Filling in the gaps

 

Modeling the AT&SF - D&RGW Joint Line through Colorado Springs from Milepost 70 to Milepost 80 circa 1978-1979

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Post 23: Filling in the gaps        (Edited May 9)

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A bit of travel and then a bad late winter-early spring cold kept me from working on the layout at all for a few weeks, and of course then I had to overcome inertia and rebuild my momentum. I'm finally back up to speed and have been working intently on filling in the last remaining gaps in the benchwork.

This post will cover finishing connecting Springs Yard down grade past the Santa Fe yard to link up with Kelker/Drennan. The mainline roadbed was in through here, but not the benchwork to support it. It turned out to be a much more complicated task than I had anticipated.

Here's the view into the corner showing the scope of my last week and a half of work. At the left edge is the subway for Costilla Street/Nevada Avenue, at right is the gap for Shooks Run/Spring Creek. The baseboard for the Transit Mix batch plant is new, as is the benchwork along the front edge to support the mainline.

When I built the baseboard in the corner for the Santa Fe yard I knew that the mainline would be lower and curve across in front of the yard. I figured I could simply graft the support framework for the main onto the yard baseboard. Well, that turned out to be far easier said than done.

First, the Santa Fe yard was already a pretty deep scene, and adding the mainline in front of it would only make it deeper. Second, since the edge of the layout would be a large, continuous curve here, the framing would be more complex, plus I was building out to an unknown edge in space. So the first order of business was to put up a temporary hard board fascia to build out to.

That done, I set to work slowly and methodically marking lengths and angles, then setting up the saw, cutting board by board to fit. That meant lots of trips upstairs to the shop in the garage and back down to test fit each piece before screwing it in place. Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary.

Here's the result. Did I mention that adding the mainline along the front edge of the yard would make the benchwork deeper? Like a lot deeper.

The yard throat turnouts at the left will be within reach, but those tying into the tail track back behind the Santa Fe Geep will be way beyond reach, never mind the customer spurs back in the corner. 

Now, I regularly operate on a layout with a yard that is up to 8 feet wide in places, so I know it can be done as long as you make your trackwork, trucks, wheelsets and couplers absolutely bullet proof, but even then sooner or later you are going to have to reach into the deepest spot to rerail a car, or replace a turnout, or whatever—trust me, it's gonna happen, so you'd better be ready for it. 

So what to do?

 

 

You do what lots of other model railroaders have done, you build in an access hatch. I already had one practically ready-made in the form of the baseboard for the concrete batch plant, but there was a wrinkle. The spur serving the plant had to run onto that baseboard, and at an acute angle to boot. There was no way I wanted to deal with a gap in the spur that would have to align perfectly without fail every single time the hatch was removed and replaced. Plus the rails would come to sharp points at the gap and would be sure to catch on something sooner or later and deform, rip out, or hurt someone (meaning me).

 

 

The solution was to sever off a wedge shaped slice of the baseboard right up to the edge of the spur track and permanently affix it and the spur to the benchwork framework. This will place the hatch joint right along the very end of the ties where I figure it will be least noticeable.

 

The batch plant structures will of course have to be built for easy removal, so whenever the need for access arises in future they will be cleared off, and a couple bracket screws removed from below, leaving the hatch free to lift up, also from below. That means there will have to be a second person present to hand it off too. Anyway, that's the plan. So far so good, we'll see how well it works once scenery is in place.

By the way, that white tube down at the bottom of the frame is a sewer main trunk pipe bridging across Spring Creek to reach the treatment plant on the other side.

 

That brings layout progress up to date, leaving only one more gap in the benchwork to fill between the south end of Kelker/Drennan and the swing gate, which should be much more straight forward, but you know how sideways things can go when you get overconfident, so stay tuned. With any luck the Golden Screw moment could be very soon now.

