Modeling the AT&SF - D&RGW Joint Line through Colorado Springs from Milepost 70 to Milepost 80 circa 1978-1979
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Layout construction progress
I've made good use of the down time of the COVID pandemic lockdown over this past year by at long last starting construction on my new and second layout replicating a portion of the Joint Line.
My first task was to insulate the upper five feet of the entire basement wall with 2 inch R10 foam board insulation to below the frost line, add a vapor barrier, and then cover it with 1/2 inch drywall to meet fire regulations and prime it white. This does not meet code for a finished basement, but then it isn't a finished basement. It's just intended to even out the year round temperature in the basement and save money on heating costs, and that is exactly what it did this past winter. It was nice and cozy working down there compared to the garage where the saws are.
The only problem was the carpal tunnel in my wrist from hammer-drilling all those holes in the concrete wall for the strapping that secures the foam board and wall board in place and to which I will later attach bench work L-girder. Oh, that and the jump in the cost of lumber and plywood during the pandemic. No control over that, it was either spend the money and make use of the time or save the money and find something else to do. Fortunately I had quite a bit of lumber already on hand left over from a previous layout and house renovations, which is where the 2x4s and 2x6s came from. And I ran out and bought plywood, foam board and drywall before the prices shot up.
With
the outside walls insulated and semi-finished I then constructed a stud
wall across the basement between the steel H column supports to create
the layout room. The studs had to be ripped down from 2x6s to match the H
columns, just as I did to match the 1953 2x4s when renovating the
house.
After building below-deck staging on my last layout I was determined to have easy to access open staging this time, so I
cantilevered 3/4 inch plywood
supports off both sides of the studs to support the staging yards on one side and the sceniced layout on the other,
which means there will be no support legs along the edge of the layout
along this wall. Construction has proceeded from there.
Here are a few photos of layout construction as of mid April, 2021.
(click on images to enlarge)
1.
Denver north (upper) and Pueblo south (lower) staging yards at left
outside the layout room along the stairs. At center will be a swing gate
(yellow level)
across the entrance to the layout room. The distant Denver skyline will
be painted on the
backdrop above the staging yards to suggest the location. This photo
looks south down I-25 north of CB&Q's (later BN's) 38th Street yard in 1962. I will have
to add several more buildings built after then to update it to 1979, as I've already done with the
Federal Building, but it will do quite nicely.
2. The I-25 or I-70 bridge across the C&S and D&RGW south of North Yard. Well, sort of anyway. On the lower deck below will be locomotive and caboose storage tracks and the DCC programing track.
4. At left will be the swing gate across the entrance, hinged to the post on the left. It will carry the main line, which doubles as the US Army's Fort Carson branch at this point, out of Pueblo staging and north onto the layout. Eventually it will be sceniced as the modern 3-span through plate girder bridge across Fountain Crk leading to Fort Carson.
The hinge post is a 2x6 connected to the 2x6 stud with dowels and a 3/4
inch plywood plate, reinforced with a 2x4 in a T. The post does not
move, period. At right is the TARDIS that will transport the basement across space-time to Colorado Springs in 1979....
OK, seriously, it is the over engineered benchwork to support the turnback curve, hard board kick panel, backdrop, and overhead light valance. I wanted there to be no support legs around the perimeter and found this design posted to the Layout Design SIG discussion list.
5. The 42 inch radius mainline wraps just over 180° around the turnback on a side hill cut and fill right of way punctuated by a couple of 1870s cut stone culverts and a typical Rio Grande low ballasted deck pile trestle across a dry wash. However, the view is down hill toward Monument Creek, with relatively lush vegetation down along the bank against the backdrop that depicts the opposite side of the valley with Pulpit Rock and the mesa ridge line. Because we are looking east, the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains is actually behind you. I know, a sacrilege, but I like to do things differently and besides, it's my railroad.
6. The main crosses Garden of the Gods Road at grade (it's now on an overpass) and then runs between commercial buildings at Russina, an industrial park the Rio Grande began developing in 1960 as I-25 was being constructed. Active customers include a beer distributor, a wine and spirits distributor, a lumber yard, a paper distributor, and a tool manufacturer.
8. After passing under Fillmore Street the Joint Line runs past the Rock Island wye at the end of the wall in the corner, with their old no longer used stone roundhouse inside. I had to deliberately make the mockup undersize and reduce it from 4 to 3 stalls to not look ridiculous inside the severely compressed wye.
At left is a sand & gravel and landscaping dealer and a steel dealer that both use the north leg of the wye for team unloading. Against the wall under the pipe is the city department of public utilities warehouse and materials yard. All are served by the RI local turn that works the branchline (originally mainline) in from Limon out on the high plains where the RI takes to the UP's Kansas Pacific line for the run into Denver. The Rock branchline east will pass through the stud wall and become the staging track.
Eventually I plan to add a stub peninsula on the other side for the RI and Santa Fe switching spurs at Pikeview, but that will be a small layout in itself and it can wait until the main layout is up and running. The north wye connection to the D&RGW will be live to allow occasional Rock Island detour trains to run up the Joint Line to Denver when the UP line has a wash out or is snow-blocked, which I know happened at least once in 1978.
