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 3: Recent
layout
progress
Laying out the Russina Spur industrial park
After a long break I’ve been busy working on the layout over this past Fall and Winter months, making good progress planning things out full size in three dimensions before I cut and screw lumber together, lay track and run wiring. Cardboard and pencil lines are so much easier to change when it becomes clear that things just won’t fit as originally envisioned or even as drawn in CAD. Using actual turnouts and building mockups made quickly out of scrap foamcore and matt board are great reality checks to help verify track and building locations, orientations and sizes, and they are easily changed or added to using an Olfa knife and a hot glue gun. Plus they will be useful stand-ins until the actual model buildings can be constructed—and there will be a lot of them to build!
This is the first of several rather long posts as there is a lot to catch up on, and there is more to come. Below
are some
photos and
descriptions of
the process
as of late February, 2024. I've also updated the layout plan to reflect recent progress and changes.
(click
on images to open a larger view, open in a new Tab or Window to be able to toggle)
Work in the Fall first focused on the Russina Spur that served the industrial park to the west of the mainline. Below is an old view of the layout at Russina, but little has changed along the mainline here other than plywood has now replaced the cardboard. What is new is what has happened to the left of the pink foam board.
First a recap of Russina. On the far side of the main here is a double-ended switching lead along the east side of the main. Apparently this lead was only ever tied into the main at one end, but which end changed over time. Originally the switch was at the north end, hard against the Garden of the Gods Road grade crossing, but after a grade separation project that depressed the road and elevated the track the connection was changed to the south end. I’ll be keeping the grade crossing but connecting the siding at both ends to make it a runaround, as I don’t have room to put a runaround up on the Russina Spur where it actually was.
A stub track off the switching lead serves Pike’s Peak Distributing (center right), the large Budweiser distributer for the Springs area. With Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base, NORAD, and the Air Force Academy all located in and around the Springs they sold a lot of suds and received regular rail shipments in white 50 and 60 foot Manufacturers Railway insulated RBLs.
Weicker Transfer also had a storage warehouse beside the lead here (to the left at upper center). I don’t know if it ever had rail service, but I intend to model buried ties beside the building without rail to suggest that it once did but no longer does.
The pink foam board along the aisle is the eastern edge of the bench that the industrial park sits on, and the heavy dark centerline in the foreground is the start of the spur that serves it.
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My task this past Fall was working out the geometry and track arrangement for the stub peninsula to the west of the main that would be the home of the Russina Spur, listed as a track between stations in the Joint Line employee timetable. Here’s what the area beside the main line looks like. It is very busy, dense and complicated, but keep in mind that I’m only interested in the buildings along the bottom edge with direct rail access, the rest will be out in the aisle. Simplify, simplify, simplify is the order of the day here.
Two trailing turnouts east of the highway led to customer spurs inside the curve on the bench between the highway and the main line. One was very short and served only the warehouse of Johnson Storage & Moving, the agent for United Van Lines in the Springs (the two finned tilt-up buildings linked by a low connecting annex at center left). The other was a much longer spur running parallel to the Russina Spur and mainline that could serve multiple customers.
It was a tricky challenge working out the track radii, grades, turnout locations, building sizes and placement here. I didn’t want it to look too crowded or too model railroady, so several buildings were omitted and others were compressed. In my modeling era the switch to the moving company was spiked, but the longer spur served two customers: Dry Wall Products (center), which received bulkhead flats and boxcars of gypsum wall board, mud, steel studs, and foam insulation board in an open unloading area for storage in several sheet metal buildings; and Mountain Wine & Spirits, a beverage distributer operating out of a larger concrete warehouse (center right). I only have to suggest the DWP buildings as they would mostly be in the aisle, but I will have to model a bit more of the beverage distributer warehouse.
Here’s the start of the Russina Spur at the turnout off the main line, with Pike’s Peak Distributing across the main and Weicker further north. Notice the electric lock and timer on the switch and a small relay cabinet to the left, as the Dispatcher must authorize access to and from the CTC mainline here.
This view looking east shows the Russina Spur curving sharply as it climbs the steep grade up from the main line. Douglas Creek ravine is between the fenced parking area in the foreground and the Johnson warehouse. Inside the curve is the first customer spur, wrapping around the Johnson warehouse and then levelling out onto the bench to run parallel to the mainline. The second spur to Johnson is just visible entering at far left, ending just to the right of the dock and garage door at a crossed tie wheel stop. Across Monument Creek valley to the east is Austin Bluff, which will be rendered on the backdrop.
And here is the scene as it will be depicted on the layout. The Russina Spur is a 26 inch radius, the customer spur is 24 inch. One might question featuring such a large building when it isn’t even an active rail customer anymore, but it is a signature structure that anchors the entire scene in place. I’m using kit wall sections to model this and other distinctive double T-fin concrete tilt-up wall panel buildings. Great West Models once made these modular wall panels in molded styrene, but the company is long gone. Fortunately one of Walthers’ Cornerstone kits depicts walls of this type (Modern Concrete Grocery Warehouse, kit 933-4105). This style of building was quite common in the Springs, probably because Stresscon has a large plant in the area that manufactures reinforced cast concrete wall, floor and roof panels, bridge beams, and the like.