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Postscript Addendum        (Added May 9)

Northbound Santa Fe train 314 is rolling off the Sand Creek bridge and is about to enter Kelker on the Joint Line main. Meanwhile, the Rio Grande local's GP9 is using the Army's Fort Carson line for head room as it doubles over a cut of DODX flats to haul back to Springs Yard.

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As I had anticipated, building the benchwork for the transition between the south end of Kelker and the swing gate proved to be straight forward with no snafus. This last section supports the Joint Line mainline at the back, with the Army's line to Fort Carson in the foreground. 

This arrangement is very much a compromise as in reality the Ft. Carson line curves sharply to run southwest while the Main continues southeast, so the two do not run parallel here. And the Ft Carson line certainly doesn't tie back into the Main, but it has to on the layout to get across the swing gate to reach the staging yard. I'll add a berm and vegetation between the two tracks to make their proximity a little less obvious. I also had to compromise on track radius here, dropping down from 42 to 36 inches to get everything to fit. Such is life in the real world.

It may not be the Golden Screw moment quite yet as I still have to build a temporary bridge atop the swing gate, but mainline benchwork is now complete all the way around the layout room, not counting the peninsulas for the Russina Spur and Drake Station, and a bump-out for the wye in Springs Yard.

It also finishes off any excuses I have for getting started on laying track, so stay tuned.

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Fitting in Drake Station

 

Modeling the AT&SF - D&RGW Joint Line through Colorado Springs from Milepost 70 to Milepost 80 circa 1978-1979

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Post 22: Fitting in Drake Station

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  The Rio Grande Springs switch job has just shoved a cut of loaded quad hoppers across

Conejos Street into the Martin Drake Power Station and is now pulling out a cut of empties

to take back to the yard.

In the last post I was installing the main line and siding roadbed in front of the Springs yard switch lead and the Santa Fe connecting track and yard throat. That's now done, it's in the background, with the mocked-up CTC signal plant. Beside it and a bit lower is the base board for Conejos Street. Yet to be added is the plywood for the Drake Power Station grounds, which is what this post is about. The structure mock-up behind the hoppers is the north end of the turbine and generator hall, the only part of the plant building that will be modeled on the layout, and even then only as a 2 inch deep flat at that, as behind it is an operating pocket aisle for working the Santa Fe yard and industries in the distance. Designing and building this section of the layout proved to be quite a challenge, but the power plant was the largest customer in the Springs, so I really wanted to simulate its traffic in and out of the plant. I was able to do it, but just barely.

 

Here is a view of Drake Station looking south from the Cimarron Street overpass. The main track is at center, with the plant lead peeling off to cross Conejos Street and then squeeze between the power house and the cooling banks. Except for that low section of the north wall of the turbine & generator hall the enormous plant structure will be off the layout "in the aisle." Note the phone box on the code pole for contacting the Dispatcher to request "tack & time" on the Main when switching the plant.

These aerial views show just how large even a compact coal fired power plant can be.

 

1974 aerial looking west, with the plant lead running in between the main building and the cooling banks. Note the three transformers along Conejos Street beside the main building. These stepped up voltage for transmission to local step-down substations located around the city and environs.

Drake Station started out as a small municipally owned electric generating plant built on the site of the old Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek District Railway yards and shops. The original low brick building at the left was built in 1924-25 and enlarged in 1931 to ultimately house four coal-fired boilers, Units 1 through 4. Coal was delivered on a short spur off the D&RGW main that ran onto a coal dump trestle at the north end of the building.

In 1962 a modern 46 megawatt plant was built to the right of the original structure (the block directly under the thin left stack). This new Unit 5 complex was named for Martin Drake, a long time municipal Councillor instrumental in advocating for electrification and public works in the city.

The plant was expanded in 1968 with the addition of 77 MW Unit 6 (the block beneath the center stack), and then expanded again in 1974 with 131 MW Unit 7 (the tallest block beneath the right stack). This is the final configuration seen in the photos.

