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The YAMPA VALLEY RAILROADBy Robert (Bob) RotheChicago, IL – Madison, WI – Boulder, COTABLE of CONTENTS3???? Introduction3????????? Thanks Dad5????????? Parameters for a New Layout5????????? Credits5???? Before its Birth (1947) to After its Demise (2020)7????????? Fictional History of the YVRR8???? Book I – An Illustrated Tour Over the Line with Stories8????????? The Main Line – Denver to Santa Fe38??????? The Branch Line – Bond to AxeHandle57?? Book II – How I Built My Model Railroad with added Why, When, Where, Who, and What as Needed70?? Final Thoughts71??????? Fictional History71??????? Humor72??????? Model Building72??????? Electrical aspects76??????? Access Hatches77??????? Modeling Failures Turned to Scenic Highlights77??????? Achievements80??????? Future Modeling Projects80??????? Magazine Articles to Write80??????? Layout Maintenance81??????? Prototype Railroad ArtifactsApology: Some page numbers may have gotten displaced a little during the final editing. In fact, the version in the Reading Room does not even have page numbers.INRODUCTORY REMARKS I?????????? The Early Years ??????????? My introduction into the hobby of model railroading is a warm, fuzzy, nostalgic tale and is best told by copying the article I wrote for Model Railroader magazine in June, 1978.? I submitted the writing to Russ Larson, the Editor of MR at the time with the apology that the article was not about building a model railroad; but it did relate to the hobby.? When notified that the text had been accepted for publication, I asked Russ to find a place for it in the June issue because June contains Father’s Day.? I was very flattered when it came out ; and tears rolled down my father’s face as he read it.? Russ had replaced his usual editorial page comments with what he termed a “Guest Essay”:THANKS, DADJune 18 is Father’s Day. While many of us were introduced to this delightful hobby in other ways, I suspect a large number—especially those whose interest dates back to their youth—received their first contact with model railroading through their fathers. This was my situation, and I presume to represent a large segment of the hobby in expressing a collective “thank you” to the many fathers who planted those seeds of interest so long ago. The form of this expression is a brief narrative describing my initial encounter with the hobby.Each fall, Dad would ask my sister and me for suggestions from which he and Mother could select Christmas gifts. Always happy to comply, my list perennially cataloged all the “latest” toys—of course consistent with the maturing growth of a young lad. Curiously, shirts, pants and pajamas never found their way onto such a list. In 1947, Dad amended his annual request with a remark about a fellow schoolteacher (an adult) who was engaged in a hobby called “Model Railroading.” Dad asked me (a 12-year-old!) if I thought such a hobby might prove interesting. My immediate (unspoken) response was negative; but that would, I felt, necessitate an explanation as to why not build model trains when ships and airplanes seemed to be acceptable. So, a noncommittal grunt answering the latter question accompanied an enthusiastic promise to compose the requested list.Days later, Dad scanned the list just handed him: baseball mitt, Monopoly game, pocket knife … The exact composition of the list is neither important nor recalled; but what was significant was the total absence of any reference to the newly suggested hobby. Dad inquired about the omission, wondering if I had forgotten or simply was not interested. Again, I felt threatened if I should tender a negative reply; so the simpler expedient prevailed to issue a little white lie: “Sure, Dad, I just forgot. Here, let me add model trains to the list.” With that falsehood, the hobby was once again forgotten—forever, as much as I cared.Christmas 1947. The floor was littered with paper, boxes, and ribbons as little piles of treasure began to grow. Happy, excited chatter, punctuated by oh’s and ah’s for each newly opened gift, filled the air. My older sister carried on so about a blouse. Now, the baseball mitt was different. There was something to crow about!One more package remained for me under the tree. Shredding its wrapping, I read aloud the label: “Gor-don Var-ney. Box Car Kit. NYC Pacemaker.” I remembered wondering what NYC meant. Suddenly, the long-forgotten white lie was recalled and I had to strain a little to find the words: “Gee, thanks. That’s really neat.” The yellow, blue, and red box remained unopened under the tree the rest of that day and for several more to come. Monopoly and “catch” occupied most of my holidays.Eventually, the moment arrived. No one was around to play games; Mom and Dad had company; my sister was out for the evening. There was nothing to do but listen to my favorite Sunday night radio programs and fiddle with the contents of that box under the tree.As the familiar words emerged from the little radio: “Hello again; this is Jack Benny,” the blocks and sticks of wood, unidentified pieces of metal, and embossed paper cardstock were spread onto my desk. I began to tinker. Gradually, the blocks of wood became a rectangular framework with the aid of model airplane glue. To my surprise, crimped bands of brass gave the roof an appealing texture. Underframe, truck bolsters, and brake equipment did the same for the same for the underside of the floor. I became intrigued with the thought of what the finished product might be. Embossed card, printed in red and gray and lettered in white, magically yielding convincing car sides when cut along a line and glued to the sub-body. My pulse quickened as the pieces took shape and character. The newfound treasure was shown to both parents and guests for their inspection and approval with increasing frequency.The finished product sat before me—a New York Central boxcar. My proud eyes were unable to see the drop of paint spilled on the side, the huge gobs of glue holding incorrectly formed ladders against the body, nor the cardstock ends cut just a scale foot too short to cover the roof stock. All that took place more than 30 years ago. The car hides in its familiar box in a cabinet. Few people ever see it; but then, the car isn’t very good by anybody’s standards. I can see that now. Still, once in a while when I am alone, I pause from my current project to view again that monstrosity of a disaster. When I do, the never present observer would catch me in a quiet moment of misty reflection; and he might even hear a softly whispered, “Thanks, Dad!”– Robert E. Rothe??????????? Beginning with the early months of 1948, I would make frequent trips to Leonard’s Hobby Shop on Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park, a region of northwest Chicago.? My first kit (see the Guest Essay) was a Varney (Gordon Varney Company) red and grey NYC “Pacemaker” box car. This car can still be seen on my layout and to the right.? 238125052959000It is on display in the combination museum and rolling-stock-manufacturing-plant located under the staircase leading to the basement.? The car was badly assembled.? Edges do not mate squarely at the corners; and I cut the ends a little too short and wrongly filled in the gap with paint.? I even spilled a drop of roof paint onto the paperboard side of the car and an attempt to wipe away the error with lacquer thinner left a damaged spot on the side.Leonard’s Hobby Shop was a very comfortable place for me.? Shelves were stacked with hundreds of colorful yellow, red, and blue Varney freight car kit boxes.? I bought several of them.? A typical Varney kit cost $1.90.? I still have a number of these clearly recognizable and fondly remembered freight car boxes.? The hobby shop had a rack with issues of Model Railroader magazine (35 cents) which I bought monthly and read voraciously.? I bought a lifetime subscription to MR in the 1960’s for $60.? Today’s issues cost about $6 each.My first layout was a very simple oval of brass track on an unsceniced layout under the stairwell at my home at 6847 Foster Avenue in northwest Chicago.? It, too (like the locomotive), was not very dependable relative to operation.? That loco was a Varney kit costing my parents $37.50.? My grandparents bought the tender for $7.50.? They were gifts for my graduation from Garvey elementary school.? My layout was discarded after I left home for college. The hobby of model railroading is, for me, filled with nostalgia and wonderfully warm memories.? My model railroad has been a life-long labor of love - combining creativity, artistry, and a fair amount of tedium.From 1964 and well into the mid-2010s, some 12,000 visitors have come and gone.? I can remember RTD buses stopping in front of our home (connected to the 1977 NMRA convention) to unload half a bus load of visitors to the YVRR!II. Parameters for the New Layout As a teen-aged boy I only knew, first hand, about the C&NW Standard gauge commuter lines to and from downtown Chicago; so you will understand my dedication to standard gauge for my new layout.? I used to volunteer to go to the Jefferson Park railroad station to pick up my mother who worked at the American Can Co in downtown Chicago.? This offer let me drive the car as well as watch train after train chug into the station always headed by a Pacific (4-6-2) locomotive.? The smell of hot steam still lingers in both my memory and my nostrils.The first several kits built were in HO scale; so my continuing in that scale should be no surprise.? It was, in the 1940s, the most popular at 3.5 mm representing one foot of prototype (very close to 87:1 linear ratio).? It is large enough to allow a lot of detail and yet small enough to fit a lot of layout in a good-sized room. Concerning the era of my model railroad, several choices seemed possible.? I was born in 1935, began the hobby in 1947, and began the current layout in earnest in 1964. The year 1935 did not have steam locomotives as large and powerful as those I wanted to operate.? The year 1964, on the other hand, was too ensconced in diesel locomotives; and I wanted to make my YVRR an all-stream railroad.? Thus, the natural choice was to set my model railroad late in the year 1947!III?????????? CreditsJudy and I are anticipating the day when we will need to vacate our home of over 50 years and move into a retirement center.? We will need to de-clutter our home and that sadly will include some form of disassembly, destruction, dispersal, and/or distribution of my beloved model railroad.? I was discussing that distressing concept with my family in October of 2014.? My oldest son, Christopher, came up with the brilliant suggestion that I should somehow document the layout at its zenith in the remaining years before this sad disposal moment.? Further discussion of this notion led to the development of this picture book.? “Thanks, Chris” becomes a complimentary thought parallel to the initial article, “Thanks, Dad.”I immediately began thinking of who might be a sufficiently professional