First in on the long customer spur is the Dry Wall Products spot. Wrapped gypsum wall board and insulation board was unloaded by forklift here and moved to the lean-to sheet metal storage buildings in the distance.
This view from the west looks back toward the unloading spot at the far treeline. Walthers makes an almost perfect match for these steel lean-to sheds (two are included in their Modern Lumber Transload, 933-4106; one is also included in kits 933-3347, 933-4108, and 933-4119).
The other customer on the long spur is liquor distributor Mountain Wine & Sprits. It operates out of another Twin-T tilt-up building. There are actually three of this style building along the spur north of DWP, but only this one needs to be modelled.
Here is what the spur will look like on the layout, as photographed through the conveniently not-yet-installed backdrop. That is one of the Walthers steel sheds cut in two and placed open-side against the edge of the layout.
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I don’t have enough room to fit all of the Russina Spur in its entirety, so I omitted the I-25 “tunnel”, seen here along with the turnout for the short spur to the Johnson warehouse. The Russina Spur was eventually extended on a northwest heading up Douglas Creek draw to where it crossed Valley of the Gods Road at grade (also omitted), then it curved west to run parallel with the street a short distance, ending at Forge Road.
In this view taken right above the grade crossing the Russina Spur is curving west behind the bushes at the left. The white building beyond the bushes is Dixon Paper, while the metal buildings up on the mesa are part of the Western Forge plant.
In the second view we see the right-of-way running behind and past Dixon Paper. The rails are still in place, but heavily overgrown.
On the layout I extended the Spur curve to form a reversed J with the long stem running parallel to the main line, creating a short but generous 34 inch wide alcove operators aisle between the peninsula and the mainline.
To fit the peninsula J the
curve is reversed from the prototype as the track
runs behind Dixon Paper. It will be built using wall parts from a
different Walthers Cornerstone kit (Modern Concrete Warehouse,
933-4067).
Dixon Paper was a Colorado-based distributer with branches in several cities in the state. Their Colorado Springs warehouse had a spur that ran into the rear of the building for protected unloading out of the elements, with truck docks at the front of the building. This view shows the building in later years repurposed as a retail operation, with the remnant Spur still in place but paved over to the west. Above it you get a glimpse of the sprawling nature of the eastern end of the Western Forge plant.
Dixon Paper as it will be on the layout with the Western Forge buildings beyond to the left.
In my modeling era the area to the west of Dixon Paper was just an open vacant lot and truck park. At far right you can see Dixon semi-trailers parked, with Western Forge buildings at top center.
This view shows the trailing point turnout of the spur into Dixon Paper. The T-fin building was not rail served, but it will be on the layout.
This view looks past Western Forge Plant 3 on the left toward Plant 2 in the distance. Although Plant 2 was still much higher here, notice the ramp down to the lower level. This suggests that rail service to the plant was a plausible scenario, one that I will take advantage of, although I will be placing Plant 2 at the same elevation as Plant 3.
This is Plant 2 looking east from Forge Road, with plenty of roof clutter, blower ducts, platforms, and a large dust collector. This is the kind of alley between plant buildings that I want to suggest. The only thing missing are a security gate house and silos for plastic pellets.
Both of those existed a bit further up the street at Plant 4, where molded handles and grips were formed around the forged tool bodies. I intend to transplant both the tanks and the guard shack over to Plant 2 to create a composite of the complex.
To support their traffic I am giving WF its own multi-spot spur buried in the alley pavement between its plant buildings. This keeps the lead open for switching Dixon Paper’s spur without interfering with cars spotted for WA, plus it makes it easier to switch the WF track. This is a satellite view that I have sliced, diced, compressed and reassembled to create my concept of how to model the area.
And
this
is how I have
laid out Western
Forge as it will be on the layout. Obviously
I ran out of cardboard here, but you get the idea. Plant 3 is a simple concrete block building, while Plants 2 and 4 will be
constructed of
Pikestuff wall sections. The pellet silos are Walthers parts
(933-3081, also included in their Magic Pan Bakery, 933-2915), but
they need to be reduced
to just over half their
height. Walthers also makes
a suitable large dust collector and
bin (933-4087).
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And
that’s how I plan to tackle the Russina Spur. I
think working
it should be a fun job that will keep a 1-2 person switch crew busy
with
planning both facing and trailing moves without
it
being an overly complicated puzzle. Add
in negotiating with the Dispatcher for track & time and dodging
mainline trains and it should be a desirable job to bid on.
Next time I will recap the process of laying out downtown Colorado Springs and the yard full size.
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