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or motorized wheel barrows are kitbashed HO quarry trucksfrom Walthers.While we were prospecting around we decided to continueup to a level area called Kettle Flats. What did we find? Timberand lots of it, a perfect location for sawmill, and a three trackyard and later on, a retort for railroad ties. There wasn’t anywater available for business so we would have to bring it in byrail, in water cars like The Uintah RY used not far from there inMack, Colorado.The Thompson Creek Tie and Timber Saw Mill shown inPhoto 3 are very small as saw mills go. It is the only kit out ofsixty plus structures on the layout. The kit is over ten years old35and I don’t remember the manufacturer. I kitbashed it by puttingan office on the roof. This type of mill has no need for alogging pond as the mill manufactures heavy timbers for tunnels,mines and railroad ties. Sawdust is either burned in theboiler that powers the big saw, or in the thirty-five foot sawdustburner at the rear of the building.The pressure treating vessel (retort) is fifty foot long, eightfoot wide steel tube fitted with a two foot gauge track inside(Photos 4-5). This receives several cars loaded with untreatedties. After treatment the ties are removed and stacked under thegantry crane for loading on special scratchbuilt bulkhead flatcars. The boiler for the retort is used to heat the water for steamthat operates the small turbine used for lighting throughout thecomplex. It also operates the pump house used to pump creosoteto the storage tanks. Water is pumped from the cistern tothe elevated tank for use in the saw mill and retort boilers.4The real Aspen & Western didn’t have a town or villagealong its right-of-way, but my version does. A lady friend ofours was instrumental in tracking a pail full of gilsonite from amine in Utah for me. I had modeled the Uintah RY for someyears in HO, and having some of the ore from the originalarea was like having a pot of gold. In appreciation, I just had tohave a village named after Ellen.The town of Ellen measures four feet by eighteen inches,with the railway running behind the village, and a walkwayin front. This was a large challenge for me. Ten structures, allcommercial, were scratchbuilt from Evergreen styrene, withGrandt Line windows. Handmade interiors and lighting wereinstalled in each building. Photo 6 portrays only the commercialpart of town, the residential part being off layout.6Horse Shoe Bend on Thompson Creek is a very small pieceof real estate that the Aspen and Western crosses leading toWillow Park (Photo 7). Originally a house occupied the spot.One of the two structures there now is the P. Meyer Drayageand Storage building named for a departed neighbor I thoughtvery highly of. Parked in front is a dray wagon I built fromplans provided by Precision Scale Company’s plan book #5Wagons by Al Armitage. Next to the drayage building is anassay office that also sells different mineral specimens whichare scattered about outside the structure.Willow Park Engine Terminal has a 56 foot turntable, a twostall enginehouse and an attached boiler house and machineshop. The engine terminal buildings are constructed of styreneand covered with brick paper. (Photos 8-9.)July/Aug ’09 - O Scale Trains • 5