Phases 1 to 5 July 2018 update
Recording the progress of building the Denver’s RailRoads N Scale layout
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Phases 1 to 5 July 2018 update
Phase 1 – the Clear Creek RR is progressing very well. All track is laid. All turnout motors are installed. Golden branch is completely wired. Scenery work has started on the canyons west of Golden. Ballasting of Golden yard is about to commence. Golden Station building is complete and two other kits have been painted and are ready for gluing. Two new control panels for Black Hawk and Idaho Springs are ready and awaiting artwork.
Phase II – the Main Line from Grand Jct Loop to D&RGW North Yard. All track laying and BUS wiring is complete, and ready for testing. Main line point motors are yet to be installed. East Denver Belt Line – all track has been laid and most of the turnouts will be controlled by Caboose Industries ground throws.
Phase III – Denver Union Terminal (DUT). Rod continues to lay track. Both of the scissors crossings are installed and most of the main tracks. It is beginning to look very impressive due to the length of station trackage.
The following sections are now part of Phase III:
(1) UP/CB&Q 23rd St Shops & D&RGW/CB&Q Coach Yards – connects with the Denver Union Terminal. Work will be started once the DUT trackage is complete.
(2) C&S Rice Yard – connects with the Denver Union Terminal. Work will be started once the DUT trackage is complete.
(3) UP Wynkoop St Branch – Gary has stated both the cork roadbed and the track laying at the North end of the Denver Union Terminal.
4) D&RGW Burnham Shops – this section will not be started until phase 4 and the rest of Phase 3 has been completed.
Major surgery to Phase 3 & 4 Benchwork modules:
Most of module 5 (the corner section with the passenger Y and loop trackage and industries within the loop) has been bolted onto module 6, which is now a little too heavy for one man to lift. The ends of the D&RGW and C&BQ coach yards, which commenced in module 4 and ends on module 5 have now been cut away and bolted onto modules 2, 3 & 4. This is a two man lift.
Phase IV – is now divided into the following sections:
(1) D&RGW North Yard – most of the North Yard track has been laid. As this module bridges the Phase II and East Denver Belt Line track with the Phase III Denver Union Terminal trackage, special trackwork for bridging the gaps will be required. Kato extended track pieces are currently favoured as the solution between:
- Modules 8 & 9 (Phases 1 & 2)
- Modules 6 & 7 (Phases 2 & 4)
- Modules 4 & 5 (Phases 3 & 4)
- Modules 1 & 2 (Phase 3)
(2) D&RGW North Yard Industries and trackside buildings.
(3) UP 36th Yard – adjacent to the D&RGW North Yard.
Phase V – the D&RGW Main Line from Denver to Glenwood Springs and a branch line to Craig. Peter has laid all of the cork roadbed for this phase and I have almost finished the Gore Canyon scenery (see an earlier blog). Track laying for this phase will begin after phases 1 and 4 are complete.
Phase One Reset !!!
Phase 1 of the layout started out life as the DC controlled Argentine Central Railway running Atlas Shays of the same roadname. Unfortunately it is too hard to install a DCC decoder in an Atlas Shay so I looked around for an alternative railroad to base phase 1 on. Having purchased two Model Power 2-6-0s and 4-4-0s with DCC and sound in CB&Q with “Burlington Route” logos on the tenders, modeling the Colorado & Southern (C&S) seemed a good idea. My first thought was to switch to the Golden and Ralston Railroad which ran out of Golden from 1877 to 1898. Go to http://denversrailroads.com/GRR.htm for more details of that line. However there was very little information available about that line or its track-age so I decided instead to model the Clear Creek Railroad, a C&S narrow gauge line that ran from Golden to Black Hawk and Idaho Springs until 1941. Thanks to the extensive writing of Harry Brunk in the Narrow Gauge and Short-Line Gazette and others there is a lot of information available about the Clear Creek Railroad, including the Black Hawk track arrangements.
Before I made the change I gave a lot of thought to the Denver’s RailRoads layout and discovered that the D&RGW Aspen Branch continued as a standard gauge line until 1991. However after a lot of track planning I came to the conclusion that the track arrangement did not fit the track that was already planned as part of the original Argentine Central layout. Furthermore I had the four Model Power steam locomotives in the “Burlington Route” roadname and a lot of 1930 era reefers, boxcars, tank cars and stock cars that I really wanted to run.
Consequently I have gone back to the Clear Creek RailRoad (CCRR) layout, running to Black Hawk and Idaho Springs. I have now laid all of the track, including the short branch line from Golden to Idaho Springs and the much longer branch line with a 3-4% grade to Black Hawk. This arrangement will allow me to either run the CCRR as a stand alone C&S 1930s steam only layout or as a branch of the “modern” 1950-60s C&S, ignoring the little fact that the line was removed in 1941. In both cases the Coors Brewery will be a center piece of the railroad, either with billboard Reefers and boxcars or with 40′ piggyback trailers and covered hoppers.