1983 aerial from the west, with a 65-ton GE plant switcher at the bottom working empties below the dumping pit.

The expanded plant was pretty cramped, with the plant lead curving south between the coal storage pile and Monument Creek. Initially the plant tracks couldn't handle a full trainload of the Grande's standard quad hoppers, but they were later extended. Circa 1986 a completely new plant lead was constructed to the north (left) of the cooling banks, and the tracks were completely reconfigured and extended to be able to handle an entire unit train of CSUX rapid discharge hoppers.

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So how could I fit in just enough trackage to be able to deliver coal loads into the plant and pull empties out.

It was a given that the very large plant buildings would be assumed to be off the layout in the aisle. At first I thought I could just squeeze two stub tracks in along the front edge of the layout, but several problems immediately became apparent with that plan. First was track length; there just wasn't enough distance to the Nevada Avenue subway to make it worth while. Second was layout depth; I'd have to scrap modeling Conejos Street to keep from making the layout any deeper. And finally, it didn't look at all like what was actually there; it just looked like a model railroad with too much track squeezed it.

The next idea was to explore if a short stub mini-peninsula would fit without unduly constricting the aisle as it passed around the turnback loop out of north end staging. I had seen how Joe Atkinson had made this work on his Iowa Interstate 4th Sub layout to fit in the Atlantic Spur on a long, skinny peninsulette. I didn't need anywhere near as long a run, so maybe it could work here.

First I just propped up a board to see what it might look like and if there was room to fit it in.

 

OK, that could work. Make it a bit wider, 9-10 inches or so. And longer, just enough to hold 8 quad hoppers per track, which is about a third of a train length, the size of the cut that will be set out in the yard. And curve it in at the end to tuck it in and create a pocket aisle for working the Santa Fe yard and industries in the corner.

Next iteration was to draw it out on cardboard and then prop that up.

Hey, now were' getting somewhere. It fits without constricting the aisle or hindering an operator working in the corner. It has a wide base to attach to the main layout to give it stability. It's long enough to hold two 8 car cuts (one loaded, one empty). And it preserves the open feel of the actual location. There's even room to add at least a suggestion of the plant buildings.

And there's also room to include the dumping pit. I've just gotta model that tower for the car shaker and the flanking corrugated sheet metal screens that help contain the coal dust.

I think we're in business here, there's actually a customer to switch those coal hoppers into instead of just letting them sit in the yard between ops sessions.

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While the Rio Grande delivered coal loads into the plant and hauled out empties, several small city-owned GE locomotives handled switching chores within the plant grounds, slowly shoving loads over the dump pit and assembling cuts of empties for pickup.

City of Colorado Springs unit 9701 was a former U.S. Navy GE 65 ton numbered 65-00063, built 5-45, CN 27866. The unit looks like a typical GE 44-tonner until you notice the extra thick plate steel deck, which added ballast for increased traction. Here it is sitting beside the cooling banks in 1977.

CCS unit 97o2 was formerly U.S. Department of Interior GE 45 ton number 120, built 5-55, CN 32340. It proved too light for the job and left the property in 1978. It was spotting cars over the dump pit in 1977.

The 45 ton was replaced by CCS unit 9703, former Saint Johnsbury & Lamoille County GE 70 ton number 48, built 3-48, CN 29299, shown here in 1979.

 

The 65 and 45 ton units wore a black hood scheme with safety yellow pilots, sills and cab roof, and a small City of Colorado Springs roundel on the cabside. The 70-tonner introduced a much more lively yellow scheme with black pilots, sills, and two broad hood stripes emblazoned with white City Of Colorado Springs lettering. The 65-tonner later got a similar yellow makeover.

