Back to work on benchwork and backdrops

 

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 14; Back to Work: Benchwork and Backdrops

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OK, back to the real work at hand: building benchwork and installing the hardboard backdrop so that I can start to lay track.

 

I finally got around to enclosing the narrow viewblock wall in between the staging yards and the rest of the layout. On the staging yard side the backdrop will be cosmetically finished to depict the industrial area to the east of the Rio Grande's North Yard, with the distant skyline of Denver's downtown core skyscrapers in the corner where it turns onto the viewblock, like this, although there were far fewer towers in 1978.

 

The pierce-through will be disguised with an overpass, only nominally based on the I-70 bridge just to the south of North Yard. In the foreground I have decided to locate a truncated model of North Yard Tower right at the front edge of the deck, a key signature building that will definitely set the scene with it's Rio Grande and Rock Island signs. Even so, it will almost certainly have to project out a bit above the lower staging yard, which represents the Pueblo yards.

 

 (click on image to enlarge, open in a new window to zoom in) 

 

Edited to add: My friend Chuck Conway just sent me a 1978 Kenton Forrest photo looking 

south from the old 43rd Ave footbridge at Fox Jct so I did a quick & dirty photo mock-up to 

see what the backdrop might look like:

 

 

 The east side of the tower faces the tracks, so it will not normally be seen, except maybe in photographs, and the model will be cut off just past the Rock Island sign, but it will still cement the location as North Yard. 1973 view

 

 

Edited to add: And here is my photo mock-up of the tower

as it might appear on the layout:

 

 

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The pierce-through on the other side of the wall will be disguised with another overpass, this one carrying I-25 across the Joint Line right of way at the far north end of Colorado Springs. The mainline then wraps around the turn-back barrel on a 42" radius curve as it descends on a 1% grade to run down the other side of the wall, crossing a large fill with an original 1870s cut-stone culvert, a low pile trestle across a dry wash, and a culvert or two along the way. We'll be looking down into the forested area along Monument Creek here, with Austin Bluff across the valley on the backdrop. Some might be tempted to put a scenic feature, town, or industry inside this large turnback curve, but trust me, there is nothing to put there in this case, plus I want to create a linear diorama-like shadowbox along the mainline here.

  

 

The track exits the turnback through a sweeping S-curve with spiral easements, offering what I hope will be a dramatic view as it crosses Garden of the Gods Road and then runs through Russina.

  

 

Russina will be built on an eight foot section of open grid benchwork so that I can work on it comfortably and then install it on the layout. I notched the cantilevered plywood supports to recess the grid, with the subroadbed on risers. This is to allow for a drainage ditch that deepens as we move to the right, where it then empties into Douglas Creek draw. The main will cross the draw on a short deck girder bridge to continue down to Roswell.

  

 

That's all to report for now. Materials are on hand to continue the backdrop down grade and along the staging yard, and to build more benchwork, so I should have more to report shortly.

Until next time.

 

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