Revising Barbara Gulch

The original plan for Chem Spur (Chemical) and Barbara Gulch followed a long peninsula that was oriented opposite the peninsula holding Arvada and C&S Junction. Not only would this lead to working conflicts between crews on opposite sides of the aisle, but this aisle way was also further constricted by the presence of a support post in the aisle.

Original Barbara Gulch Plan.

The revised plan for the area is designed around a peninsula that comes off the right wall, and bends towards the lower end of the room. This adds additional convolutions to the trackage through the gulch and allows for generally better aisles around the area. The new plan can be seen below.

New plan for Barbara Gulch.

In this plan, the primary switching area in the gulch, Chem Spur or Chemical, is located on the Leyden side of the peninsula. This provides its own area for switching to occur. And the aisles in the area are generous, with a minimum of 36" between the peninsulas.  Larger areas are available at the stub end of the aisle 42.5". On the other side of the peninsula, the aisles are less generous, with a minimum of 29.25" at the location of the support post, but 30"+ on either side. The only significant switching in this area is due to the presence of Arvada, and with wider spots nearby, I think that any crew meets can be managed.

As with the other modifications, this looks pretty good, although I was not able to do much with the narrow space for the Indiana Street bridge (just west of Leyden) where the backdrop for the Rocky branch narrows the available benchwork.  One option is to narrow the aisle here, and bring the track forward in the scene. I may still consider this, but I think that the scene may work in this format. Since the track in the region is running on an embankment, the narrow scene would simply be the long fill on which the railroad is built with a backdrop close behind. It actually may work better scenically to keep this region narrow.

So, like the others before it, I am happier with the resulting changes. And this finally leads us to the next stop, the transition between deck 1 and deck 2 at the Big 10 Curves.

26 Days, 26 Posts to Go.

Cameron Turner