For sure my rendition of the plant trackage is far too limited to require an operating plant switcher, but I couldn't resist relocating a pocket spur out front on which to park one of the switchers. I traded my friend Steve Lucas a resin flat car kit for an old Bachmann 70-tonner. It's an early run with two motors but that doesn't matter as it will just sit there, waiting out of the way as the Grande switcher shoves loads in and pulls the empties, or posed for photos shoving loads over the pit. I splurged and ordered a Kaslo Shops 3D printed shell that is a much closer match for CCS 9703, which I admit will make for what is essentially a fairly expensive piece of scenery.

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Modeling tips

For those with ample room to spare, perhaps inside a turn-back loop or atop a helix, the entire Drake plant could be nicely represented using Walthers kits. For the main power house either the Metro Power & Light generating plant (933-4052) or the Lakefront Energy Power Plant (933-4172) could be used. The latter is the same kit revised with an added fly ash collector bag house and a new larger stack. Two or even three kits could be combined to better capture the massive size of the Drake plant.

The Walthers Conveyors with Transfer House (933-4171) kit is almost a ready-made duplicate of the Drake conveyor set up, but with a slightly different arrangement of the conveyors. The Drake conveyor enclosures are also rectangular in cross section.

Walthers' Cooling Tower Facility (933-2979) is quite a bit different from those at the Drake plant, but two or three of them can be used in lieu of scratchbuilding.

And of course Walthers makes a selection of transformers, power grids, and substation kits to populate the plant grounds. The Northern Light & Power Substation (933-3025) comes with a large transformer and power grid, while the Small Substation (933-4175) comes with a much smaller transformer. Their Modern Transmission Poles (933-3343) nicely duplicate the type leading from the plant. 

Lest this be mistaken for a Walthers ad, Woodland Scenics also makes a very nice built-up older substation, and IHC once made a power grid kit. Walthers, Woodland Scenics, Rix and Showcase Miniatures make older wood transmission poles and hardware.

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Postscript

The Martin Drake plant burned it's last train of coal in 2021 and was converted to burn natural gas, but that proved to be only temporary while a new modular gas-fired station was built where the coal storage pile had been. The old plant was shut down and decommissioned in 2022 and has since been torn down. 

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A New Year update

 

Modeling the AT&SF - D&RGW Joint Line through Colorado Springs from Milepost 70 to Milepost 80 circa 1978-1979

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Post 21: A quick New Year Progress Update

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The Holidays are long over, the big Winter storm of '26 has passed, and the thermometer is still deep in minus territory—perfect conditions for working on the layout.

I said last post that there was still a bit of benchwork to build. Well, it now extends all the way around the layout room, although for sure there's still a lot more work yet to do. There are a couple short gaps in the mainline roadbed to plug, and more base boards and risers to install, but I am rapidly approaching the "golden screw" moment, if not the "golden spike" celebration.

Here are a few quick pics of the most recent progress.

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The Santa Fe's Costilla Street subway has been cut in. The parallel mainline will cross the gap in the foreground on the Rio Grande's handsome concrete Art Deco Nevada Avenue bridge.

Here's the mainline roadbed being installed, heading down grade from Springs Yard and curving across Shooks Run/Spring Creek to head into Kelker. Obviously the base boards and risers still need to be built to support it, but I can also see that the Santa Fe yard in the corner behind it will need to be raised a bit to differentiate it a bit more.

 

 

Here's the view down along Kelker, with the mainline curving across the short wall to tie in with the swing bridge across the entrance to the layout room. The parallel roadbed for the US Army branch to Fort Carson still needs to be added. It will tie into the main at the gap just off the gate.

 

 

 

Atop the gate will be a shortened model the Santa Fe bridge across Sand Creek, shown mocked up here. It will carry all traffic in and out of south end staging (Pueblo & Ft Carson).

photo by amtrakswchief 4

 

Santa Fe's Sand Creek bridge is a simple ballasted deck box girder span set on concrete piers. I calculated the spans to be nominally 50 feet long, with the rail 23 feet above the creek bed. The bridge continues out of sight to the left; the model will include only the central five spans seen here.

