A Design to Consider

Well, in my last post, I introduced a concept that I wanted to further refine. Primarily, I wanted to see if the idea would work as planned, i.e. that the grades and curves seemed to fit with the available space.

The plan still needs some work, but I have enough done that it is worth introducing. I selected the Tennessee Pass line from Minturn (on the western side of the continental divide) to Tennessee Pass Siding (located on the eastern part of the divide). This line has 3% grades in parts, and would certainly offer the opportunity to run long trains with helpers, but only limited switching. But the layout would let me experiment with train lengths, helper operations, and some multi-deck benchwork ideas that I have been developing. I'm including the route profile below:

The grade of interest is on the right side of the main diagram. Minturn is the helper base, and helpers are generally cut off on the other side of the summit at Tennessee Pass, Malta or Kobe. In this case, I would cut off helpers at Tennessee Pass, immediately before the helix down. So, with no further ado, let me introduce the layout.

Before showing the track plans of the various levels, let me show a few side views of the layout to help show the concept.

Minturn Side of the Layout

Tennessee Pass Siding Side of the Layout

So, these two views show the 3D render of the layout. The layout starts in staging (bottom image) and a train would run to the right and enter the helix. The train would climb the helix either to Minturn or Tennessee Pass Siding. If the train is headed for Minturn, the train would exit the helix on the left side of the upper image and run left to right through Minturn before wrapping around the end and entering the Rock Creek Tunnel area of the lower image. Again, the train runs left to right, and re-enters the helix for a couple of laps, before emerging at the Belden level of te upper image. Again, Left to right, entering the lower layout at the Pando level. Left to right again, returning around the end to the Pando Tunnel level of the layout on the upper image. Again left to right and the train enters the Tennessee Pass Tunnel at the right side of the upper picture. The train emerges out of the left side of the lower image, runs through Tennessee Pass Siding and then ducks back into the helix, heading down to staging. There is a small staging yard located off of Tennessee Pass siding that will represent Malta and Leadville.

Trains would climb from 34" in height in Staging to 80.5" at Tennessee Pass Siding. Yet the grades work, and the clearances are generally 8-12" plus. The 8" clearance is at the Tennessee Pass siding area and this could be fixed by raising the top of the layout if necessary - but I think at this elevation - 8" may be enough to work. It is even possible to build a raised platform of 8" or even 16" on the Tennessee Pass Siding side of the layout. That would make staging only 18" off the raised floor, but Rock Creek Tunnel would be about 35" off the raised floor. That is a little low, but Pando becomes 52" off the raised floor and Tennessee Pass Siding is at 64.5". Maybe a 14" or 15" elevated floor would be better - but both at acceptable.

Track Plan

There is a lot of detailing still to incorporate into the plan, but the concept works. I'll do some more analysis on the plan and discuss it in a future post. Until then, if tere is feedback, please share.