A Little bit of a Narrow (Gauge) Imagination

A little imagination goes a long way. And with narrow gauge modeling, it goes even further. I started model railroading with my father and an O scale layout. By high school, I moved to HO, and by college, I moved to N. By the time I was in graduate school, Nn3 seemed to be the way to go, because of both the small size and the challenge. I even built nearly a scale mile of Nn3 modules that I took to the National Train Show in St. Louis in 2001. I still enjoy tinkering with narrow gauge ideas, and layout plans. But, as I have become increasingly interested in operations, it isn't the small size of Nn3 that makes me hesitate, but my feeling that the operations are kind of small, low density affairs. I've operated enough in both N and Nn3 to feel like I can operate in those scales. I've also operated both on standard gauge and narrow gauge layouts. Both can be satisfying. But I find that the narrow gauge lines, to remain plausible, just do not have the feel of operating a standard gauge line.

One particular inspiration in how to get the operations "feel" I want, but model narrow gauge is to copy Bob Hayden's approach on the Carrabasset and Dead River Railway. The C&DR is a Maine 2-footer, but models an era after which all the prototype lines had been abandoned. And it is not a fading concern, but a healthy, vital railroad, featuring new diesels, passenger service, and even innovations such as unit trains.

In some ways, the prototype equivalent is the White Pass and Yukon Railroad in Alaska, that operated as a narrow gauge freight line until 1982, and now operates as a tourist line. The line operates primarily with diesels, and even sported intermodel trains at one point.

It is as a healthy going concern that I imagine my Rio Gorre Northern. As one of my other hobbies is the history of the atomic bomb, I even think I would set the layout in 1952, shortly before the H-bomb was first tested. Part of the theme of the layout would be that the line serves and provides transportation of military-grade equipment and materials needed for the nuclear arsenal. Were this equipment goes exactly is a little bit more of a mystery, but there are rumors of a secret town hidden in the northern mountains of the west. And there are rumors of a mysterious black train that runs at night delivering personnel to this location, the so called "Black Goose." Most locals laugh at the legend of this train which does not exist, but train crews are always wary to clear the line when the goose is making its mysterious run...although none can say that they have ever seen it.

In my imagination, the line begins at a port town. The port itself is known as Port, and the town as Porthmadog. Out of this terminus, runs a branch to the town of Gladhaven, a fishing and lumber town. The main climbs to summit its first range at Furlow Pass, and descends into the major terminal of Gorre. Gorre is the major terminal on the line, and from Gorre run a number of branch lines to various destinations. The line leaves Gorre, and climbs a second summit with the twin stations of Alpine and Tundra, before descending once again to a standard gauge line at Kaybeck.

The standard gauge connection could be any of a number of railroads, and might change to fit my fancy. And the branches may be operations of other lines, such as the Alpine, Kaybeck and Tundra (AKT), the Alpine Central (AC), the Gorre and Northern (GN), the Big Water and Tall Timber (BWTT), the Devils Gulch and Helegon (DG&H), The Gorre, Daphetid and Northernly (GDN), etc.

Along the way, we would see sights that resemble, the Georgetown Loop, Forks Creek, Ophir, Lizard Head Pass, Trout Lake, the Highline on the RGS, the Highline on the Durango and Silverton, Vance Junction, Windy Point, Cumbres Pass, spectacular bridges, and mines, mills, logging, and livestock. Power would be a mix of steam and diesel, and the cars would e an eclectic collection of long gone roads. Roads are not penetrating this tough country, at least not easily, and thus the railroad is the lifeline. Some say that the military has something to do with that, preferring the lack of roads and the resulting isolation to becoming a well trafficked area. Basically, the railroad would be my favorite everythings.

I don't really have LDEs for this line. It is the most freeform and undefined concept I have. I've always kept it that way so that I can imagine it in whatever space I have. I have looked at it as both a home layout empire, but also as a portable railroad that I could take to train shows. But it would not be a display layout, as much as an operating demonstration layout. However, I have also thought of it as a starter layout. Something small, that can begin operating in say 12 months, and brought to completion in 2-3 years - that would give me something to enjoy, while the larger layout was pursued, and would give me something that could live beyond the larger railroad empire.

