After laying a temporary loop of track where Denver’s North Yard should be, I finally have a complete loop of track. I can now work on completing the industry tracks, and building kits and scenery, on modules 1 and 1a. I can then operate South Denver as a switching layout. There are nine industries including Denver Ice & Cold Storage, the Denver Market & Produce Terminal (Wazee Market), the PSC Arapahoe Power Station and the PSC Gas Works, American Manganese Steel foundry, Centennial School Supply, J.I. Case (a Farm Machinery Distributor), International Harvester Co and Thomas Williams, a coal dealer.

Then I can start work on finishing the track laying for modules 2 to 5 and building Denver Union Station and the C&S Rice Yard.

I have tested – and fixed up the track work – 6 of the 7 return loop tracks that form the Joint Line staging tracks. The 7th track only needs the installation of a frog juicer on one of the turnouts to be fully tested. By testing I mean the Atlas GP9 can successfully travel the length of the track, in both directions, without incidence. But only at speed step 12 (on my NCE Pro Cab) or greater at this stage. To move at really slow speeds will require cleaner track. And then I have to test the track with 10 or more freight cars backing thru the turnouts.

But for now speed step 12 is OK. I can now see if I can connect the two main lines running through Denver Union Station to the Joint Line Loop/South Denver module. And have power. Then it is on to the temporary return loop on Module 5.

Finally, I have finished all of the wiring for my two end modules (#1 Joint Line Loop and #1A South Denver — also known as Power Districts 10 & 11), dropped the Modules down from their 45 degree height to zero, or flat, installed the DCC Concepts Alpha Panel (same as a RRamp meter) and wired up the short indicator LED’s. The next job is to actually run a Loco on the rails to find all of my wiring cock-ups. Then I can connect to the temporary loop on the other side of the Denver Union Terminal tracks and be able to run trains in a loop. This will allow me to speed match all of my Locomotives, while I run them in and look for issues.