photographer to take a few hundred, close up, colored, detailed photos.?? Catherine Ballance, the wife of our pastor was one option.? The photographer for the Boulder Model Railroad Club, Keith Bobo, was another.? Catherine wouldn’t have the time and Keith would have charged a sizable amount of money.? Then a neighbor, Mark Frank, locally noted for his quality photography, and his wife, Karen, chatted with us in front of our home one day; and Mark sounded interested in taking on the project.? When asked if he would be willing to submit a bid for his services, he summarily declined.? He declared that he would love to do the project because it would be fun; but he would not accept any payment.? Therefore, the vast majority of the photos in this picture book can be credited to Mr. Mark Frank – another thank you opportunity.? Only a few photos were taken by me or unidentified others.? Those “other” photographers are identified when known; but, since this is a private book with very limited distribution, my hope is that the occasional uncredited photo recognized by the actual photographer as his/her work will forgive this unintended oversight.Then, in 2017, another quasi-professional photographer, Ms. Heidi Wagner asked me if she could take photos of my “passion” for an article she and a friend might develop for some yet-to-be-named publication.? In addition to her photos for her needs she took a number of photos for my use. Michael Gleydura is thanked for taking the video material to be found in the ancillary gallery; and Joel Terrell’s talent went into creating the website most of you are looking at right now.In 1977, the annual convention of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) was held in Denver; and my layout was accepted as one of the published layout tours.?? For a few months prior to the convention, BMRC friends and fellow modelers - Ken Ziebarth, Tom Madden, Max Piaseck, Jere Eggleston, Pat Gerstle, and Terry Merriman - came over almost every Tuesday evening to help prepare the layout for hundreds of visitors.? To this day, I still credit Terry for the scratch-built wood trestle bridge on the branch line, Ken for building one bridge, the Mt. Princeton Pickle Works, and the steam plant next to the Round House.? Tom installed some of the “popsicle stick” switch machines.? Playfully, the visiting men each week would hide one of my commercial figures, a seated woman holding a purse in her lap, in some weird place for me to find at my leisure.? These places included: sitting atop the tall chimney of the steam plant or buried to her chest in the brass shavings loaded into a hopper car. One other person needs to be credited for her endless patience.? My dear wife, Judy, has put up with an estimated 12,000 persons walking through her living room over about 60 years to gain access to my basement model railroad.? Consistent with wording used elsewhere, my loving comment to her is: “Thanks, Judy!”? A few other models on my layout were built by other persons; but these are identified, whenever recalled, wherever the photo appears in the picture book.? For example, I bought a pre-owned metal-sheathed engine house at a BMRC “swap meet”; and it is properly credited to Buzz Allen in the text.? ?I have purchased a few nicely-built structures from the estates of modelers who have died; and these, too, are credited if I know the builder’s name.IV. ????? The (Fictional) History of the Yampa Valley Railroad (YVRR)By 1890 several railroads had penetrated the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.? The Salida & Collegiate Range Ry. (S&CR) was one of the smaller ones and the forerunner of today’s modern Yampa Valley Railroad (YVRR).? The S&CR was born a mining road, serving the mountainous backbone of the continent – the Continental Divide – between home offices in Salida, Colorado, and mineral-rich Tincup, Colorado.? These mountains are named after famous Ivy League colleges: Mt Princeton, Mt Harvard, Mt. Yale, and Mt. Knox.? Mt. Knox is fictionally included in the collegiate range because my wife and I met and fell in love at Knox College.? The young S&CR railroad was required to pierce the beautiful but towering Collegiate Range.? Though born to mine, the S&CR’s growth may be laid to (invented/fictional) failures of mining ventures elsewhere.? The fabulous wealth predicted for the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado never developed, and the extension built by the D&RG to Durango and Silverton proved to be an expensive millstone.? Total abandonment was averted when the S&CR elected to purchase the entire north-south line between Salida, Colorado, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.? It was called the “Chili Line” because of all the chili peppers seen ripening on the homes of Spanish-speaking families along the route.Expansion northward also depended on (invented) problems befalling another railroad.? Snow on Rollins Pass, west of Denver, destroyed David Moffat’s dream of a railroad to Salt Lake City and his D&SL was forced to terminate at Craig, Colorado (true – not .? Eventually, snow won and the Moffat Road was sold to the growing and prospering S&CR.? The Dotsero Cutoff was built in 1935 to link the then northern terminus of the S&CR (near Glenwood Canyon) with ex-D&SL trackage at Bond, Colo.? This provided the S&CR an immediate main line into Denver via the famous Moffat Tunnel, plus a significant branch line to Craig, Colorado.Home offices were moved from Salida to the beautiful Yampa Valley of Northern Colorado late in 1935, and the S&CR Ry. was reincorporated as today’s Yampa Valley Railroad (YVRR).? Moffat’s western destination was set aside and YVRR crews turned sharply northward at Craig.? The line was quickly built connecting trackage from Craig through Benchley, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Teton Mountains.? Incidentally, Benchley is, according to my telling of history, the correct name for the city most maps label Rock Springs, Wyoming.? It is so named because the city rests atop my workbench!? Eventually, construction crews again turned south and continued construction to their planned destination, the bustling (fictional) city of AxeHandle, Idaho, a year or two after that.? At AxeHandle a major yard and division point was right6667500constructed, including a beautiful station towering well above the much lower classification yard tracks.The map shown at right presents (in red) the final route of the YVRR.? Denver (right center) and Santa Fe (bottom right) are magically connected permitting continuous running.? Major connections with other railroads are also shown in yellow.This fictional history of the YVRR follows actual Colorado railroad history with only a few intentional falsehoods intended to justify the YVRR being a major north/south railroad. An early version of this fictional history was published in the Model Railroader magazine in the August of 1984 edition.A PHOTO TOUR OF THE YVRRI now invite the reader to enjoy a photo Tour Around the Model YVRR.? Each chapter will “stop” at cities – including nearby locations and specific points of interest along the right-of-way.? Also, each chapter will be accompanied by dozens of photographs representing that area.? We will photo-tour the continuous Main Line first and then return to photo-tour the “point-to-point” (not suitable for continuous running) Branch Line.Since this document is also included in the website – presented as an “Art Museum” – with the document in the “Reading Room” Gallery.? Each chapter of this volume will appear as its own gallery.? That is, each gallery represents an entire city and its nearby environs.??? Typically, each gallery will present a Main Wall and a smaller Wall of various topics.The MAIN LINE? Santa Fe to Salida via Yankee Doodle LakeThe tour begins in Santa Fe, NM.? No photos appear because that southern terminus of the YVRR is, in my imagination, the (actual directions) southern end of the 4-track-wide full-train storage tracks against the east wall of the basement and behind Tincup.? Thus, Santa Fe like Denver (later on) is never seen; so, there are no photos of either. ?Yankee Doodle Lake224790037719000Our northbound travels will take us around beautiful Yankee Doodle Lake emerging out of a tunnel that has been repaired following a derailment that damaged the outside portion of the tunnel portal. See Figure at right. This scene is worth a bit of explanation.? When I first cemented the two-track-wide plaster-casting tunnel portal in place, I was embarrassed to find that a protruding valve on one side of my largest loco, a 2-8-4 Berkshire, just touched the portal as it passed through going in one direction.? That touch caused the locomotive to “twitch” a little. It didn’t derail; it just wiggled unrealistically.? Repositioning the portal 1/32” to clear was too difficult to do and I certainly was not going to defile my locomotive by cutting off the offending valve.? My creative solution was to grind enough plaster away with a Dremel tool to clear that valve.? That gave me the opportunity to create a mini scene of a repair gang fixing the damaged tunnel portal with fresh concrete.? The above figure shows the crew getting ready to mix the concrete.? Plywood at the site is for setting forms.? One person is just scrambling up the rocks after getting a cool drink of crisp, cold, clean, clear Rocky Mountain lake water from Yankee Doodle Lake..The lake, itself, has an interesting story.? I was shopping for some sheet acrylic for some household need.? I happened to pick up a sheet of wavy-surfaced, 1/8”-thick, semi-clear plastic such as might be used in a shower stall for modesty. ?Upon seeing that sheet in the store, I declared - almost out loud: “I’ve got to buy this sheet because the surface looks so much like a lake with gentle waves.? I had no idea at the time where it would go; but that is what makes the majority of Yankee Doodle Lake.? The sheet was later attached to a frame of 1x2 firing strip with a base at the bottom.? Before attaching the wavy plastic, a lake bottom contour was built up with plaster.?? I recall using up a couple of tubes of dark green oil colors painting in a “depth” to the lake.? The bottom is really only a scale 13’ deep; but it looks to be much deeper.? I also glued a length of rail and a couple of other railroad relics to the bottom of the lake.? I am very pleased with the final look of the finished lake.? Although not easy to do, the lake’s 1x2 frame and the lake itself can be lowered out of the way to make an access hatch.Unfinished Industry??????????? This two-story wood-framed building was built by another modeler who died before completing it.? I bought it at his estate sale; but I can no longer recall the name of the deceased.? The model came with an unfinished roof; but I chose not to use his roof because I wanted to show off the spectacular modeling detail inside the structure.? Nail holes are properly located where floor boards would be nailed to joists and the railings