As mentioned in the June 2026 update blog I have began the planning of a new 4′ x 8′ (with a staging extension) N scale layout that I can build inside my house and will enable me to achieve, be it on a smaller stage, a number of modelling activities (eg weathering, signaling, auto train control, scenery and kit building) currently awaiting the completion of at least the wiring of the Denver’s RailRoads layout, which is now unlikely to ever happen.

My trackplan is based on an original 3′ x 7′ N scale layout heavily featured on a YouTube channel called the “Chicago Crossing Model Railroad” see – https://www.youtube.com/@ChicagoCrossingRR/featured and a version of the track plan using Kato Unitrack at https://www.steves-trains.com/post/n-scale-track-plans.

This is the original Kato Unitrack version of the trackplan:

Eric, the Chicago Crossing Model Railroad (CCMR) builder freely admits that the 3′ x 7′ size, with little option to extend, has severely reduced the options of the original plan which is based on industrial Chicago Railroading in 1997. There are only 7 industries on the original CCMR but by extending the layout size to a 4′ x 8′ I have increased the number of industries to 13 and have been able to enhance the basic plan considerably.

My plan of course has to be related to the larger Denver’s RailRoads layout which is based on the six class one railroads – D&RGW, C&S, CB&Q, AT&SF, UP and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, also known as “The Rock” and the CRI&P – that entered Denver on a daily basis in the transition period leading up to the creation of Amtrak and Burlington Northern in 1970.

As much as I like the Rio Grande I needed a much smaller prototype for this much smaller layout and over time I have become fond of the plain brown and orange colour scheme used by the Rock Island before 1970 and I have 10 diesel switchers, Alco, EMD, GE and FM painted in that scheme or the earlier plain dark red scheme.

General Electric U28B #281, followed by GE U25B #213.

Atlas N scale model of the Fairbanks-Morse H-15-44 #400 which was mainly assigned to Chicago suburban service but on the Rock Island Railroad will pull both passenger and freight service.

The Rock Island railroad first secured entry into Denver in 1889 through a trackage rights agreement with the Union Pacific to use their line from Limon. However, starting in 1950, the railroad entered Denver at the North End of D&RGW’s newly built North Yard from a cut-off that began at Sandown Jct., just west of Denver’s Stapleton Field airport and continued for 4 miles to Belt Jct., where the railroad connected to the Northwest Terminal Railroad, also known as the East Denver Belt Line. The Rock Island purchased two separate parcels of land along the line, the 151-acre Airlawn Industrial District and the 66-acre Sandown Industrial area.

This Rock Island line directly enters the Rio Grande North Yard (modeled as part of Denver’s RailRoads) and by 1969, had nearly 50 separate industries located at Airlawn. In addition, they built a piggyback and multi-level automobile facility at Sandown. Both locations are easily modeled on the 4′ x 8′ expanded layout of the original 3′ x 7′ CCMR trackplan.

The most important change to the original CCMR trackplan was to increase the depth from 3′ to 4′. This extra depth enabled me to add two additional long tracks between the branch line and the two track main line making in effect a 4 track Duban Yard and the Sandown piggyback and multi-level automobile facility. Even in N scale a 3′ depth severely limits the track curvature whereas a 4′ depth enables quite broad curves. Kato unitrack further enhances the choice of curves. If I was going to build the layout with Peco flexible track I would have been limited, on the two track main line, to using two 3′ lengths of track, making an 18″ to 21″ curve. By using Kato unitrack I was able to join a variety of curved track, using 14″ and 15″ curves for the tight side of the double track loop and 19″ curves for the broader loop into the Duban Yard tracks. I also used 11″ curved unitrack at the tighter entrance to the Northwest Terminal Railroad. And thanks to the quality Kato unitrack system you know that most trains will run on any of its curved track pieces.

The following is the “final” trackplan, as of 16th June 2026. As can be seen I have flipped the original plan so as to represent the Rio Grande North Yard in its correct geographical location. Furthermore, I have managed, pretty much by accident, to create a return loop with the branch line. Although this will complicate the electrical wiring it will significantly enhance the operational options of the trackplan. At the moment the plan includes a level cross over at Belt Jct., however I plan to build the track shown in dark red around the outside of the trackplan about 2″ higher than the other track and consequently cross the branch line on a bridge.

As mentioned on my personal Facebook page I have Oesophagus Cancer. I have now had 3 out of 4 pre-op Chemo sessions and if the tumor has shrunk enough they plan to operate for its removal in a month or so. However it is clear that the already almost impossible task of bringing the Denver’s RailRoads N scale layout (which is housed in a 4 car garage in my garden) to an operational stage is now just not going to happen, even if I regain most of my strength after the final 4 post-op Chemo sessions. I will be close to 80 years old by then and it is time to face reality.

But . . . I have been a model railroad layout builder since I was 28 years old and found this wonderful hobby that has dominated my life ever since. And I have a huge amount of rolling stock and locomotives, not to mention unbuilt kits, scenery materials, signals and various electronic devices.

Consequently I have began the planning of a new 4′ x 8′ (with a staging extension) N scale layout that I can build inside my house and will enable me to achieve, be it on a smaller stage, a number of modelling activities (eg weathering, signaling, auto train control, scenery and kit building) currently awaiting the completion of at least the wiring of the Denver’s RailRoads layout.

