The space that is the place...

I have previously described the space I have for my eventual layout in a prior post. I'll try not to repeat that post too much here. The space is pretty much as I described it in that post, with two rooms connected by a common wall. The initial space available is about 11' by 27'. Currently, there are three closets along one of the long walls and bookshelves along the other. In addition, there is a sink on the long wall next to the closets. Within one closet is a crawlspace access, which needs to be maintained. However, the closets and sink can be removed from the space (eventually).

Layout Space

On the other side of the bookcase is a family room which can double as a crew lounge. However, the bookcase needs to be retained as is. I am not opposed to that at all, as it provides a lot of space for my train books.

The second room is the garage. It is a four car, double tandem garage, about 38' deep and 24.5' wide. There are four support posts running down the center of the garage. The left wall has the electrical panels for the house on it, and three windows. A sump pump is located in the upper left-hand corner of the garage. The water heater is currently in the center of the garage, along with a workbench (not shown). The water heater can be moved, and the workbench is not needed. On the right wall, along the shared wall between the spaces is a sink and a second washing machine. Also on that wall, but below the door to the initial layout space is the radon venting system. 

Right now, the garage is to be home for my wife's boat and her classic car. The footprints for these items are shown. Right now, the rest of the garage is being used for storage, but that will not need to be the case forever. In theory, that half of the garage is also layout space - although the boat also requires some space for the workshop to maintain and refurbish the boat. Right now, that space simply does not exist. 

The garage faces the rear of our house, with the driveway wrapping around the side of the house to climb a hill to the street. Below the driveway, there is another 9' or so of flat ground before we have a retaining wall that separates the back yard into an upper and lower area. The lower area leads to the Corps of Engineers line, and beyond that, the lake. 

Because we lack the space in the garage for the boat, its trailer, the classic car, the shop area necessary to support the boat, let alone storage yard tools or either of the cars my wife and I regularly use. Because of the configuration of our garage and driveway, the boat actually has to be manually rolled out of the garage and brought to the side of the house. In fact, even backing cars in and out of the garage is a little tricky with the nature of the driveway. 

So, my wife and I have been discussing an eventual idea to build a new garage off the old one. This new garage would extend into the driveway and provide three new stalls for cars/boats. This design would change the garage to a side loading configuration, which I believe will be no more difficult to pull cars in and out of and will likely be easier. The idea is shown below.

Possible "New" Garage

This concept converts the entire current garage to a layout area and a workshop area. The new garage would provide storage space, and space for the boat, the classic car and at least one of our other cars. The extension is not imminent, but it is possible someday. Even if this is not quite the concept that we go with, it seems conceivable that eventually half the garage will become available for a layout. So, I started exploring possible configurations for that space. 

Initial Garage Configuration

In the above configuration, I tried to maximize the amount of the existing garage retained for non-layout purposes. The dividing wall in the garage needs to avoid both the door to the rest of the house and the window on the opposite side of the room. This turns out to require some sort of offset in the wall to make this work. However, with this configuration, the layout side of the garage becomes approximately 22' by 24.5' or about 539 square ft. Combined with the space in the initial layout area (297 square feet) the total layout space becomes approximately 836 square feet. Throughout my arm chair planning, I have consistently desired approximately 800-1200 square feet for the layout (plus a lounge, dispatcher and shop space), so this total is on the low end of what I have always envisioned.

Working with this space, I developed a preliminary benchwork configuration, and sketched out the lowest level of the layout representing Denver Union Station to the Big 10 Curves. 

Initial Layout Benchwork Plan

From here, the layout would reverse itself at the Big 10 curves and retrace its path on a higher deck, ultimately wrapping around the room to connect to a third deck. Lapping around the room again, that third deck would re-enter the initial layout space above North Yard before plunging into the helix and staging. This gives me a layout with one nod under. The nod under would need to be removable, and there would need to be another removable section to provide garage access. Not ideal, but perhaps feasible. 

Because the shared wall between the space is full of plumbing for most of its width, I finally resolved to simply run the layout through the existing doorway. This unfortunately does result in a pinch point for those following their trains, but it and the nod under are each only faced twice during the run of a train, so I think this too is feasible. 

So, I have a concept for the layout and a benchwork configuration for the space. What about the layout? Next time, I will start describing the development of the track plan for this configuration and walk you through the considerations and changes I made as I developed the plan.

Cameron Turner

Finding a Focus

I started this blog by discussing a number of possible layout themes that I have been considering. These included:

1. D&RGW Moffat Line (Denver to the Moffat Tunnel and Beyond)
2. D&RGW Craig Branch (Bond to Craig)
3. D&RGW Tennessee Pass (Pueblo to Minturn/Dotsero)
4. D&RGW Soldier Summit
5. D&RGW Belt Line
6. Freelance "D&RGW-like" Line combining elements of the above
7. D&RGW Marshall Pass Line (Nn3)
8. RGS/D&RGW in Nn3 (Durango-Ridgeway/Silverton)
9. Freelance Rio Gorre Northern in Nn3 (based on Colorado and Western NG lines)
10. Colorado Central in Nn3 (Denver through Golden to Silver Plume/Central City)
11. Wildcards...