down staircases are beautifully done.? I just had to leave the roof off to permit this interior detail to be seen (even though, to see it, one must pop up inside an access hatch of the layout).? But buildings eventually need roofs; so this dilemma gave me the chance to make several roof trusses seen at ground level waiting to be hoisted to the height to install them.? I built a spidery, silver-painted hoist with a supposedly rotatable carriage that is seen just outside the building to lift roof trusses into place at some time in the near future.Overlook Hotel??????????? The regal-looking garden of this famous old hotel, imagined to be from a grander era, is going to be discussed in much greater detail later in our travels (Benchley, WY). As a tease, I will tell the reader that this hotel stems from Steven King’s scary book called “The Shining”.? Salida??????????? We are now about to enter the railroad town of Salida, CO.? Originally, the home offices of the S&CR RR were located there until they moved to the Yampa valley.? This story was told in the “Fictional History of the YVRR”.? Salida is a pretty big city but most of it exists off the available layout space.? Only the railroad station, a couple of small businesses, the classification yard, and the locomotive servicing facility can be found on the layout.177165031813500Railroad Station The passenger station (right) is wedged between the YVRR mainline and a very short portion of a mainline interchange with the D&RGW.? Diverging from this 2-railroad interchange emerges the approach tracks to YVRR’s Salida classification yards and its loco service facilities shown to the right.? The railroad station is loosely modeled after the stone passenger station in 237490000Antonito, CO, which, likewise, is wedged between two branches of the D&RGW narrow gauge lines – west? to Chama, NM and? on to Durango, CO and south via the “Chili Line” heading to Santa Fe.? Two old timers are playing a game of checkers outside the station while their dog sleeps at their feet (left).? Elsewhere on the platform, passengers await the next train. The familiar logo of the YVRR can be seen painted onto the stoop approaching the double doorway (above).? A stone monument placed atop a brick base (above, left) – near the corner of the two routes – is actually a fragment of the historic London Bridge.? When that bridge was disassembled and moved to Arizona, small chips unavoidably broke loose; and one does not discard any part of such an historic relic.? These “scraps” were gathered up and sold as souvenirs.? My parents bought me two of these.? The other one, enclosed in a wooden framework, is inside a freight car as though it were being shipped someplace. ?I do not recall which box car contains this valuable relic.? After all, a piece of this stone a bit more than ?” suddenly becomes a 4-foot block of the London Bridge!? At the bottom of the flagpole to the left of the monument and not seen above, a circular flower bed exists.? The “flowers” are candy sprinkles, normally used to decorate cookies, laid out by color in a circular “garden”.? My model station is scratch built using stone-embossed plastic sheet applied over a sub-surface.? The turret has the same stone sheet wrapped and glued around a short length of commercial PVC pipe.? The heavy brass doors, seen in the above figure, are made from Christmas cards that had the shiny gold foil decorating them.? Door and window “glass” was cut away and the remaining foil was glued to a glass microscope slide.Wheel-Grinding Co? One Salida industry modeled, is the Apex Wheel Grinding Co.? If the brakes get stuck on a real railroad such that a moving train has its wheels clamped and are sliding over the rail rather than rolling, a very small flat spot can be worn into the supposedly round steel wheel.? This flat spot would, if uncorrected, cause the contents of the car to suffer continuous – albeit small – bouncing.? That is the rationale for this industry.? The front yard is littered with lots of clutter including a few wheel sets that have sunk into the softer earth.? This is modeled by grinding plastic wheel sets down to a flat surface and gluing them onto the surface terrain.? Other clutter just came from my scrap box to make the industry look busy.? The simple plastic kit was designed to be a Machine Shop; so this business does not fall far from that intention.The interior of this building has a small motor that drives a circular Dremel stone grinding disk.? A commercial piece of flint (a striker for a propane torch) is held by a length of springy metal such that the flint bounces off the disk randomly as the disk rotates.? This animation produces sparks that can be seen though the business’s windows.? A hidden electrical push button causes the motor to operate whenever I want visitors to see this small scenic animation.? One oversight - there is no door into the facility actually large enough to bring in large-diameter wheels such as a locomotive driver.? The front door is clearly a personnel door.? The roof vents and two small details are really standoff posts from an electronic breadboard such as that used for designing electronic circuits.? The two yard lights are scratch built.? A black pickup truck has one freight car wheel in its bed.The only other simulated building close to the wheel grinding company is a YVRR warehouse.? This building was installed just to hide a support for the bridge on the upper level (to be discussed much later).The Salida Yardleft7666300??????????? Incoming trains are directed onto one of two Receiving Tracks.? After cutting off the locomotive, the 0-6-0 switcher cuts the train apart shunting cars into one of 5 Classification tracks (beyond the cabooses).? First, of course, the caboose is moved to the caboose track (foreground) because “the crew is paid until the caboose is spotted”.? YVRR Standard Switch StandsDark grey switch stands with red vane route indicators have a story behind them.? Many years ago, I was working toward earning the coveted designation of “Master Model Railroader” or MMR.? To earn this status, I had to “pass” 7 out of a possible 12 modeling categories.? Judges came to my home and the standards of judging were extremely high and quite “picky”.? Not many modelers earn an MMR.? The “Scenery” category required me to identify at least 32 square feet of my layout that could be judged by a team of trained judges.? My designated area included the Salida Yard and Loco Service Facility.? The judges spent an hour or more and sadly told me that they could not “pass” my submission partly because the turnouts (switches) did not have any simulated mechanisms to operate them.? They were absolutely right.? That was a huge oversight on my part; but the rules of the MMR status would allow the modeler to rectify any errors or omissions and ask to be re-evaluated.? No turnouts on my YVRR had any such mechanisms.? I needed to buy or make about 50 of these and install them on turnouts all over the layout (Salida, Tincup, Bond, etc.).? Good looking commercial switch stands are available but they cost a few dollars each.? I’d have to spend a couple hundred dollars; or I could design and make my own mechanisms.? I chose the latter route.My collection of small parts that might or might not ever find their way onto my layout or into my modeling included a few styles of metal soldering posts also called, I think, “standoffs”.? These are coated metal shapes that are designed to fit into a perforated “breadboard” used by people who design electronic circuits.? The metal pieces are “peened” onto perforations on the breadboard such that resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc. may be soldered to them.? One metal piece had a cylindrical base that just fit nicely into the open hole at the top of another style of standoff.? The first piece has a notch at its top into which a short length of flat brass bar stock could be soldered.? The bar stock, painted red, became the vane.? The 2nd piece, painted grey, became the base of the home-made switch stands.? As an added value the vane was free to rotate in the base; so the mechanism could be manually moved to indicate if a given turnout was in its “through” or “divergent” route.? This vane rotation of 90? does not happen automatically as the turnout is thrown; it has to be done as a separate finger flick of the vane.? In truth, I seldom bother with this added finger flick.? I only demonstrate to visitors that the two movements can be done producing a proper turnout indication to the scale locomotive engineer.? The MMR judges were very satisfied with this creative solution.? I am now the 281st MMR in the world.? I am quite proud of that designation.? By 2017, the number has risen to over 500 MMRs.Interlocking Tower??????????? The Interlocking Tower is the first structure one sees (beside the seldom seen warehouse) as one enters the Salida Yard.? It is painted in the standard YVRR colors of Reefer Yellow on top of Pullman Green. The building is situated right next to the turnout that separates the switcher lead track from the main yard tracks.? It is scratch built; and the top story walls are composed of wood strips glued onto thin glass slides to simulate the high-vision requirements of a real interlocking tower.? These vision requirements (allowing visitors to see inside as well as workers to watch the yard activity) gave me a reason to detail the interior.? A series of wooden levers with red handles represent the manual turnout throws that would be operated by the Yard Master to direct cars to their needed track.? The number of levers equals the number of turnouts in the yard.? A table can be seen in that room that shows the track configuration of the Salida yard.? A simulated calendar can be seen hanging on the back wall.? At the moment, three people are manning the tower.? One additional employee is approaching the windowless door on the lower level right next to a blackboard.? I imagine this blackboard to be a Union Notice board.? A weather-protected telephone box is located on one end at a convenient talking height.? Clutter congregates around the trash can; and larger items are stored between the building and the hillside next to the building.? Heavy scratches around the corner from the doorway suggest that some flat car did not have its load properly secured such that a loose steel strap gouged the wall some time ago.? The roof (Campbell gummed shingle paper) also shows evidence of pigeons and pigeon droppings near the crown of the roof.A Decapitation24803103810000There are not too many buildings in the Salida Yard (or any freight yard); but the next scenic item to be discussed is found just a few inches down the track from the Interlocking Tower.? There the sharp-eyed visitor would see a commercial figure lying at right angles to the outside rail of the track leading to the Caboose storage track.? His body is dangerously close to the rail and his decapitated head lies just inside the rail.? Yes, the always Safety-First YVRR has