Following the waters home

`I grew up in Golden, Colorado at the base of the foothills of the Rockies. No wonder my interests tend towards Colorado roads, and I have a bit of a narrow gauge interest. So I suppose it should not be a surprise that I would also put the Colorado Central on my list of possible subjects.

The Colorado Central ran from Denver, out to Golden and followed Clear Creek into the mountains. At Forks Creek, the line split, heading to Black Hawk and Central City on one route, and continuing up to Idaho Springs, Georgetown and Silver Plume. Along the way, the line climbs the Georgetown Route, winds through Clear Creek Canyon and serves the mining communities along the way. Perhaps the most famous rendition of the line is the HOn3 Union Central and Northern Railroad, housed in the Cheyenne Depot and built by Harry Brunk. Much of the construction of the model railroad is covered in a series in the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette, and republished in not just one, but two books Up Clear Creek on the Narrow Gauge and More Up Clear Creek on the Narrow Gauge.



The UC&N model railroad also is captured on YouTube in a fun video.

Most of the models of this line seem to focus on the portion of the line west of Golden. Golden and Denver are often unmodeled - or represented with staging. Interestingly enough, the ends of the line interchanged. In Denver, the line interchanged with the major railroads in Denver, and on the western ends, there was the Argentine Central in Silver Plume, and the Gilpin Gold Tram, a unique 2' gauge railroad) in Black Hawk. There are several fantastic books on these lines including Colorado Railroad Museum Annual #10,  Colorado Railroad Museum Annual #26, Georgetown and the Loop, The Colorado Central Railroad, and The Gilpin Gold Tram, and the Gilpin Railroad Era, among others. These connections are particularly interesting. Unfortunately, none of these lines made it past WW2, although part of the line between Georgetown and Silver Plume was rebuilt and operates as a tourist line. Parts of the line were standard gauged, operated by the Colorado and Southern, and today by BNSF as the Golden Branch serving Coors.

Like the other narrow gauge ideas, this one would be a smaller operation. Operationally, the LDEs would include:

• Denver
• Arvada
• Golden
• Forks Creek
• Idaho Springs
• Georgetown
• Silver Plume (and the Argentine Central)
• Black Hawk (Gilpin Gold Tram)
• Central City

The scenic LDEs would include:

• Clear Creek Canyon
• The Central City Switchback
• The Georgetown Loop
• Mines and Mills galore!

One of the challenges, would be modeling the Gilpin Gold Tram. And herein enters T-gauge again. N-scale is 9mm between the rails representing 4'8.5". A 24" gauge line in N-scale would have a gauge of 3.8mm. At 3.2mm, T-gauge is a little tight (20.2") but it is certainly close to Nn2. I even have an Nn2 prototype of one of the tram cars made through 3D printing. More interesting is that for Z-scale, the track gauge is 6.5mm, and so Zn2 would be 2.8mm, and so T-gauge scales out at 27" in Z. It is not implausible to represent Black Hawk in N-scale, and transition to z-scale while climbing to the mines outside of town. As long as the individual towns are kept correct, I think that T-gauge equipment could be the basis for both Nn2 and Zn2. 

The idea of doing something with the Gilpin Gold Tram has definitely hooked my interest, and I have decided to at least build a small 22"x42" Zn2 layout to test out some ideas and determine technical feasibility. I've include the track plan. 

The plan is based on the Jerome and Southwestern, with some modifications. The key questions are Turnouts, track and equipment. I was able to 3D print a car easy enough, fortunately, there are some T-gauge mechanisms that look to be good candidates for the diminutive little shays that plied the line, and so in my mind, the last hurdle is couplers - at least in terms of the equipment.

