The Branches: The Coors Branch

Finally, a chance to get back to discussing the plan. It has been a busy last few months. Teaching virtual classes is a different animal from teaching in a classroom. The prep time alone is running about 3 times what it normally requires. Hence, I have done very little the last few months. But, I am hoping that that will change as the summer wraps up. I'll try to keep up posting in the fall.

Coors Brewery in Golden, CO. Photo by Noah Rabinowitz.

The only remaining area I wanted to talk about in my track plan is the Coors Branch. The Coors Branch runs off the Golden Branch and represents the Coors Industrial Railroad trackage that serves the Coors Brewery in Golden. Coors was a dominating structure and industry in Golden growing up, and represents some very interesting operations. So, I wanted to include it. The actual plant sees a pair of Beer Runs each day. These trains may have up to 100 cars - so there is a lot of traffic possible.

Physically, the Coors Branch is accessed with a swing bridge from the Golden Branch to a shelf across the aisle. This swing bridge includes the crossing of Clear Creek and over Highway 58, which I have driven under many times. This part of the layout can be seen below.

Interface between the Golden and Coors Branches.

This connection allows trains to access what is called the East Yard of the Coors Brewery complex. This yard is primarily for the interchange of cars with the BNSF trains from the Golden Branch. The real Coors Branch also interchanges at the Coors North Yard, but I only had space to interchange at East Yard. On the prototype, the McIntyre Yard and Grain Elevator is to the west of East Yard, but in the model, I needed to reverse the orientation. 

Main Portion of the Coors Branch.

East Yard allows for the classification of cars headed to and from the Coors Branch, and the arrival and departure of up to 4 BNSF trains (green tracks). Generally, I plan to have one arriving train, one departing train, and two tracks for "on-demand" cars that go to Coors facilities on the Golden Branch. The adjacent Coors Main allows for run around moves of the BNSF power. There are then 5 classification tracks for the Coors switcher. 

The operations of the branch are modeled after those of the Coors Brewery. In addition to trains to/from the McIntyre Yard, trains run to the Receiving Facility, the Glass and Porcelain plants, the Power plant, Canning Plant and the Brewery. I did model the Coors South Yard, and the North Yard, although the North Yard does not have any interchange capability and instead used to primarily support the power plant and the caustic tracks. 

Branch Schematic

This branch of the layout is a little unique. I designed it to be a layout in its own right and I am considering building it before the rest of the layout. It is also designed as a sectional layout, so that it could be relocated if necessary. Furthermore, I was concerned enough about the track configuration that I wanted to ensure that I could operate this branch realistically and that the track capacities were sufficient for the operation scheme I had conceived. That is what I am going to talk about in my next post.

Coors Switcher 997. Photo by Mike Danneman.

Cameron Turner