had a fatal accident.? A human being has been decapitated by a passing train.? Though the scene is admittedly morbid; the story behind it is a bit humorous.? When I was still a pre-teen visiting Leonard’s Hobby Shop one time, I elected to squander 75 cents to purchase a Weston (brand) figure in HO scale.? Being young and eager to enjoy my new purchase at home, I was playing with it and dropped the investment onto the floor of my bedroom.? The pot-metal figure broke separating the head from the body.? Any normal person would discard the carelessly broken model; but my frugal side came into play. ?I simply could not bear to waste 75 cents in the late 1940s.? The two pieces resided in one of the drawers of my plastic parts-storage bin.? About a quarter of a century later, a 14-year-old boy, John Templeton, who came over almost every night for a month or more just to “play trains”, found the pieces and decided it would be “cute” to stage a decapitation for me to discover at some later date.? This scenic detail has remained there for about 30 years.? On one occasion a woman brought over her 12-year-old grandson to see my layout.? The boy was so disturbed by the scene that he could not function until after I had removed the scene from the layout.A Snow Plow and the Work TrainA short spur track cuts off from the far Classification track – which, oddly enough, just happens to be the one closest to the person viewing the yard from the most common location. This spur is a “house track” and houses the YVRR’s wreck train.? The first car in line is a kit built (Craftsman kit) wedge type snow plow.? It was difficult to assemble and took me about six months to build.? I made the two snow-removal blades so they are operational – albeit with the fingers replacing some massive hydraulic assembly inside the car.? One detail never noticed because the car is never pushed into an actual snow situation is that the flanges of the front truck scrape the underside of the car.? I removed most of the flange to enhance clearance; but the car probably would not track well if actually moved in a work train. The other cars parked on this spur include a crane car with its spacer boom car, a ballast car, an engineering car, and a supply car with a bay windowThe purchase of these work cars (excluding the wedge plow) is an interesting tale.? There used to be a hobby shop of sorts at 17th and Pearl.? The merchandise there was a strange combination of slot-car racing items and high quality brass steam locomotives as well as scratch building lumber supplies and the few Silver Streak work train cars discussed above.? That is, they catered mostly to young boys who would have little interest in expensive locomotives.? Not surprisingly, one day a sign in the window announced a “going-out-of-business” sale with everything 25% off.? I considered buying a 2-8-4 Berkshire I coveted; but I couldn’t bring myself to splurge even $50.? The next week, however, everything was 50% off.? I just could not resist!? I bought the brass Berk for about $35 to $40 and I also bought the Salida’s 0-6-0 switcher and the entire string of M-O-W cars just discussed.? While standing at the counter, I enquired about a quite large box of strip wood containing many individual tubes of both dimensional (scale 2x4 , 8x8, etc.) and fractional lumber (1/16”x?, ?”x?, etc.) in HO scale.? I offered the store’s owner $3 for the whole box but appearing to be miffed at such a low-ball offer, he said: “I don’t want to just give the stuff away; make it $5 and you have a deal!”.? At that time, I acquired a lifetime supply of 2’-long scratch building strip wood for next to nothing!The area alongside the M-O-W string is a busy setting with about a dozen workers hard at work.? There is a pile of ties neatly stacked awaiting a need.? One worker stands atop this stack drinking an unidentified beverage; another major task underway is the cutting apart of a no-longer-useful gondola car.? I gave myself the modeling challenge of setting a scene wherein a crew is cutting apart a rib-braced steel-sheathed gondola.? It was a plastic kit; so careful cutting leaving the ribs still showing while removing several of the steel sheathes was altogether doable.? I had finished removing perhaps a third of the sheathes, leaving the delicate vertical side ribs and the top and bottom rails.? It looked really cool.? I was in the process of taking a photo of that car undergoing disassembly for an article I was writing for the Model Railroader magazine: “The Art of Aging” (April, 1977).?? I had the camera set on a tripod with an incandescent light overhead to provide the desired lighting and shadows.? I had already taken the photo published in MR and was preparing to take a second photo of the same setup such that I could choose the better photo for the magazine when the doorbell rang.? We were expecting guests for the evening, Bob and Vicki Uhr.? The exposure time was going to be several minutes (slow ASA film); so I went upstairs to welcome Bob and Vicki while the light was on and the shutter was open.? I invited the two of them to join me downstairs while I closed the shutter and turned off the light before going upstairs for the evening’s plans.? To my shock and surprise the heat from the illumination lamp had soaked into the gondola car and bent the model into a banana-like curve.? Not at all realistic!? I swallowed my disappointment and we all had a good laugh.? The next day I cut away and discarded most of the curved plastic car leaving only the believable short fraction of the original gondola.My wife, my father, and each of my four children are honored, by name, on the layout somehow and someplace. In this M-O-W area, my oldest son, Chris, is sending an opened-framework crate containing a pair of brand new freight car trucks from Chris’s Railroad Truck Company.The Salida SwitcherThe 0-6-0 switcher generates another funny story.? Being just a utility locomotive never leaving the yard but always busy shunting cars about, I decided the locomotive ought to be well weathered.? After painting it a “grimy black”, I added evidence of boiler scald all over the locomotive and tender.? I used the “dry brush” method of weathering for this effect.? A small brush is touched into a paint with a different solvent (I used artist’s white oil color), and almost all (95%) of the paint is removed from the brush by dabbing the brush into a Kleenex tissue.? Then, the little residual paint retained on the brush is “jabbed” against the surface leaving little pock marks of scald.? A few years later, a visitor named Bernie Watts and his wife “Sissy” were touring the YVRR.? Bernie was a real locomotive engineer for the scenic railroad in southern Colorado (the Cumbres and Toltec RR).? When I showed Bernie my simulated boiler scald on the switcher, he broke out in a heavy chuckle explaining that a locomotive that leaked steam there – pointing to the place where steam from the boiler entered the cylinder chest housing the pistons driving, in turn, the drivers – was called a “Slobberer” and would be very inefficient!? Horrified that I had made such a blunder and promising to fix it the next day, Bernie tried to put me at ease by pointing out that no one other than another locomotive engineer would ever notice that error.? My slobberer has been working the Salida yard for many decades since then.? It has been run so much, in fact, that I have worn away much of the nickel plating originally applied to the six driving wheels.? That means that the wheels tend to accumulate grime from the rails faster such that the wheels need frequent cleaning.?? The YVRR Management (me) has relocated that switcher to serve the less-busy community of Craig, Colorado, instead; and a replacement 0-6-0 having a “canned” motor instead of an “open frame” motor was purchased from Caboose Hobbies for Salida. The Refer Car Icing PlatformThe opposite end of the Salida yard has a refrigerator car icing platform capable of delivering cooling blocks of ice to refrigerator cars on both the 3rd and 4th storage tracks.? This was a quality kit but not quite as challenging as a “Craftsman kit”.? It is, of course, painted in the familiar yellow over dark green YVRR Colors.? A wooden “track” way carries the ice from the insulated sheathed ice-storage shed.? A few blocks of “ice” can be seen along this track.? The ice is made from sawn rectangular pieces of Plexiglas that have been “sculpted” a bit to make their edges a bit irregular by using the point of a large nail as a chisel to break away small chunks of plastic.? The sheen of such a cleaved surface looks quite realistic.? These plastic pieces look nothing like a chunk of Plexiglas. For security reasons and to exclude unwanted personnel from gaining access to the ice deck, I scratch built a locking door protecting the access ladder.? I always wondered how the ice got from the delivery track into the bunkers inside the reefers.? I made a few portable trays of wood that could be rested against the ice hatch on the freight car and serve as a slide for the ice to be delivered.? I have no idea how this was done for real; but that is the method used on the YVRR.? Water from melted ice, leaked onto the ground below the icing facility was simulated by painting the ground cover with a glossy varnish.right28956000The Refrigerator Car Icing Platform on the YVRR’s Salida yard elicits fond, warm and romantic memories from my years as a college student at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. At the end of my junior year, my girlfriend over the previous school year (Judy Bowers – now my wife of almost 60 years!) and I had a huge fight which we both expected would end our relationship forever.? The following fall upon returning to Knox, both of us were free to date other people.? Honestly unaware of the possibility that I was trying to induce jealousy in Judy, I asked a freshman girl, “Barbara”, from my Music Theory class for a date.? Flattered to be asked out by an upper classman – a senior! – Barbara readily said “yes” and naturally wondered where we would go and what we would do.? In complete innocence, I explained to Barbara that I had been thinking for some time that I would like to go to the large freight classification yard in Galesburg – only a short walk from the college campus – and take some long-exposure (low ASA film) night-time, color photography, by starlight and existing light.? That is, I was asking Barbara to spend a Friday night with me alone and in a dark and remote setting. She looked surprised and shocked and, not wanting to accuse me falsely of any inappropriate intentions, asked if she could let me know the following day if that would work for her. The next day, Barbara said “yes” with the proviso that her roommate and her date join us on a “double date”. Having no nefarious motives whatsoever, I happily agreed to her terms.? That Friday night, four college students found their way to the refrigerator car icing platform in the huge Galesburg freight yards.? The occasional