 

So that brings us up to date on the state of the layout. I'll post more when there is something new and interesting to see.

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Entering Colorado Springs

 

Modeling the AT&SF - D&RGW Joint Line through Colorado Springs from Milepost 70 to Milepost 80 circa 1978-1979

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Post 20: Progress Update Part 3, Entering Colorado Springs at last

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It's two miles of wide open running again south of Roswell with not much to mock-up, so we'll wrap up with photos of the prototype trains that are my inspiration for modeling the Joint Line through the Springs.

(Robert Harmen 1973)

The crew on board this Rock Island consist have just left Roswell and are in the final stretch of their run to downtown Colorado Springs, and from the looks of it the rear end crew is still rolling through the wye. Train length alone suggests that this is not the daily turn job, Train 51, rather almost certainly a detour train bound for Denver, but there are a couple other clues: the four unit lash-up instead of the normal two, with clear evidence that lead unit U25B 233 has bucked some heavy drifts on the way west, and the presence of at least four piggyback flats. Trains 50/51 did sometimes handle a pig flat carrying reefer trailers for dressed meat out of Knuckles Packing down in Pueblo, but they were usually set out at a TOFC ramp east of Roswell, with the trailers driven up and loaded there.

The north leg of the wye was a pretty sharp curve, and doubtless had not seen a lot of recent maintenance, making it risky to use it to turn the train northwards. The safer bet was to run the train south into Springs Yard, run the power and caboose around the train, and then head north up the Joint Line, likely with a Rio Grande pilot, if not a full Rio Grande crew.

 

 That's more like it for a typical Train 50, although maybe still a tad long. Here we see what is just out of the frame to the left in the top view, the side-by-side wood pile trestles that cross Mesa Creek, with the CTC signals governing the north end of Colorado Springs siding just beyond. Rio Grande bridge 73.30 has a ballasted deck, while Rock Island bridge 6080 has an open deck. I wish I had good photos of the bridges themselves, but they were replaced by a fill and culvert in the md-1980s when the siding was extended north. At least I have the D&RGW standard plans, so models of them will bridge the gully on the layout. I had to shorten the siding as there was not enough tangent track to fit the switch here, so the signals will be further south around the bend.

 
Santa Fe GP20 3103 was bound for Pikeview, running long hood first up the Rock Island past the D&RGW siding pot signal in 1978.

And in 1976 D&RGW SD40T-2 5360 was just a couple hundred feet south heading down the Rio Grande main with a coal train. Yes, that is the Rock Island mainline down in the weeds there. The white sign signifies that the junction with the Rio Grande is one mile south of this point.

(Robert Harmen 1976)

 

(Larry Green 1980)

BN U30C 2917 was northbound at the same curve in 1980, with the JCT sign poking in at far left.

(Colorado DOT 1960)

This 1960 aerial view north shows I-25 under construction, with the Rio Grande and Rock Island tracks, Monument Valley Park, and Monument Creek to the right. As I said, more open running.

 

D&RGW 137 was at the crossovers just north of the bridge over Monument Creek. The double pot signal governs the siding, while the single pot at right governs the Rock Island connection to the Rio Grande. This was the very end of the Rock Island mainline, and there was a phone box for the RI crew to call the Joint Line Dispatcher for the signal to enter the siding. Again, note the subtle track elevation differences, and the track hardware.

Here is my 1985 view of the crossovers, with the switch to the Rock Island main still in place. I don't have room for three tracks here, and I only need the northbound crossover, so this will be the north end of the siding on the layout. Trains setting out and picking up in Springs Yard will have to use the Rock Island main for headroom instead of the siding.

These two views show the extensive mature trees of Monument Valley Park along the tracks that I simulated in the teaser photo of my mock-up of this location.

 And finally, the Rio Grande crosses Monument Creek on this skewed four-span, ballasted double-track deck-girder bridge. I only have room for three spans on the layout, but it should still make for a picturesque signature entrance into Springs Yard.

