry to brag!) Seriously, the NMRA Achievement Program is a great way to challenge yourself and build new skills.
