Leyden - The siding that we generally ignore...

According to the Timetable for the Moffat Line, Leyden is the first siding west of Denver at Milepost 12.4 (MP 12.4). This puts it about 8 miles past C&S Junction and 5 miles past Arvada. The scenery between these spots is suburban, although it varies from old farmhouses, to post World War 2 subdivisions, to modern subdivisions of McMansions. Leyden itself is rapid being closed in upon by suburban sprawl, but in my era is at the edge of suburbia. Rural life will soon take over as we head west. Leyden is a popular photo spot, with easy access to spots to view the tracks. with a 7020 foot siding, it is the 3rd longest siding between Denver and the Moffat Tunnel. But the scenery is well, BLAHH.

Typical Leyden Scenery.

 It is easy to see why so many Rio Grande layouts skip Leyden. Compared to the other sidings, it is easy to overlook. Except for some of the pictures that you can get at Leyden. Pictures like...

GP30s on a DRGW Work Train February 12, 1999 by Mike Danneman.

UP5738 Leading a Mixed Train West out of Leyden in May 2019.

Yep, okay there is something to see at Leyden. And in addition, there is a nice DRGW bridge over Indiana Street at the west end of Leyden.

The Bridge over Indiana Street. Makes a great modeling project.

What is more is that this siding is operationally important. Apparently, I have been told that Leyden Siding is the edge of the area where Rio Grande Yard crews could operate trains. In other words, road crews whose time of service was expiring could be replaced by yard crews at Leyden. Leyden therefore served as a relief valve of sorts for North Yard. And given its length, provided an important spot for coal trains to wait while coming to North Yard without blocking the main. So, there is operational and scenic components to including Leyden if it can be afforded in the space available. Finally, if you want to model the mundane as well as the exceptional - Leyden is certainly that. Including it makes the other sidings more spectacular. So, the plan is to include Leyden.

Leyden is a fairly straight siding. My space for Leyden is bent. So, I plan to bend the siding using a large radius curve. In this case, the inside radius is 36" which is a large curve in HO. In N-scale, 36" is huge. Leyden also is home to a "House Track" which can be used to set aside special loads either for the railroad, for repairs in place, or for irregular customers. So, I can use it a little bit like a team track. The west end of the siding marks the spot for the bridge over Indiana Street. The east end is marked by a road crossing.

Leyden Siding Plan.

The resulting plan allows for a mainline length of 188", a siding length of 191" and a house track length of 39". These work out to be about 36% of the prototype length of the siding. The house track is actually longer than the length of the prototype. So, it looks like this siding fits into the plan as well.

West of Leyden we enter the mysterious and remote Barbara Gulch and a couple of sidings known as Chem Spur on the SPINS maps. But we can discuss those in a future post.




Cameron Turner