overhanging incandescent lights along the mile-long platform cast marvelous illuminations from the occasional blocks of ice strewn along the length of the platform awaiting loading into reefer cars.? I still think the 40-minute-long-exposure-time, color slide (see print above) taken that night is beautifully artistic.? It would make a spectacular cover photo for Trains magazine!A humorous tag to this story involves my roommate, Ed, calling Judy that afternoon to tell her about my plans with Barbara.? Hidden by darkness, Judy and Ed followed the four of us on our date to the freight yards and spied on us that entire evening.? I can’t help but think of that true story whenever I spot a reefer at the icing platform on my YVRR.The Water Tank and Vicinity??????????? This model is a kit-built water tank painted in YVRR’s Pullman Green and Refer Yellow.? The water contained therein serves one purpose besides the watering of locomotive tenders.? A nearby fire hose station stands ready to fight fires.? The idea for this concept stemmed from an observation during a visit to the narrow gauge facilities near Alamosa and Antonito, CO.? Nearby, a crew of two persons can be seen fixing a leak in some kind of piping in a below-grade pit with a wire mesh top. One worker can be seen taking a drink from a drinking fountain.? Humorously, the story I have been telling for years that the drinking fountain is located near the water tank because it is the source of the water is probably un-prototypical and illogical.? It is unlikely that potable water would be used for steam locomotives; so the drinking fountain must really be served by city water.?? The water tank can be seen to the left of the coaling station in the figure (below)The figure is commercial; but the drinking fountain was turned down from an electronic standoff as is used in electronic breadboard circuits.? Across the Caboose Storage Track from the below-grade valve pit one finds the Caboose Track Cleaning and Re-Stocking Station - a fenced horizontal wooden platform at the height of the interior of the cabooses.? Usually a string of previously-serviced cabooses is sitting there awaiting coupling onto the tail end of some freight train.? Aside from other caboose-cleaning equipment, one finds a wooden-handled push boom.? I enjoy pointing out that the broom’s bristles are my son’s (Paul’s) hair collected after Judy gave him a haircut decades ago.? The Coaling Station and Vicinity??????????? This model is also kit-built from the well-known Campbell kit.? I built the kit so that the two coal lifting elevator bunkers actually slide up and down the shafts from the below-grade coal storage pit up to the elevated bunker.? I suspect that thousands of these kits have been sold; and, yet, I discovered a couple of errors in the kit’s instruction sheets and wrote Leo Campbell about them.? He replied personally and informed me that no one else had ever contacted him about these errors.? I felt that the kit needed ladders to allow workers to access various heights going up as far as the top of the coal bin.? The kit did not provide these. 015176500? I built my own ladders rising almost 70 feet above the ground.? Surely, such heights warranted safety devices for the climber; so I invented these which could actually be used in prototype situations.? A metal pipe is centered between the edges of the ladder on the back side of the climbing rungs.? The climber would wear a belt around his waist with two lengths of heavy canvas strapping - each ending with a hook.? Climbers are required to have one of these hooks clamped onto the centered pipe at all times.(“This End Up”)??????????? The small room on the ground floor has had a crate delivered; and it is still sitting inside the room just inside the doorway.? The crate, however was too large for the doorway; so workers had to turn the crate on its side to get it through the door – even though the crate is clearly labeled “This Side Up”.? The result of this improper rotation was that oil has been spilled out of some reservoir and can be seen spreading across the floor.? The visitor must get the light just right to see this problem.? The opposite side of this same ground-floor room has two windows; but, since this is a coaling station, these windows are covered in coal dust.? The dirty windows are large X-ray film plates obtained from some young woman tending the imaging center at our local hospital.? She laughed when I told her of the film’s impending use.? I think they were someone’s broken femur bone.??????????? The Caboose Storage track doubles as the way to bring in hopper loads of coal to be dropped through a metal grate to the below-grade coal-storage bin.(the ash pit)??????????? Directly in front of the coaling station is the ash pit where locomotives drop their hot ashes to be hoisted by a conveyor belt into an out-of-service hopper car.? This is probably prototypically a very unwise design - hot ashes, still glowing, in close proximity to coal and coal dust.? I made the pile of ashes from a small block of clear plastic cut, filed, and chipped to resemble a series of mounds.? Then, I counter bored a hole in the bottom of the plastic to hold a red-colored grain-of-wheat bulb to produce “glowing coals”.? To hide the actual bulb, I coated the plastic with a varnish and dusted real ashes from our fireplace onto the wet varnish.? A hidden clip turns on the red lamp just after an incoming locomotive arrives to await its turn on the turntable.(the tipped wheelbarrow)??????????? Just outside the coaling station and along a path around the turntable, an unfortunate worker pushing a wheel barrow has accidentally tipped the wheelbarrow over onto its side, spilling its contents onto the path.? Initially, the worker was a figure carrying a sack of something (possibly flour) on his shoulder.? When the sack broke loose and fell away, the persona of the figure suddenly changed to one of anger - probably accompanied by unprintable profanity.? The spilled wheel barrow gives him a reason for this distress. The Turntable and Vicinity ??????????? This model was actually begun in the middle 1950s as a graduate school project at Caltech.? I was taking a class in Machine Shop practices as a means of learning what can and cannot be done with lathes and milling machines to help me design nuclear experiments.? Oddly enough, this class served me very well in my professional career as an experimental nuclear physicist at Rocky Flats since I was then able to design practical and buildable experimental equipment even though I was not the machinist performing the shop work.? At Caltech, I milled the (unseen) side framework and the center and end blocks of the turntable.? I used a lathe to produce a smooth-functioning central rotational column a well as the rolling wheels fit into the two end blocks.? This precision hardware sat in a box until the late 1960s (or even the early 1970s) after we had moved to our present home and the YVRR needed a turntable for its locomotive servicing facilities at the Salida freight yards.? Then, I built the wooden superstructure to fit onto the machined components.? I also built the depressed pit and the circular rail around the outside perimeter. Later, I added the drive mechanism under the layout using the rubber-edged drive wheel from an old, broken, record player to turn the turntable at a very low speed.? This slow rotational speed was accomplished by making a wooden circle, to be driven by the record player part, attached to the central rod.? I had found a 110V, reversible, AC, electric motor to supply the diving force.? The motor’s geared-down RPMs had to be combined with the diameters of the two driving wheels to produce the existing slow turning of YVRR steam locomotives.? I even made a “clutch” coupling the record player wheel to the wooden wheel, although this clutch proved not to be necessary.? Still, many years later, I added the turntable operator’s enclosed shed at one end of the turntable.? I reasoned that the prototype of this model turntable would have been electrically driven; so I installed two clear-faced electrical meters in the shed to enable the operator to monitor turntable functioning.? These meters are actually the casting sprues from some structure model where that model’s clear windows were cast by injection molding and the sprues would normally be simply thrown away.??????????? The model has functioned flawlessly for many decades.? I considered making an automatic indexing system to stop the rotation precisely for perfect alignment at each connecting track but replaced that complexity with a manual track alignment approach that would have been used on the prototype.? After all, I am right up close to the turntable when operating it so I can visually align the table with each track it serves.? I use a spring-loaded electrical switch to operate the table; so tiny adjustments are easily done.? Furthermore, the ends of the rails on the table as well as each track it serves are chamfered such that perfect alignment is not even required.? Only one alignment problem existed; and that was when lining up with the track to the Yard Receiving tracks.? The angle made it difficult for me to judge alignment.? I glued a fragment of mirror glass to a metal piece that can be set on the end of the rotating turntable such that I can now view the closure though the mirror.??????????? This model has been around or over six decades; and it still is not finished!? The final model detail to be added will be the locking mechanisms (not operational) that would lock the turntable at each track alignment.? I intend to copy the method used at the Colorado Railroad Museum.