Staging: Montana and Phippsburg

The BNSF line north out of Denver is connected to the main layout via a helix that drops down below the layout just to the layout-west side of Cargill. This line would head north to Cheyenne Wyoming and on to Montana, so I decided to call its staging yard Montana. Some of the traffic off of this line would run through Denver to the Joint Line, so it also needs a connection to the main layout helix. I also wanted to add some additional staging for the Craig Branch (called Phippsburg Staging). The majority of this traffic would be coal loads headed east over the layout and empties heading west. At the time I am modeling, there could be 6 trains each way per day, plus a local freight. That amount of traffic would take up a lot of space in the Granby/Utah yards, making it difficult to stage without some dedicated tracks. This too connects via the main helix. Both of these yards are located below the layout in the garage part of the space.

Connection to the Montana and Phippsburg Staging Yards.

This will require a penetration of the wall, but it should be workable. The connection point A leads to the Montana Staging Yard, located under the benchwork for the Arvada and C&S Junction part of the layout. The yard is actually two yards, a through yard, and a loop yard. The loop yard can send traffic to either the Joint Line or the BNSF Northern connection.

Montana Staging Through Yard with the connection to the BNSF Northern Helix.

BNSF Montana Loop Staging Yard. 

The two staging yards have a total of 10 tracks. The through yard tracks run between 152" and 175". The loop tracks run between 206" and 233". These tracks can be used to represent the north-south traffic through Denver on the BNSF. I did choose to arrange these yards on the side of the benchwork where there will be an elevated walkway for operators. This allows the other side of the benchwork to be used for storage under the layout - something we need in the house.

Phippsburg Staging Yard.

The Phippsburg Staging Yard is located under the Barbara Gulch area of the layout. It consists of 6 tracks between 366" and 395" in length, allowing each track to hold two trains. Thus the layout will have enough room for 12 coal trains (6 loaded and 6 empty). The trains would run in a sequence of loads heading up the main helix all the way to Fraser Canyon, running down the layout and for through trains, back into the helix at Prospect Junction headed for the Joint Line. There, the trains would again climb the helix to Utah Staging, take the loop and run back down the helix to Phippsburg Staging. Empties would run in the reverse process. Unfortunately, that does lead to a bit of a long hidden run between Prospect Junction and Phippsburg, but I was not able to avoid it.

Cameron Turner