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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Towers on the Joint Line

 

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 15; Towers on the Joint Line

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In my last post I mentioned that I had decided to include an abbreviated model of the Rio Grande's North Yard tower to help identify the north staging yard as Denver. That set me thinking about what I could do to similarly identify the south staging yard as Pueblo. More on that in a moment, but it also raised the question about interlocking towers on the Joint Line. After all, besides railroad stations, is their any more quintessential railroad building than a tower controlling an important junction or the crossing of two railroads at grade?

Historically there was only one interlocking tower on the Joint Line, located at the very north end at South Denver. The handsome two story wood frame tower protected the crossing of the D&RGW and AT&SF mainlines coming south out of Denver, along with access to the C&S Connors branch, seen here in this 1918 photo:

 

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

At the south end there was a one-story brick "tower" at Pueblo Junction, protecting the three-road crossing of the D&RGW (upper left), ATSF (middle) and Missouri Pacific (foreground), but the Joint Line actually ended at Bragdon, ten miles to the north, where the Santa Fe and Rio Grande split to make their separate entrances into Pueblo.

Neither of these interlocking towers were located on the segment of the Joint Line that I am modeling, plus the South Denver tower was long gone by my era anyway.

Update:

It turns out I overlooked the ATSF interlocking tower that once controlled the crossovers at Bragdon, so here it is.

 

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In Denver there were seven more towers of note.

If we expand the scope to Denver and Pueblo proper, there were a few more towers that we can add to the discussion. There were also Yard Towers, intended to provide the Yardmaster an elevated overview of the classification yard that they supervised.

Denver Union Terminal originally had two brick interlocking towers, built by General Railway Signal in 1918. Tower A at Cherry Creek controlled the south throat into the Denver Union Depot station tracks, while Tower B at 20th Street controlled the north throat. Why two towers? Recall that Denver Union Depot hosted passenger trains of the Rio Grande, Santa Fe, Colorado & Southern, Burlington, Union Pacific, Rock Island, Missouri Pacific, and later Amtrak, plus freight trains running through the station to and from the Joint Line, a very busy, albeit short, stretch of trackage indeed! In 1959 these two towers were replaced by a single modern tower to the west of the station tracks at 18th Street shown here:

 

Moving on to Yard Towers, here is a 1984 view of the Rio Grande's North Yard tower. Gone is the Rock Island sign, along with its namesake, and note that the building has been expanded, with a new wing added along the north (right) side. A new enclosed stairway has also been added to access the tower.

BN's 31st Yard tower was at the north end of the modern yard office beside Globeville Road. Here is a contemporary view of the rear of the building from the I-25 Park Ave off ramp.

C&S Rice Yard had a large brick Yard Office at the south end, but no tower.

UP's Oklahoma Yard tower was just above 23rd Street (top, at center), with a second yard tower at 36th Street (bottom). These UP towers are relevant as in the late 1970s some Santa Fe Joint Line trains originated and terminated in the UP yard instead of at Rice or BN's 31st Street yard.

  

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In Pueblo there were three towers to add.

The D&RGW yard tower is little known as it was sandwiched between the Rio Grande (bottom) and Santa Fe yards (top), now UP and BNSF, with no public access. I've never even seen a photo of it except in the far distance or in aerials:

The AT&SF-C&S Yard tower is much better known as it could be seen from the 4th Street overpass. It bore joint Santa Fe and C&S lettering. This has to be the signature structure that I will add next to the entrance to the south staging yard to identify it as Pueblo. Between the two towers there will be signs for all of the Class 1 railroads operating on the Joint Line. 

Santa Fe also had a Hump tower, which was lesser known. It sat at the crest of the hump to the NW of the main tower and yard office, and like the Rio Grande tower there was no public access or even a nearby street to see it from.

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Layout progress update: I had time to compose this quick post as I literally waited for paint, or rather primer to dry. All of the backdrop is now in behind Russina and Roswell and now awaits a coat of Benjamin Moore True Blue sky blue paint. Benchwork with roadbed has also progressed as far as Roswell. Next time I will show some photos.

Update to the update: The backdrops are now painted sky blue, hazed out behind Denver staging with it's often notorious smog, and I'm running the power buses underneath, so there is summertime progress of sorts.

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Laying out the Rock Island industrial park lead

 

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 13: Laying out the Rock Island industrial park lead, Part 2

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And now for the other side of the Peninsula, but first, here are couple photos to enjoy of the Rock Island switching leads being worked in later years by a D&RGW GP40, albeit patched with it's new UP number: 

 

UP 1445 heading up the Rock Island main in 2009 with a cut of loaded centerbeams for Foxworth Galbraith (El Paso County Lmbr). And returning with empties. Note the trainman riding the end car as this is a shoving move.