(locomotive safety precautions)??????????? From the onset of turntable use, I worried about my accidentally running an expensive locomotive too fast off the wrong end of the table.? So, I protected tracks into the roundhouse?against moving locos the wrong direction by modeling an out-of-service YVRR box car backed by a strong piece of Masonite.? That car models a storage shed.? It is modeled to be old and decrepit.? It has missing, rusted, and broken grabirons.? A few of the car’s side boards have warped and have been patched.? The freight car’s original door has been filled in with a smaller personnel door inserted.? One window cut into the car is very dirty from lack of cleaning attention (more X-ray film).? A small shed has been attached at one end for additional storage.? Even the door to that addition hangs by just one hinge; and rodents have nibbled holes in the bottom of the side wall to gain access into the shed.??????????? A pretty big mound of dirt (plaster overlaid with simulated gravel) would stop any locomotive entering the turntable from the yard receiving tracks from overshooting the end of the table.The Roundhouse and Vicinity?????????? I totally scratch built the roundhouse and, in my opinion, it is one of my best such structures.?? The cross section of a typical stall took a lot of research and contemplation before arriving at the two different ceiling heights and slopes of the final design.? The angular spread between adjacent stalls, the length of each stall, and the distance from the end of the turntable had to be considered in light of the lengths of my locomotives.? The resulting compromise has worked very well over the life of the YVRR.? Interior details are what renders this structure interesting.? Every few years I remove the roof and add additional details inside and/or increase the clutter.? The roundhouse foreman’s office is being sheathed with plywood on the outside.? The inside of that office features a large blackboard that contains chalked entries supposedly showing the status of locomotives.? The blackboard is actually a 35-mm black-and-white slide once used in a presentation to the American Nuclear Society.? Rows and columns on the blackboard appear to be entries concerning locomotive status; but these columns, when projected onto a screen, actually pertained to neutron energies, neutron cross sections, and similar nuclear properties.? The printing is far too small to read on the slide.? On the slide, that which is projected as black print is actually clear and not white.? I used a white-out correction fluid on the back side of the slide to make this writing appear white.A nearby elevated and portable working platform in the same stall as the office finds two men working (struggling!) with some component of a steam locomotive being repaired.? A few visitors have misconstrued their actions as if they were fighting one another; but they’re not.? A large sloped table in the next stall has blueprints spread out over it with one worker studying them.? Another nearby worker is talking on a telephone mounted on one of the roof-support timbers.? The wide part of the next stall has a sink where dirty hands – a well as tools – can be cleaned and de-greased.? Still another stall features a “gap-bed lathe”, a very large machine tool for turning large-diameter objects such as locomotive drivers.? The idea for this tool came from a visit to the CB&Q roundhouse at Galesburg, IL, in the mid-1950s.? In fact, a length of aluminum cutting formed into a loose coil has been made into a circular Christmas tree ornament and hangs on our tree most years.? The same stall as the lathe also has the somewhat-enclosed workmen’s changing room.? It is lined with green lockers.? Instead of a shower, there is a bathtub with a free-standing shower spray emptying into the tub.? I try to warn female visitors not to look too closely as a naked man is taking a shower.The six pair of doors – one pair for each stall – all operate. I glued a hypodermic syringe needle to each door and passed a thin wire through each needle bent to 90? at the bottom. A similar bend at the top allowed the door’s wire to be pressed into slightly undersized holes drilled into the door’s frame.? Some of the windows in the roundhouse’s clearstory windows are glued open; but these windows do not operate. One side wall of the roundhouse features a complicated (but not prototypical) configuration of red-painted fire-protection valving.? The other side has the parking lot for roundhouse workers.The roof of the roundhouse was an interesting project.? Early on, I had decided to use coarse sandpaper painted black to represent a tar-and-gravel roof.? Belt sander paper was long enough to span the front-to-back dimension of every stall; but it was not wide enough.? Commercial sheets of rectangular sandpaper were wide enough for every stall; but they were not long enough to extend front to back of the roundhouse.? I decided that, if I was very careful to line up the sandpaper edges, the joint would never show.? That idea did not work; and the finished roof had a clearly-defined joint across each of the six stalls.? The roof looked like the stall roofs were jointed!? This was unacceptable to me.? To solve this modeling problem, I ran a light bead of white glue along the joints as well as a number of other branches.? I then drizzled black dirt onto the glue simulating patches in the tar-and-gravel roof.? That presented me with the opportunity to model a scene of more workers on the roof continuing the roof-patching process.? Sacks of sand are made from short lengths of brass tubing (from a ball-point pen) pinched tightly in a strong bench vise.? A small simulated propane tank fires the melting pot.? One lazy worker has snuck off and is seated at the peak of the clearstory watching the busy operations at the turntable.? Obviously, he is a rail buff. Steam Plant??????????? Electrical power for the entire Salida yard is generated in this coal-fired plant.? One side has an enclosed coal bin.? A gravity-feed gas pump fuels YVRR trucks and other internal combustion engines and equipment.? The opposite side of the Steam Plant is the lunch area with a wooden lunch table on which one can find sandwiches, thermoses of hot coffee, a?couple of pickles and a few bananas.? The bananas and pickles are simply caraway seeds painted the right color.? The wall itself has an array of useful tools hanging on pegs and stored in bins.??????????? The Steam Plant is a simple, commercial, plastic kit with no modifications other than the external details just mentioned.? The tall brick chimney serving this plant has a humorous tale behind it.? The NMRA had a National Convention in Denver in 1977; and several BMRC friends came over on Tuesday evenings spanning a couple of months to clean up the layout and even make a few models in preparation for hundreds of visitors during the convention.? They soon developed the practice of moving one of my figures (a seated woman in a brown dress with coat and handbag over one arm) into strange and improbable locations.? One Wednesday morning, I found the woman seated atop the Steam Plant’s chimney with her feet inside the chimney.? (On other occasions, she was buried up to her neck in brass shavings in a hopper car and, another day, inside a water diversion ditch in Tincup!) Model railroading is fun!Salida to TincupThe two tracks leading into the yard at Salida actually form a turning wye which can be used to turn a complete northbound train into a southbound one or visa versa.? The only limitation is the length of the train.? If it is too long, the yard cannot accommodate such a turnabout.23241006286500Trains leaving Salida bound for Tincup are northbound.? They circle a region containing a sheep herding pen and a working limestone quarry.? Continuing north, the train passes under one arch of my rendition of the Starrucca Viaduct (right),? a quite tall, very long, multi-arched, grey-colored, railroad bridge actually located in Pennsylvania.? I actually traversed over this bridge one time as I returned from Washington DC to Denver via 3 days of train travel.? I have moved the bridge from the eastern US to Colorado and changed the color to a more yellowish cast.Passengers on the right side of the train can catch a quick sight of the Gordon Varney model railroad kit manufacturing company.? The roof of this structure has a two-faced sign proudly announcing the business.? The sign even continues the incorrect reference to the scale-factor of the industry that is printed on every yellow with red and blue box of Varney kits.? The sign (as well as the actual kit boxes) proclaim the contents to be HO gauge.? The correct term should be HO Scale.? Modelers in HO can model many different gauges from Standard Gauge to Narrow Gauge – a point that was overlooked by the graphic designers working for Gordon Varney in the 1940s.My model is built in cut-away fashion such that visitors can see the inside of the industry in considerable detail. There are long racks of shelves containing kits waiting shipment as well as tables of parts that assemblers will be putting into the kit boxes.? Since my first freight car was a Varney kit, this structure has a warm place in my heart.Yankee Doodle Lake (actually, the same lake discussed previously as we left the tunnel damaged by an earlier derailment; but who is to say that there cannot be two lakes with the same name with roughly – or precisely, in this case – the same shoreline?)? The lake has one industry along its shoreline.? Saw MillThe Camp Six Bridge and Block Company is an active saw mill shown in the figure below.?? The entire complex of buildings is a combination of several commercial kits related to logging.? One of these is the black “Wigwam” Slash burner with its long conveyer belt leading to the top of the burner.? A “Stiff-Legged Boom Crane” and a “Pillar Crane” can fetch logs out of the water.? Arriving logs come in on a flat car and are pushed off that car into the water using a “Jill Poke” (lower left of center).? This is a rigidly fixed heavy steel bar with teeth on both ends that can ‘bite’ into the bark of a stack of logs and push logs into the water as a locomotive pushes the car into the teeth of the Jill Poke.?? The falling logs tumble off sloped logs set into the bank to avoid eroding that bank. ?The perimeter of the log storage area is defined by a few logs chained together end to end.? Two persons on the logs and on top of 2 stacks of lumber have binoculars in their hands.? Both are looking at a couple of pretty sun-bathing girls across the bay.? The model female figures were nudes; but I painted bikini swimsuits on them as this is a family layout.? The right89622600girls are enjoying the sun on a large, red blanket.Tincup??????????? Two mainline tracks pass through Tincup.? In town, two pair of opposing turnouts permit trains to move from one mainline to the other; and a number of industrial spurs branch off of each main line.Mt Princeton Pickle WorksThe first industry encountered at the outskirts of Tincup is the kit-built Pickle company.? The kit was built by Ken Ziebarth in preparations for the 1977 NMRA Convention which included my layout on one of the Scheduled Layout Tour routes.? Ken weathered the plastic-kit industry nicely and is often credited to visitors for his contribution.One humorous aspect of the model is the externally-added cask of “unrefined pickle distillate”.? I can’t imagine what that could be.The Brick Yard ??????????? The Colorado Brick Company is a fully-scratch-built model diorama, loosely copied after the brick company of the same name which once stood near 63rd and Valmont in Boulder.? Both brick kiln models are cast in plaster using home-made molds of flexible rubber.? Liquid rubber was painted onto a wooden “original” made to the size and shape of the actual kiln.? Several coats of rubber were painted on and allowed to harden until the mold was thick enough to hold its shape when filled with runny plaster.? Paper printed in a simulated brick pattern was glued around side walls of each kiln; and several steel bands surrounded the perimeter to hold the building stable against sideways pressure.? One kiln was modeled with open access as though it was waiting to be loaded with the next batch of raw brick.? The other has had its opening bricked in as though a batch of raw