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