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

As Phase 2 nears completion work will soon commence on Phase 4 — Denver’s Industries and Track-side Installations. These include:

1. Denver Union Stockyards
2. Colorado Petroleum
3. Globe Smelter
4. Cherokee Power Plant
5. Koppers Inc. Plant
6. Alpine Lumber Co
7. Cargill Grain Elevator
8. RG Motorway
9. Holcim Cement
10. Hadley Ford
11. UP & Rock Island Locomotive facilities
12. CB&Q 23rd St Shops
13. C&S Rice Yard
14. C&S Intermodal Yard
15. UP Wynkoop St Industrial Branch
16. D&RGW Burnham Shops

Rod, who is currently on holiday for a couple of weeks, has completed the painstaking job of drawing the Denver Union Terminal tracks onto the sub-baseboard and has commenced the laying of the Cork roadbed.

Track laying to Golden yard and the Coors yard is complete. However track laying of the Clear Creek Branches from Golden to Idaho Springs and Black Hawk has been postponed pending the completion of the track laying for Phase 2 (UP and CB&Q Main Line and Denver’s Yards) and Phase 5 (the Main Line from the Moffat Tunnel to Glenwood Springs).