The Turning Point – Part 6: Coal Creek Canyon Revised

The major purpose of the climb from Rocky Siding, through the Big 10 curves, continuing through Clay siding and into Coal Creek Canyon is to transition from the first deck to the second deck of the layout. The question becomes as to whether there is sufficient elevation gain to make this feasible. Concern about the tight vertical clearances and the resulting physical viewability/operability of that section of the layout is at question. Improving the configuration is the necessary goal of this revision to the layout. The original Coal Creek Canyon section of the layout looked like this.

Original Coal Creek Canyon Track Plan.

In the original track plan, there was about 6" between the siding level and the bottom of the upper deck. By the time we get into the turnback loop in Coal Creek Canyon, the bottom of the upper deck is at about 15.5", and the Rocky Flats Branch would be at about 10", providing a gap of 5.5". This is workable, but tight. The space to the mainline is a little better, resulting in a gap of about 11", which is much better.

Revised Track Plan for Coal Creek Canyon.

The revised plan does a little better, but not much. The separation between Rocky Siding and the lower deck is still about 6". but rapidly increases. The Rocky Flats Branch would now be 6" below the bottom of the upper deck with Coal Creek Canyon above. However, the main line is now nearly 13" below the bottom of the benchwork by the time the mainline reaches Tunnel 1. The big difference in the plans is that the grade climbs more from C&S Junction, all the way to Rocky. The grades through the LDEs max out at about 2.2%, and the mainline tends to lie towards the front of the benchwork in the tightest areas. By the Coal Creek Canyon turnback curve, the main line has more than 8" of clearance to the bottom of the upper deck.

I would still like to do better, but as it was before, this is acceptable. With the other improvements to the flow of the layout, the new configuration is definitively better than the original configuration. Other than a slight elevation change, the layout continues through Tunnel 1 as previously designed. The next change comes with Plain siding, which has now been relocated to head towards the bottom of the room. So, we will continue examining the line as we head towards Plain.

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Cameron Turner