brick was inside being “fired”.? The “firing” is accomplished by rings of gas tubing connected to propane tanks outside each kiln.??????????? The raw brick is formed in the long brick building where suitable clay from one of the piles of different-colored clay piled around the grounds is brought into the building, mixed with water and extruded into the raw bricks – unusable until they are “fired” into hard bricks. Most of the raw material is delivered by rail, although one truck load of reddish clay is being delivered by road.? A conveyor belt is used to create piles of different colored (red, yellow, and grey at the moment) clay.? Stacks of finished bricks are seen up the hill awaiting loading onto a flat car for shipment.? New raw material for bricks is brought on site by railcar via a spur track branching off the crossover track from the far mainline to the near mainline tracks. The Junkyard??????????? The Tincup Fuel and Iron Company is a good-size junk yard dealing in scrap metals.? It is served by the same spur that accesses the Brick Plant; but a heavy-duty, operational, sliding, metal (wood simulated) gate separates the two industries.? Making the scrap pile allowed me to use up all sorts of tiny fragments left over from a myriad of kits, gears from old alarm clocks, bits of rusty tin cans.? Anything goes.? I even “rusted” a couple of old automobile carcasses and a few automotive components that came from damaged kits.? A rusty potbellied stove can be found as well as a number of 55-gallon drums.? Few workers are on the grounds; but one of them is out of sight of Management and is violating company policy by downing a cold beer in a hidden corner of the fenced property.? The fence tells another story.? The neat lettering was done using large sized dry transfer lettering oversprayed with a light coat of Dulcoat.? Careful examination will reveal a number of knotholes (about 1” in diameter) distributed throughout the fence – simply holes drilled with a #80 drill bit (0.0135”).? The two roadway and railroad access gates are made of wire to which I have glued wedding veil to simulate chain-link fencing??????????? A pendant-operated crane spans the receiving track to off-load heavy scrap metal.? An observation of mine is that cranes, pendants, and anything that hangs and might be expected to oscillate, should be modeled in their zero amplitude mode because the fast oscillation frequency of a model betrays the image of a prototype operation.? It is much too fast because that frequency is determined by the reciprocal of the square root of the actual length, be it model or prototype.? A 20 foot pendulum should not oscillate at several oscillations per second!? It is about 10 times too fast.YVRR Freight House??????????? Tincup, Co, sports a Freight House where less-than-carload (“LCL”) merchandise is delivered.? This scratch-built building is painted in the standard YVRR livery of yellow over dark green.? The rail spur to this structure branches off the same spur that feeds the junkyard and the brick factory.? Pool Hall ?I didn’t miss many days of work at Rocky Flats due to illness; but I did have an occasional sore throat causing me to call in sick and stay home so as not to bring my germs to the worksite.? Very occasionally, I now admit to having slightly exaggerated a minor illness in order to call into work “sick”.? One example happened when I woke up with a slight sore throat; and I chose to use this as an excuse to stay home because my mind had designed a pool hall in the middle of the previous night.? The scratch built pool hall had an element of reality in that a co-worker of mine, Bruce Ernst, and I had been sent on a business trip to visit Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee.? After having a memorable Sunday dinner of smoked southern ham at a hotel in Clinton, TN, Bruce and I decided to play pool before returning to our motel rooms.? We finally found an open pool hall.? We had to descend a flight of stairs only to enter a smoke-filled basement with half a dozen pool tables each of whose above-the-table light fixture was barely visible due to the accumulated cigarette smoke.? A number of teen-aged boys were engaged in games of pool at different tables; and I can recall that most of the boys had a pack of cigarettes tucked into a “pocket” formed by rolling one sleeve of their dirty white T-shirt over the pack of “smokes”.? In spite of the setting, Bruce and I had an hour of good fun shooting pool.? Just before leaving the hall to return to our motel rooms, one of us needed to use the men’s room to urinate. Both of us scanned the entire perimeter of the basement pool hall in search of a door to the men’s room.? There was none to be found.? Instead, one of us spotted a lone, exposed urinal right in the open against the back wall.? That wall had been painted in two tones of gray; and the paint went right across the wall-mounted urinal rendering it very difficult to see.? There were no facilities for females.? After all, what nice, white, proper female would ever allow herself to enter such a smoky and dingy questionable Tennessee pool hall?The model building (below, right) itself, is dirty and dingy.? The white-painted external walls were dirtied by rubbing soot scraped from our fireplace all over the walls using my finger to spread the dirt.? Walls on the trackside were intentionally boarded over arguing that too many windows had been broken over the years by stones kicked up by passing trains or thrown by mischievous boys.? Some of these same lads often gathered behind the pool hall to smoke a cigarette, talk about girls, or sprawl graffiti across the back wall.? The open-topped 55-gallon drum used to burn trash was scratch built as well as heating a short length of brass tubing to cherry red and quenching it in alcohol.? This heat treatment softened the brass so a flat-head machine screw could curl the top edge realistically.? Single strands of copper wire soldered around the brass tube formed the stiffening ridges rolled into commercial drums.? The drum was painted to appear rusty and well-used.? A bicycle has been left unlocked at the back of the hall.The interior of the hall is well detailed.? I made two pool tables and one ping pong table.? The pool balls are candy sprinkles usually used to decorate cookies.? Obviously, both tables are involved in games of “8 ball” as there are no striped balls, (“stripes”), on either table.? I tried to make “stripes” by rolling candies between two wet fingers, but this never succeeded.? A modeled cash register (a dime a game) rests on a counter argued to contain candy bars for sale.? A ceramic urinal against the back wall mimics the situation in Tennessee.right17716500Coal Street Mining Hardware SupplyThis scratch built industry (above, left) across Coal Street from the pool hall was founded, as the sign proudly declares, in 1871, and that early history will be discussed later in the bolded paragraph dealing with the ballasting of the spur servicing that industry.? Clearly, it is a false front building which, as I see it, puts it into the class of older buildings; and I tend to be drawn to that architectural style and symbolism.? A man reading a newspaper on the fenced-in front deck lends an informal “homesy” atmosphere to the business.? The interior of the store part of the business is quite well detailed. Two display cases are separated by an aisle way.? One merchant is showing a bolt of fabric on the top of one of the display cases.? Another employee is carrying a case of soda bottles down the central aisle.? One poster plastered onto the back wall behind the display cases betrays my interest in the Green Bay Packer football team (before the Denver Broncos).? The outside of the structure has many detail points of interest.? The side door has a broken window that has been boarded up; but shards of the broken pane can still be seen.? When one of my visitors is a young boy, I will ask his age and then tell the story that a boy his age has broken the glass by some act of mischief.?? Meanwhile, a man sitting on the top rung of a ladder is washing another window being watched by another man and the grandmother of the proprietors.? She is sitting in a scratch-built rocking chair that actually rocks when gently nudged.? Even though the false front building betrays the age of the business, the need for more space became apparent such that, decades later, a functional brick addition was added to the rear of the older wood structure.? The back door of the addition sees a lot of merchandise being moved in; so the bottom of that door is protected by a brass kick plate.? The older wooden structure was not well insulated so an attic exhaust fan (a bit of aluminum foil and a tiny pin head) was installed in an upper window to disperse the summer’s heat.? Still, the notch between the chimney and the shingled roof makes a cozy haven for some bird to build a next and lay her egg (a candy sprinkle).? There is a squirrel standing on the edge of the roof of the brick addition.? There is a trash fire (red lamp with scrap wood piled on top) in the 55-gallon drum (made the same way as the drum at the pool hall) a short distance behind the addition. (Switching Spur to the Hardware Supply)In my imagination, it is argued that when the (presumed prototype) Coal Street Mining Hardware store was first built, deliveries to that industry were delivered by the simple expedient of stopping a freight train on the nearby main line to unload the small amount of hardware needed that time for resale.? The YVRR was young and traffic light enough that such a procedure did not impede other traffic on the railroad.? After all, there was a second mainline through Tincup such that other trains could be routed around the stopped freight train.? As the decades passed, however, both the railroad traffic grew and the business prospered requiring more deliveries than could be accommodated by stopping on the mainline.? The industry needed to have a spur of its own; and that was that!? left154813000Some track engineers favored a spur cut into the main line near the creek, fording that creek on a small bridge and crossing Coal Street in order to service the side of the hardware store.? Arguments against that design, however, pointed out the impact on auto traffic along the now-very busy Coal Street as well as the expense of the trestle across the creek.? A much better solution, others argued, was to cut a new reverse turnout into the decades-earlier pre-existing spur servicing the Foothills Lumber Co. It was recognized that the short tail to such a reverse turnout spur would allow only one car at a time to be delivered to that industry.? In the end, the reverse turnout spur was chosen over the creek-crossing design.? The roadbed was prepared and ties and rail laid; but when it came time to ballast this new spur a dilemma was encountered.? The YVRR already had a ballast car partially filled with a small amount of excess expensive red rock ballast whereas the spur would