But, just in case, I ran another calculation and discovered, that Z-gauge track (6.5mm) is very close to HOn2. Not HOn30" as as been done and popularized by Dave Frary and Bob Hayden, but actual HOn2. Okay, it is a little tight at 22.3" instead of 24", but that is close. Track, turnouts and equipment is easy. Some Z or Nn3 cars are actually kind of close to HOn2, or at least the cars on the Gilpin Gold Tram. There are some possible Z-scale mechanisms that could be motive power, and link and pin couplers are do-able. A shelf layout in HOn2 to have a little bit of the kingdom of Gilpin, is possible. In fact, this post took a long time, because I wanted to finish this.

Description: A Gilpin Tramway Ore Car from the 3rd order of cars, ordered in 1895. The cars were numbered 86-155. Requires some 28 gauge wire to represent the spacing rods across the top of the car, and to represent the brake stems, as well as Z-scale Archbar Trucks. To complete the model, Link and Pin couplers and the Brake Wheel should also be purchased, which are designed to be compatible with this model. In addition, 2 M0.5 0.50UNM Metric Screws are necessary to secure the link and pin couplers. The link can be simulated with 0.7mm wire (such as that used in a paperclip. The car is HO scale, 2' gauge, represented using Z-gauge tracks (6.5mm) which equates to 22.3" in HO scale. Recommended in Frosted Extreme Detail or Frosted Ultra Detail options. Polished materials may have reduced detail.

I am quite pleased with the result and eager to hold the prototype. Getting these files done, became my goal so that I could open my Shapeways shop, and also order my prototype car to see if this vision could be realized. The shop can be found here.

Or, check out the blog post.

This line is interesting to me - but it offers small narrow gauge power, 2-6-0s and 2-8-0s, but it is interesting. It would b a lower key operation, and more of a model building exercise. I am not sure this is the layout - but it is interesting to consider.

Into the San Juans

Growing up, I often got to go camping with my father at a small campground above the town of Silverton, Colorado. We would be there about a week, and we had ample opportunities to explore the areas around Silverton. We would drive up to Animas Forks, hike around Red Mountain, stop in Ouray, visit Ridgeway and Durango, and watch the new Durango and Silverton Railroad arrive in Silverton before racing to beat the crowd to the Pickle Barrel for lunch, before going to Smedley's Ice Cream Parlor for root beer floats.

Silverton is an interesting railroad town. Isolated in Baker Park, no less than four narrow gauge lines radiated out from town. The Silverton Railroad climbed over Red Mountain Pass serving the mines north of Silverton towards Ouray, before topography prevented the line from descending into Ouray. The Silverton Northern extended out of Silverton along the upper Animas River,  first to Eureka, and ultimately to Animas Forks to serve mines including the Sunnyside Mine. A third road, the Silverton, Gladstone and Northerly, wandered up the course of Cement Creek, to th town of Gladstone, serving the mines there. While different entities, all three lines were ultimately owned by Otto Mears, and operated as a unit.

But Silverton had a fourth line, the Denver and Rio Grande Western, reaching the line via a branch from Durango. Thus, Silverton became something of an oddity, a rare location where multiple narrow gauge lines interchanged. Even at the other end of the branch, a similar situation evolved. In Durango, not only did the D&RGW come in from the east from Chama, but the Farmington Branch went south, and the Rio Grande Southern extended north, working up through Telluride to connect to the D&RGW at Ridgeway, where the D&RGW came through on the Marshall Pass line. In addition, at this end of the line, was the D&RGW Ouray Branch, that came within a few miles of the Silverton Railroad. In fact, the Silverton Railroad came within about 5 miles of Pandora, at the end of the RGS Telluride Branch. Admittedly, there was a pretty big mountain between the two, and so by rail it was closer to 150 miles, but, the point is, these lines were all intertwined into the same area.

The RGS is famous in its own right, climbing over Dallas Divide, Lizard Head Pass and Cima Hill and the lesser known Millwood Summit between Ridgeway and Durango.Towns such as Rico, Mancos, Dollores, Ophir, and Vance Junction all dotted the line. And there were bridges of all sizes all along the line. The RGS is at least as common a modeling subject as the D&RGW, and the two were very much intertwined.

Many of the towns, and mines and mills in the area are fascinating subjects. And in N-scale, several would make fantastic models that could be done with limited or even no compression. Many of these roads saw smaller steam engines, instead of K-36s and K-37s, K-27s and K-28s were common, and a number of consolidations (C-class) 2-8-0's also served the area.