Each of these I described in a separate blog post describing the line. And over the years I have started plans for almost all these lines. Yet, there are two I keep coming back to, and have probably done the most planning for over the years. These are the Moffat Line, and the Rio Gore Northern. These are basically two different lines, but I have pretty much concluded that right now, these are what I want to build. Furthermore, I am convinced that I want to focus on the Moffat Line as my primary operating layout. Does that mean I won’t but the Rio Gore Northern? No, I may well build it, but I think I will keep it smaller, and maybe use it as an interim layout that could be fully operational while the pieces come into place for the Moffat layout. After all, there are some things I would like to build and model that simply are not found on the Moffat line.

Three in a Row by Mike Danneman.

So, the main layout will be a Moffat Line focus. I chose this over Tennessee Pass, Soldier Summit and the Craig Branch primarily because it is close to my childhood home, and there is a nice mix of local switching, mainline operations and helper operations in the area. Tennessee Pass is a lot more limited for local switching traffic and Soldier Summit has even less. The Craig Branch is effectively Coal first, second and third, although there is a little switching along the way. Both Tennessee Pass and Soldier Summit really need to have either Pueblo or Provo included to provide any significant switching action and both of those terminals are a long distance away from the signature climbs. The Moffat is also a single-track railroad, so dispatching is more interesting than that of Soldier Summit. I want some local switching, an interesting dispatching layout and so the Moffat seems to be not only a nostalgic choice, but a good choice.

Mike Danneman Models the Yampa Valley Mail exiting the Moffat Tunnel.

Mike Danneman’s Moffat Line model however, demonstrates that the stretch of Denver to the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel can be well modeled in a reasonable area. And given that I am more interested in a multi-deck layout than he was, suggests that I may be able to model this line in such a way as to produce a suitable operating layout with significant scenic potential. Finally, there are several nice elements to model, including Union Station, the Rio Grande Yard Tower, the Cargill Elevator, and the Moffat Tunnel itself. Each of these should be nice modeling projects.

I continue to follow Mike through his Flickr account (Flicker Handle Moffat Road). I still devour his articles in N Scale Railroading starting with (Issue #5 May/June 2001). I even got to visit the layout once and it does look fantastic. I still love watching the videos, like these below. I don’t want to duplicate his layout, but it certainly sets a standard. And I still watch and re-watch videos of his layout in action, like those at these links.

Mike Danneman's Moffat Line Slide Show.

Mike Danneman's Layout Video.

Mike Danneman's Layout Video Part 2.

So, with a slightly ambitious and audacious goal of building my own version of the Moffat Line, next time, we can delve into the space I imagine for the layout.

Cameron Turner

Three months ago – I could have died…

It has been a while, more than three months actually since the last and in fact the only post so far in 2019. And so, there is a little bit of a need for a reboot on this blog, something I was thinking about as early as last spring, before things happened.

My last post was about the T-scale (1:450) layout I have been slowly building for the Central Model Railway and Historical Society Club and its second public show. About the time of the last post, I was planning how to get it ready for its third show last April. I missed the warning signals for a derail.

I had been seeing a doctor for being tired – nothing unusual there for those who know me. It is not like I have been known to not only burn the candle at both ends, but to also light it in the middle for good measure. But even for me I was tired. Four months of testing had suggested that I had some significant allergies. But we ran one more test. And that one came up with a result that sent me to a specialist. The specialist suggested another more definitive test, indicating that this was likely a false positive, maybe something relatively minor, but admitting that it could be more serious. So, a couple of weeks later, we ran the next test in the hospital.

It was supposed to take about an hour, and my wife settled down to wait for the results. Fifteen minutes later, the doctor was out, and simply said, “He needs surgery and we want a particular team of doctors to do the surgery, but they cannot do it until next Friday, so we are keeping him overnight to see if he can wait that long.”

A week later, I was checked into the hospital for open heart surgery. I hadn’t had a heart attack, but I was on my way to one, and it would have been a big one. The surgery led to a triple bypass, from which I have been recovering for the last three months.

While recovering, I have had a lot of time to think and to look at my priorities. I love model railroading, but it has always been something that has been something that I would immerse myself in later in my life. After this experience, I no longer am willing to wait for the perfect space, for the rest of my life to fall into place, or to let current uncertainties prevent me from enjoying my hobby. I want to do more than the limited things I have done for other clubs or projects. I want to build parts of my own railroad empire, even if those visions may not come to fruition as planned. Finally, I also recognize that model railroading is a major stress reliever for me, and that I need to prioritize that more in my life going forward as I recover from surgery.

So, what does this mean for the blog? Well, I hope that it means a new life for it. I plan on revamping it a bit. I am going to shift some of the posts on the T-layout to a separate blog for the club, and I am going to continue that layout. I am going to continue a number of the projects I started last year and to pursue my Master Model Railroader certificate with the NMRA. But I am also going to try to publish more regularly on this blog, and in other venues about my planned railroad. Three months of recovery has given me some time to think about and plan a layout. So, that is where I will begin the story, with the development of the plan. 

I don’t know if it is what I will build, or when it might be complete. But I have decided that there are plenty of tasks I can start doing to build parts of it. And rather than waiting to know that the final product can be built as I plan on building it, I am going to simply imagine the final product, and build while I await the other parts necessary for the layout to fall into place. In the meantime, I will enjoy the journey. So, all aboard for the journey. We are going Thru the Rockies…Not Around Them In 1:160.

All Aboard!

Cameron Turner