The wiring for Phase I was completed sometime ago but now the wiring for Phase II is almost complete. Here is John hard at work soldering feeder wires to module 5, the Denver Yard Wye and return loop for the Phase I/II trackage.

Rod and John came over on Saturday and we got a lot done. Rod is half way through laying the cork for phase 3 and John got a fair way through wiring the BUS on module 7 of phase 2.

I finished laying the cork for the connection from phases 1 & 2 to the Moffat Tunnel in phase 5. This means that I can now lay the track which connects phases 1 & 2.

Once that is done – and the BUS wiring for modules 6 & 7 is complete – we will be able to run LONG trains all the way from the Grand Junction return loop to the wye/loop at Denver yard.

At last we have finished laying all of the trackwork for Phase 2 of the Denver’s RailRoads layout. This trackwork comprises mainly of the composite DENVER YARD comprising of the D&RGW North Yard, the CB&Q 38th St Yard, UP’s 36th St Yard and UP’s Pullman Yard & Shops.

In addition to the two mainline tracks there are 3 arrival tracks, for (1) Rio Grande/Rock Island, (2) Burlington/C&S/Santa Fe and (3) Union Pacific, 2 departure tracks and 8 classification tracks. The oval shown in the first photograph below is in fact the right leg of the Wye at Denver Union Station, used to back east/west passenger trains into the station. Only southbound trains could run straight through.

The oval does however have the advantage to providing a continuous run for trains on display. Once the phase 2 tracks have been connected to the phase 1 return loop tracks (and the phase 2 tracks have been wired into the DCC BUS) it will be possible to run quite long trains (even up up to 100 40′ cars) on the layout