K-27 DRGW #463

DRGW K-28

RGS #40 (Consolidation)

So, if I was to build a San Juans layout, what might it look like. Well, first there is a clear choice to make, 1) anchor the layout in Durango, or 2) anchor the layout in Silverton. Durango was the larger set of facilities as the terminus of the D&RGW, with both the Silverton and Farmington branches radiating out. The RGS becomes a essentially a bridge route between the four corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, and the D&RGW mainline north of Ridgeway.

Silverton on the other hand is a hub, but it is the hub at the end of a branch line, and really, the three Silverton roads are just branch lines off the branch line. Traffic would be in any realistic scenario, much less on a Silverton centric model, than on a Durango centric model. Furthermore, by World War II, the Silverton lines were essentially over, whereas the RGS continued into the Post WWII era.

Part of this success was the presence of Uranium ore on the line, and its need for the Manhattan Project. As I have worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and have a bit of a hobby in learning about Atomic History, this is intriguing. Furthermore, it is plausible to formulate a history where the RGS did not just struggle into the post WWII era, but maybe even prospered due to its atomic connections. While I am not opposed to modeling an era set a century or more ago, I am more drawn to a post-WWII era, and one of my favorite model railroads, Dave Frary's Carrabasset and Dear River, did just this to extend the life of a Maine 2-footer into the post WWII era. So, if a Durango Centric line is my preference, what would it look like?

Well, I think you start with Durango. The line to Chama, and the branches to Silverton and Farmington continued to operate into the 1960s and beyond, in part due to the oil and gas discoveries near Farmington. Much of this traffic came via Chama, but by then, the RGS was long gone. Perhaps if it was still there, the traffic could have come via the RGS. In this scenario, the RGS could have become central to the production of Uranium, and so the line may have even prospered after WWII, long enough to benefit from oil and gas discoveries in the 1960s, and even maybe to become a bridge route of sorts between the central railroad corridor and the southern railroad corridor. Maybe not likely, but not entirely implausible, particularly with a military-industrial complex need to maintain the line and perhaps discourage easy alternative access (so as to protect the resources in the event of an attack). Maybe it even becomes a transition era steam/diesel NG railroad more like the White Pass and Yukon.

So, what might the operational LDEs look like? I think that they would include:

• Durango (Connections to Farmington, Chama, and Silverton)
• Mancos/Dolores
• Cima Hill
• Millwood Summit
• Rico (Enterprise Branch)
• Lizard Head Pass
• Ophir
• Vance Junction (Telluride/Pandora Branch)
• Vanadium (Uranium Source)
• Dallas Divide
• Ridgeway (Junction with D&RGW - NG to Grand Junction/Gunnison & Ouray Branch - or - SG to Grand Junction)

Scenically, the LDEs might include:

• many of the bridges enroute
• the Highline by Ophir
• Trout Lake
• Dolores Canyon
• and so many more...

There is honestly a lot of potential scenery here; much more than I can think of on the top of my head. There is obviously a fascinating railroad here. I am more than a little tempted to imagine narrow gauge diesels in a black and orange scheme for the RGS... In Nn3, there are now some very nice steam engines, or at least chassis options, based on Z-scale Japanese steam and from offerings from AZL. But more exciting, the diesels have dramatically improved with GP-7s, GP-9s, new F-7s, GP35s, and SD40s all becoming available. At the very least, these new chassis become the basis for a lot of interesting models, or free-lanced models that could be deployed. Even DCC and sound are becoming practical in Z and Nn3. This could be a very interesting railroad indeed. And in fact, I am aware of at least one massive Nn3 project to build a model of the RGS. Having played with Nn3 myself, I am convinced that it could be operable as a layout. And, both this and Marshall Pass offer the ability to operate with a much smaller crew, and yet not be unrealistic, as these lines often had a much lower traffic density than the standard gauge routes discussed thus far. Since I am not sure how much of a crew I can draw, this is a consideration.