To the east of the first Rock Island switching lead are two more. Make that three, since the middle one splits into two separate leads north of Fillmore St. The industrial park that they served was laid out in the late 1940s on an old airfield and grew steadily through the 1950s and early 1960s, filling in with low-rise light manufacturing, warehousing and wholesale distributing firms. No major large industries here, and I don't think there was a single two-story building among them.

Customers on the main center lead and its west fork included Timken's Rock Drill Bit Division (remember, hard rock metal and coal mining is very big business in Colorado), a carburetor manufacturer, a concrete block manufacturer, the local Canada Dry bottler, a good size Sears furniture and appliance warehouse, a small printing plant, a Maytag warehouse, a team track, a telephone pole yard, and the Pepsi Cola bottler. The east fork served two roofing contractor-distributors, a machinery company, a produce distributor, a PPG glass distributor, a waste cardboard recycler, and a couple miscellaneous warehouses.

The third (fourth) lead further east is very short, not even reaching Fillmore St, and only served yet another drywall distributor and yet another small lumber yard.

I chose to focus on the center east fork as it runs up an alley between N Century St and N El Paso St, flanked on both sides by parallel customer spurs and buildings, creating sort of a low-rise urban industrial canyon. Actually, I blended the two forks a bit, moving some customers around to better fit my scheme of the center building view block, and to yield a good mix of customers, buildings, and car types. There was plenty to choose from as I selected which ones to locate along my single lead track.

Here's the layout of the center Rock Island leads:

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

The center lead, ran about a mile and a half north to above Nichols Blvd. It split into two leads 

just north of Fillmore St. The Timken complex was completely gone when this satellite view was 

taken, as was the concrete block manufacturer.

 

This 1965 aerial shows the center Rock Island lead curving north to cross Fillmore St, with Timken occupying 

the arched roof building at center right. Across the track is Carter Carburetors in the building with the white roof. 

Their spur has already been removed. Across the top of the frame is the RI west lead curving to run beside 

the Santa Fe, with the Amoco bulk plant at the edge of the frame.

 

Here's the view north from Fillmore St on the peninsula. I don't have room to fit Timken below Fillmore, 

and the first building north of Fillmore is already Everitt. Above there I am basing the lead mostly on the

eastern fork. First up on the right is Alpine Roofing, based on the the Roofers Mart wholesale operation.

  

 

Beyond Alpine on the same spur will be the machine company. It's an interesting looking building with a center 

clearstory, and a boom and hoist projecting over the track for lifting heavy loads and getting them into the building.

 

 

 

 

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 Across the track from the machine company is a nondescript modern sheet metal building. I plan to relocate 

Hexol Chemical here and have mocked up two ideas for a more substantial structure to house it. Buildings with 

arched roofs like this are fairly common in this area. I envision boxcar spots to the left, with a tank car spot to 

the right. I think the longer building parallel to the track better fits the center view block plan.

 

 

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At the end of the east customer spur at 4th Street is the PPG distributor, another example of a low-rise building 

with an arched or barrel roof common to a certain era, especially in the West.

 

The building has three dock doors on the track side. 

Across the tracks is a nondescript concrete block building. Stevenson Produce is listed at this address, but the building 

shows no evidence of a dock or doors along the track. Perhaps it has just been renovated, but a block west along 4th Street 

was the Sears warehouse, and I plan to move it to this location.

 The former Sears warehouse clearly has two dock doors along its own customer track.

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Above 4th St are two last customers. On the east is a plain Jane concrete block warehouse building with 

five dock doors. This building was probably subdivided and recombined to suit multiple tenants over the years. 

Maybe I'll locate Stevenson Produce here so I can spot a mech reefer or two.

 

To the west was one of the busiest customers on the center lead. In 1971 it was occupied by Enresco Inc, 

an agricultural implement dealer, but later it housed a waste cardboard and paper collection and shipping concern. 

Today it is operated by Waste Management. I'll just bill it as a larger City Waste Paper facility than the one adjacent 

to the ATSF yard downtown. The building is another of those precast concrete twin-fin tilt-up structures, with two spots 

along the open dock and another three along the enclosed section.  

Here's a shot with a couple boxcars spotted for loading, and here's a shot of D&RGW 3129 switching the dock in 2003.

 

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So that in a nutshell is the Roswell industrial park served the Rock Island as I would build it on a peninsula. Combined with the ATSF lead and some staging tracks it would make a great self-contained layout all by itself. In fact, if I was smarter I would have built it first so that I would have something to operate while I built the larger layout, and it would all tie together in the end.

 

As they say, things are always clearer in hindsight. 

Until next time.

 

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