 The yard tracks begin splitting off the main and siding immediately off the bridge and then they all duck under an overpass across the yard throat. See my post on Springs Yard.

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OK, that's it for the 2025 Year End update—I just squeaked it in under the wire. Time to get back to work now, as there's still a bit more benchwork to build, and then lots of track to lay and wire up. I'll post again when I have some real progress to show, unless I take a side trip into something interesting along the way to share with you.

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Laying out Roswell

 

Modeling the AT&SF - D&RGW Joint Line through Colorado Springs from Milepost 70 to Milepost 80 circa 1978-1979

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Post 19: Progress Update Part 2, Laying out Roswell

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BN Bicentennial SD40-2 1876 leads a Colorado & Southern freight south through Roswell in 1976. Note the slight 

difference in elevation among the tracks here. The train is on the D&RGW mainline "high iron", while the Rock Island 

side tracks within the wye are down in the weeds with far less ballast. These subtle height differences can be modeled 

by either cookie-cutting the layout deck or using different thicknesses of cork or homasote roadbed.

( Robert Harmen photo. Click on images to enlarge, open in a new window to zoom in)

With the benchwork installed between Russina and Colorado Springs Yard I could do a full size mock up of the last major location depicted on the layout that I have yet to deal with in detail. But first we have to get to Roswell. 

It's just over a mile and a half from the south switch in Russina to the north wye connection in Roswell, but only about 54 inches on the layout. That's short, as in "engine in one town, caboose still in the last town" short, but these are not towns, or even stations, just named locations on the railroad. The short distance doesn't matter much for through trains since you're attention is most likely on the head end power and the signals, and the switch jobs that work these "tracks between stations" are very short—an engine, 3-4 cars, and a caboose, so there really won't be any overlap to worry about. 

 (Frank Keller photo)

 

With Cheyenne Mountain dominating the view, heading south out of Russina the mainline crosses a short ballasted deck girder bridge across Douglas Creek draw immediately after the switch, and then runs through open country for about a mile. The top of the bridge abutments and the hand railings are all that are visible in this photo. The track curves left in the far distance at center, and at center left the Fillmore Street bridge can just be made out. Roswell is about half mile beyond the overpass.

 

 (Robert Harmen, 1975)

Here's the view north from Fillmore Street. As I said, it's mostly just open running. BN U30C 5819 at the head of a PSCX coal train bound for the Public Service of Colorado's Comanche Plant south of Pueblo is about to pass under the overpass. I thought about including a bit of the trailer park at the left edge of the scene as it appears in most photos taken here, but there just wasn't room for it.

 

And here is the Fillmore Street overpass, a utilitarian steel I-beam span supported by H-column piles. Should be easy enough to recreate using Evergreen styrene shapes.

On the layout this is the mainline emerging from under Fillmore Street right into Roswell, with C&C Sand against the wall.

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Roswell is...., no not the fabled UFO crash site in New Mexico, but rather where the Rock Island came in from Limon out on the high plains to the east and then turned south to run right beside the Rio Grande for the last two miles into Colorado Springs proper.

This was as far west as the Rock Island's Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska extension reached in Colorado in 1888.  Why Colorado Springs and not Denver? Track Gauge. The Rock Island was seeking a through route for traffic to and from California, and the Colorado Midland, being built to standard 4'-8 1/2" instead of Colorado "standard" 3-feet , offered the only practical interchange partner through the Rockies, and the Midland headed west from, you guessed it, Colorado Springs. The Rock Island did get to Denver, but to do so it negotiated a trackage rights agreement to run its trains up the dual-gauged D&RG mainline. That practice very soon diminished when the RI negotiated trackage rights over the UP's Kansas Pacific from Limon directly into Denver in 1889, although occasional RI detours up the Joint Line took place as late as 1978.