Watch this space . . . for step by step planning and details of the new layout!

Managed to paint all of the MDF boards with a sky blue paint and have started to install my railroad memorabilia.

24th April 2026

The NMRA WA crew came for a visit last Sunday and installed half a dozen MDF sheets against the back garage wall.

Because the layout is an island style there is not a formal backdrop. I plan to paint the MDF sheets and the garage wall a sky blue colour. However the purpose of the MDF sheets is to act as a background to my collection of Railroad Memorabilia.

Watch this space.

All the track for CB&Q 23rd St. shops and the Atlas turntable installed. Also the East Denver Belt Line trackage, UP Pulman Shops and the UP Wynkoop Street trackage.

I have installed the first of the Megapoints Controllers (MPC) circuit boards and have wired 9 of the Kato point (aka turnout) motors. These are activated by a pushbutton connected to the MPC board. Once wired up and tested I will install the DUT Control Panel which will make activating the pushbuttons easy and the installation of LED lights to indicate the direction of the points.

This photo shows, from left to right:

1. The screw connections to my Kato turnouts
2. The 4 Kato MPC turnout control boards and the main controller board at the bottom
3. The 24volt 6amp power supply and the BUS power board

These photos show the MPC controller board display (left) and one of the MPC Kato control boards (right) on my laptop.

Just got to tidy up the track to the CB&Q 23rd St Shops and turntable. Then onto BUS and turnout wiring.

Use of Kato turnouts together with Peco flex track has made track laying easier and faster.

My layout is really too large for me to seriously expect to get to an operational stage in under 5 years. Currently it is comprised of the following operational sections:

1. South Denver and the Joint Line Loop
2. Denver Union Terminal
3. Denver North Yard
4. The Flatirons
5. Bond
6. Craig Branch
7. Coors Brewery Branch
8. Grand Junction Return Loop

With the exception of Craig Branch and Coors Brewery Branch the track from North Yard to Grand Junction has been laid and the main line wired. The South Denver track has also been laid and wired.

Which brings me to the Denver Union Terminal section which incorporates the East Denver Belt Line, the UP Pulman Shops and the UP Wynkoop Street trackage. All of the passenger tracks to the actual station was laid by my friend Rod Taylor while the layout was in Townsville (QLD) in the years leading up to 2019. However the C&S inter-modal freight yard, the East Denver Belt Line and the UP trackage were still to be laid as of a couple of months ago.

In October 2025 I was seriously ill and spent about three weeks in bed. During that time I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to achieve from my life and my layout. I remembered that my original goal was to duplicate the 1947 passenger timetable as published in the 1981 book by Forrest & Albi “Denver’s Railroads” after which my layout is named.

I consequently decided that I would finish laying the track around the Denver Union Terminal with a view to achieving my original goal. By coincidence I discovered a company called Megapoints Controllers who are British manufacturers of model railway layout control systems.

Megapoints Controllers supply PCB’s (Printed Circuit Boards) to control LEDs, cables and layout controls such as turnouts, turnout position, push buttons, block occupancy DCC accessories and route control. The boards will enable me to set up routes though Denver Union Terminal for the different passenger trains to conform with the 1947 timetable.

As of the time of writing this blog the only major section still to be laid is the UP Pulman Shops and the UP Wynkoop Street trackage. I have even installed the Atlas Turntable for the CB&Q 23rd St Shops.

So I will shortly be onto the BUS wiring together with the wiring required to install the Megapoints Controllers circuit boards.

It is 15+ months since my last Blog update but hopefully I am now back on track.

There were a number of reasons for my apparent lack of action, including:

• My wife being confirmed as having Alzheimer’s disease as well as a number of other life threatening conditions with finally resulted in her heart stopping during a procedure in March this year.
• A short in the trackwork exiting the 7 track Grand Jct. return loop. This was made more complicated than it should have been due to there being 7 tracks. If there had just been the one track troubleshooting would have been so much easier to find the fault.
• Confusion with regard to the wiring of the 7 tracks. Which tracks had been wired and to which Power District.
• Whilst road testing the return loop track looking for the sort it became clear that the trackwork was badly laid and needed relaying. Furthermore one half of the loop had been laid at too tight of a radius and needed extending by some 10 inches. A significant adjustment in N scale.

All and all the above just made it difficult to move forward. And when I did start to relay the 7 tracks it became apparent that the exercise was going to take a long time. Even now with all of the track laid, only one of the tracks is fully wired.

Work completed:

• All 7 tracks that form the return loop have been laid and the alignment is much much better now that the minimum radius has been increased from 16½” to 22½” and the outside radius from 24″ to 31¼”.
• The installation of a new control panel and Power District (PD zero) for just the return loop.
• By redoing the return loop wiring the faulty block that had caused the short quickly became apparent and has now been fixed.

I can now run a locomotive non-stop around the whole layout (except though Denver Union Terminal trackage) without a problem recurring in the same place. In other words I still have track problems but not with the 7 track return loop. The next challenge is to run a 12 car freight train without a problem and then a 6 car passenger train pulled by a 4-6-6-4 Challenger steam locomotive.

Progress since last update:

• Finished laying all of the turnouts on the Denver Union Stockyards section.
• Just got to realign the Kato track and turnouts in Commerce City.
• Then on to Flatirons scenery and kit building.