# Rooster Creek adds a fantastic new Lumber Mill



## Russell Miller (Jan 3, 2008)

It has been a couple of years since I last visited the incredible Rooster Creek Railway. They held a Bay Area Garden Railway's Open House this past Sunday. Once again I was blown away by the wonderful scratch built buildings and the high level of detail. Many of you might have visited this layout during the 2006 National Convention.
Here are some photos of the large Black Oak Lumber and Mill....Enjoy!


















What is inside that opening???









They even have a detailed Log Pond and Dump.









I like this shot 'cause you can see the size of this complex. Just Amazing!









The log ramp actually works and logs from the pond rise up into the mill.









If you can ever make it up to a Bay Area Garden Railway event and this layout is open...Don't Miss It!
Russ Miller


----------



## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Wow, that's awesome!! Who's layout is that? What are the buildings made of?


----------



## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

If this is the layout down in Los Gatos...I remember it well. That lumber mill is JUST FANTASTIC...and if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's a perfect addition to a layout with a lot of fantastic structures...including the best hotel building I've ever seen...and a fantastic roundhouse modeled after one in the local area...and the most believable "downtown" I've seen. I'm stretching...but as I recall two brothers built this layout and it is without doubt one of the best layouts I've ever seen. I had very good times there...twice...and the hosts were extremely gracious. Gonna have to get up there again during one of those BAGRS weekends if this is the place I'm thinking of...gotta see that log dump and lumber mill. WOW!!!


----------



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi, 

There is a 8 page (2 pages are the frontispiece to the article) article on this layout in the June 2007 Garden Railways magazine It has a SP Black widow color scheme F7 on the front to assist in finding it among st your magazine collection. 

The hotel is quite close to the plan of the Idaho Hotel, at Silver City: there is a plan of that in the Nov/Dec 2000 issue of the 'Short Line Gazette', to HO scale - otherwise it would not fit the magazine; it is a big building in 1:20 G scale.

The real one is on the web at the following link http://www.historicsilvercityidaho.com/idahohotel.html


----------



## Gary Woolard (Jan 2, 2008)

As Russ mentioned, ROOSTER CREEK was one of the layouts open for the 2006 convention. I did a thread on this layout (with Carla's pix) back then. You can find it at -

http://www.mylargescale.com/Communi...C_ID=40265


----------



## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Yeah...that's it...Abate Brothers...and one of them is on this forum. It's a fantastic layout.


----------



## RimfireJim (Mar 25, 2009)

If I remember the article correctly (don't have access to it at the moment), they are the guys with the working stamp mill on their layout. That's the thing that stuck with me from when I read the article.

Very nice looking sawmill complex. Captures the essential elements. Many of the real ones were huge affairs, occupying an entire valley. Tough to recreate in miniature.


----------



## Russell Miller (Jan 3, 2008)

The *BAGRS* will be hosting the 2011 West Coast Large Scale Meet in the San Francisco Bay Area following the 2011 NMRA National Convention[/b] being held in Sacramento. We're hoping that the Abate's will be open along with 50 or so other layouts.

Here is a photo I took Sunday of the Hotel.









They've also paved the streets around the Hotel and thru Downtown. 









The Ice House and it's Animated Loading dock are also amazing.









The Abate's are wonderful hosts and I always enjoy visiting with them. They had quite a large crowd there when I stopped by so I didn't get to talk with them much; I was only there for about 2 hours!
Russ Miller


----------



## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Ah, now I remember seeing this layout featured in GR. Nice to see more shots here. It's quite an amazing layout.


----------