As the literal end of the line, Roswell originally featured a freight yard, wye, turntable, 16-stall stone round house and shop, trestle coaling dock, and other locomotive and car servicing facilities squeezed in between the D&RG mainline and Monument Creek. 

The collapse of the Colorado Midland during and immediately following World War I forever sealed the Rock's Springs route as a low density branch line with limited through traffic, and by my modeling era the only vestiges left of the facilities at Roswell were the wye and four stalls of the truncated roundhouse, although it was no longer used by the railroad, making both signature features of Roswell. 

 

(USGS modified)

A functioning wye is not strictly needed to operate the layout, but the north leg of the wye was still connected to the Rio Grande mainline in my modeling era, so it will come in very handy for turning trains and locomotives when restaging the railroad between operating sessions.

Modeling the vestigial roundhouse presents a problem, though, as a full scale version would overwhelm my highly compressed version of the wye, plus orienting it is a challenge as I had to alter the geometry of the wye itself. Placing it as seen from the Rio Garande mainline just doesn't make sense, so I will have to compromise quite a bit here.

Roswell is a natural fit in the corner where the east leg and the Rock Island main can pierce the backdrop and continue as a staging track outside the layout room, plus, it allows me to fit some active customers on the layout for the daily Rock Island local turn job to switch.

Over the years there were several rail customers clustered around the wye at Roswell, including a railroad-owned stockyard, three petroleum distributor "jobbers", a steel fabricator and contractor, and the large warehouse and materials storage yard of the City of Colorado Springs.

 

Aerials views of of the Rock Island wye in Roswell looking north in 1964 (top), and looking west in 1968 (bottom)

(both Pike's Peak Library)

The stockyard and oil jobbers were gone by the late '70s modeling era. Landscaping material firm C&C Sand was a real business occupying the site of the old stockyards, I've just invoked modelers' license to make it a rail-served customer, presuming the RI was willing to cut a shallow pit under the old north leg of the wye for unloading open hopper car loads of decorative scoria and pumice rock, white quartz stone chips, pea gravel, and the like. The firm can also receive boxcar loads of brick and patio pavers on pallets, and use a portable ramp and front end loader to unload decorative redwood and cedar bark and colored wood chip mulch from end-door woodchip gondolas. That actually happened on another spur in the Springs down in the Drennan industrial park.

 

A panorama of C&C Sand in Roswell with the Rio Grande mainline in the foreground. This set of photos is from 1985, after the CTC siding had been extended north using the old Rock Island right of way. The C&C sales office and shop is at the left, A&P Steel is at the right, with the old Rock roundhouse at the edge of the frame behind the BN boxcar carbody shed.

 

Here is the C&C office and equipment shop that looked for all the world like a Pikestuff kit, and the model that I have started using Pikestuff parts.

 

Steel fabricator and erecting contractor A&P Steel used a spur off the north leg of the wye as a team track to unload steel from gondolas and flat cars. It featured the company name as a roof-top sign on the building facing Interstate 25. I plan to try half inch felt letter board letters to replicate the sign letters, which were red and I suspect illuminated. 

Colorado and Eastern NW2 403 was switching three CWP gondolas on the north leg of the former Rock Island wye in 1983, with the red A&P STEEL sign letters directly above the unit. In the distance at left is A&P's main building, and behind it their elevated craneway, neither of which will fit on the layout.

Here's the location mocked up on the layout, with hopper loads of decorative scoria spotted over the pit on the north wye leg, and gons spotted on the side spur for A&P.

At right within the wye is the old Rock Island roundhouse, which presently hosts the Pikes Peak Trolley Museum, but it was being used by a building or painting contractor in my modeling era.

My mockup model of the roundhouse is reduced from 4-stalls to 3 and is built slightly under scale so as not to overwhelm the wye. Here is the scene looking through the viewport through the backdrop. Rather than use a simple but difficult to disguise hole through the backdrop I elected to end it short and leave the entire corner open. This will allow crews to operate in Roswell from either inside or outside the layout room, or both when there is a two-person crew. It will also provide much better access for maintenance.

And not only did this avoid dealing with fitting the backdrop around the awkward plumbing, it opens up more modeling opportunities.

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 A view east up the Rock Island main as it left Roswell and began climbing out of 

Monument Creek valley, with Cascade Avenue and Nevada Avenue overpasses in the distance.

Immediately beyond the east wye switch the Rock crossed Monument Creek on a 2-span deck girder bridge, and a bit further east up the grade out of town there was once a short spur serving a couple more oil jobbers and an insulation company. Just a short way further the RI main ducked under first Cascade Ave, then Nevada Ave, and then the old Santa Fe mainline in quick succession. Just beyond is the first spur curving north to the industrial area that I covered in a post on Pikeview and another on the RI industrial park lead. Not all of these features along the way will fit, of course, I'll give priority to the bridge over the creek, one of the street overpasses, and the old ATSF bridge abutments.

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On the way south out of Roswell is the City warehouse and material storage yard, which was served by its own spur. Built in 1960 atop the old freight yard, the warehouse received boxcars at the three dock doors, while the extensive materials storage yard saw gondolas, flats and depressed flats spotted for unloading power poles, reels of transmission cable, small and large transformers, sewer pipe, and everything from cast iron man hole covers and hydrants, to street and traffic lights, to parking, water and electric meters.

Rock Island GP38-2 4334 is in charge solo of eastbound train 50 into Roswell in 1979 (running compass north here). The City warehouse is at left, with the Rio Grande mainline at right.

Immediately south of the City warehouse both the Rock Island and Rio Grande crossed over Fontanero Street on parallel bridges, and then a short ways further south both ran over parallel pile trestles across Mesa Creek. The gap on the layout will be used for the more interesting creek gully and trestles, but that can wait until Part 3.

We'll close with one last view of Roswell as depicted on the layout.

The City warehouse was a very long building, even this truncated modified Walthers kit used as a 3D flat is over 3 feet long.

Rock Island U25B 230 and GP40 385 are switching the City spur off the main, having left the balance of their train blocking the main track. Meanwhile Santa Fe GP9 2923, attempting to run around them, waits in the short siding to enter the main and proceed to Colorado Springs yard.

Wait a minute, what's the Santa Fe doing running on the Rock Island? What's going on here?

Remember, when the Santa Fe main line through Colorado Springs was pulled up in 1974 an isolated stretch of the old ATSF main on the north side of town was kept in place to service a handful of active customers, with the Santa Fe obtaining rights to use the Rock Island main track and an industrial spur to reach it.

The Rock Island's Springs branch was dark territory, meaning it was operated without signals using Time Table and Train Order rules, but the Rock through Roswell itself was governed by Rule 93 Yard Limits, meaning trains and engines may use the Main Track (Yard Limits only apply to the Main Track) without protecting against following movements, expecting to encounter other trains or engines using the Main Track, and thus must operate at Restricted Speed, able to stop within half the range of vision, typically not to exceed 20 mph. Yard Limits is basically analogous to visual flight rules, with crews working out how to keep out of each other's way, execute a meet, and pass each other without Dispatcher supervision or train meet orders.

We see that happening here. Rock Island train 51, the westbound half of the turn, is switching the City warehouse on its way into the Springs, leaving it's un-flagged train on the main. Meanwhile, the Santa Fe local switcher is returning from working their isolated Pikeview track. No worries, as soon as the RI power clears the main to reach in to pull the empty boxcar the RI ground man will align the switches so that the Santa Fe job can continue on its way back to the Springs.

Cooperation between two crews working for two different railroads, with the Dispatcher none the wiser.

Next post we'll look at the final home stretch of the new benchwork as the tracks continue beside Interstate 25 and then enter Colorado Springs.

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