normally have been ballasted with the cheap black cinder ballast used elsewhere for industrial spurs and sidings.? In the end, it was decided to use up the more expensive red ballast rather than unload that small amount and refill the ballast car with the cheaper cinder ballast.? This story (left photo) is clearly illustrated.? That is why – to this day – the spur to the hardware store is ballasted in more-expensive red rock ballast instead of the cheaper cinder ballast used everywhere for sidings.Crossing Shanty on Coal Street This scratch built small structure dates back to my years going to Taft High School in Norwood Park (Chicago).? The C&NW mainline going NW out of the loop passed close to the school such that my relatively new interest in railroading was fueled by the sight of the 4-6-2 Pacifics hauling their passenger cars into or out from the city.? A highway crossing near the school had crossing gates that came down for each approaching train; but safety was further enhanced by a man who left this crossing shanty and stood in the middle of the intersection holding up a “stop” sign.? The crossing shanty can be seen to the left of the Coal Street Mining Hardware Supply in a photo above.I honestly have no idea how close my model seen in the photo comes to matching the prototype structure except to say it was small and a dirty white.? I have embellished the model with considerable detail probably not found on the actual building.? One of the window panes appears to have a BB-gun hole penetrating the glass without breaking apart the glass.? I assume this was done by some mischievous high school student on a destructive whim.? The crossing attendant, however (even though I don’t recall ever having met the real person) is given credit for wanting to beautify his own small sphere in which he worked.? The opposite side window is opened slightly allowing him to smell the flowers he has planted in a small flower box under the top-hinged window.? Additionally, and at his own expense, he is painting the shanty with a fresh coat of white paint.? The back wall of the shanty still needs a 2nd coat of white paint to complete the job.? When the weather is nice, he likes to sit on a chair on the wood walkway leading to the crossing.? The chair is scratch built made from brass and copper wire.? The back of the chair is one rung of punched-brass ladder stock to which I have soldered 3 single strands of stranded copper lamp cord wire.? The legs and cross braces are made from a smaller punched-brass ladder stock bent into a “U” shape.? The seat is just thin brass sheet soldered to the back and bottom.? This model elicits very fond memories of my teen-aged years.The Lumber Yard??? The Foothills Lumber Yard is another scratch-built business loaded with details.? Fictionally, the lumber yard preceded the Coal Street Mining Hardware Supply by several decades as mentioned earlier and is serviced by a spur track off the mainline into which the red-ballasted spur was cut for the hardware store.? A swinging metal gate governs access into the lumber yard.? The L-shaped shed contains bins; and all the lumber stacked therein is scale lumber from 1x2s, 2x4s, 4x4s, and on up as well as sheets of plywood (manila folders cut to scale 4’8’) and Homosote (grey construction paper).? A circular saw is nearby to cut smaller sheets to size; and the blade actually has teeth (a toothed wrist watch gear). #100 sacks of cement are ready for purchase as are rolls of roofing paper.? The yard has a great sale on 9’-long redwood 4x4s.? An old-style gravity-feed, gasoline pump stands ready to fuel company vehicles.? The yard has a few vehicles belonging to customers. One of these (1949 Chevy Bel-Aire sedan in a Mint Green color) is the same year, make, model and color as the car I used when I first began dating girls.? One visitor commented: “No wonder the windows are so foggy!”? The car was an unpainted Leo Stokes plaster casting costing 20 cents in the 1940s.? My layout has many of his commercial vehicles.Tincup Passenger StationThis is a craftsman quality wood kit built according to instructions.? Its prototype was the Dulce Station along the D&RGW N.G. line in NM.? This scene includes the seated woman that was hidden in new and strange locations weekly by my friends and helpers in 1977 (see elsewhere).? I substituted the name Tincup and painted the station in the standard livery of the YVRR’s yellow over dark green.? Another of Leo Stokes plaster–cast automobiles in the parking lot had an engine cavity ground away and a raised metal hood glued in place to suggest a car needing motor attention.A Light ManufacturerThe Yampa Valley Lamp Co. makes floor and table lamps.? Business is adequate to warrant shipping by rail from a loading dock on the side of this fa?ade model.? A wood timber along the base of the loading dock is bolted to the brick wall using commercial plastic nut-and-bolt castings glued into pre-drilled holes.? This scenic detail cannot be seen; but sensitive finger tips can feel a few bolt headsAn Historic Hotel??????????? This scratch-built Clarendon Hotel is a modified replica of the hotel in Leadville, CO, made famous by the Horace Tabor legend.? This model is wood whereas the actual hotel was a brick structure. The model is a fa?ade only in that only one side is modeled.? That side is lettered to give a 3-digit telephone number and room rates that are “$2.50 and up” – both parameters characteristic of older times.? Small portions of the hotel’s name spread across the width of the side have been disturbed by later modifications to the hotel.? The kitchen near the rear of the facility needed more light so a third window was cut into the side obliterating part of the beginning of the name.? A few years later, the desk clerks in the reception area requested more light in the front lobby area; so another window was cut into the side at the front of the building.? This window disturbed the end of the hotel’s name.? This new lobby window received a delicate, lacy curtain (the fringe off an old negligee once worn by my wife, Judy).? One hotel guest has tried leaving the hotel without paying his bill by tying sheets together and climbing down them to ground level.? The presence of two police officers testifies to the fact that he did not get away with this attempted escape.? As one might expect, the more expensive rooms are closer to the front of the hotel; and they have larger windows.? Smaller windows toward the back of the hotel suggest the $2.50 rooms.? One of these cheaper rooms has its shades fully closed.? I assume some immoral tryst might be occurring in that room.? Architecturally, the hotel hoped to add some interest by adding a purely decorative railing along the floor level of the second story.? The railing is made of strip wood separated by beads from a woman’s necklace with short pins holding the beads in place.Grocery Warehouse??????????? The Associated Grocery Warehouse is another scratch built fa?ade along the back side of the Tincup table of the layout.? Special features on this structure (and not used elsewhere on the layout because of the fragility of the end result) are the home-made decals!? I painted a thin film of clear-when-dry liquid onto selected signs suitable for a grocery warehouse.? Then, I used water and my fingers to gently rub away all the paper, leaving only the ink stuck in the film.? A final coat of the film liquid on the back side of the home-made decal allowed the decal to adhere to the brick wall of the structure.? This produced good results but proved to be tedious workRailway Café??????????? John Templeton was a teen-age boy developing an interest in model railroading in the 1970s.? He would come over – usually without an invitation – just to “play trains” with me.? He would ring the doorbell just about every night for weeks in a row.? Perhaps a bit presumptuous of him; but I was happy to foster his interest in the hobby.? He continues to have that interest to this day.? John even brought a friend named Jason with him a few times.? Jason is now a locomotive engineer for the UP.? Jason scratched his name “Jace” into my plaster scenery without my permission; but that detail remains to this day.? John Templeton is the person who first found the figure whose head had broken off when I dropped my expensive purchase of a 75 cents Weston figure in 1947 when I was 12.? This broken railroad conductor had been stored in a plastic small-parts bin for many decades before John placed him on the layout with the head inside one rail and the body just on the outside of the same rail.? He had modeled a de-capitation!? The scene remains to this day.? ??????????? John’s mother owned and operated a small donut café in Boulder.? John’s friendship is remembered on the layout by the fa?ade of Templeton’s Railway Café which advertises coffee for 5 cents a cup.? The ring-shaped smoke vent from the café’s kitchen is a shoe eyelet.Bottling Plant??????????? The white-painted fa?ade of a multistory business, Tincup Bottling Plant, serves the simple expedient of covering a wide wooden shelf that supports the upper layer of scenery behind all of Tincup.? It does not have access to a rail spur that one can see.Meat Packing Plant? ??????????? The Swift Meat Packing Plant is my attempt at an oft-used modeling trick called “selective compression”.? Some industries with repetitive modules are just too big to model in their entirety; but the feel of a large industry can be accomplished my modeling fewer modules.? The prototype plant might have had 15 bays for shipping and receiving meat products; but my fa?ade has only three bays.? Canvas “awnings” on either side of each bay prevent the loss of cold when the bay doors are open.? The gold lettering is made from large size press-on commercial letters.? The bottom of the long structure has many bits of graffiti.Fireworks Factory??????????? The Kaboom Fireworks Factory is another fa?ade scratch-built structure along the back of the Tincup portion of the layout.? I simply liked the sound of the name of the company.? The scratch-built fire extinguisher actually has a glass covering over it because one is supposed to have to break glass to use a fire extinguisher.? The 55-gallon oil drum was scratch built just like several others described elsewhere. Texaco Oil DepotThis scratch-built industry was an easy construct of the building; but the back porch was a significant challenge because it was built to be out-of-square.? The fence is wedding veil glued to a metal wire frame and the valve controlling the flow of oil are wrist watch gears with the gear’s teeth ground off.? A number of 4’ lengths of 12”-diameter clay sewer pipe have been delivered just outside the depot’s grounds.? These will be used to divert water away that has been collecting on Coal Street to improve drainage.Brewery??????????? The beer bottled here is called “Old Frothingslosh”.? I am told that this is a real beer brewed for distribution at Christmastime somewhere in Pennsylvania.? The rest of the year, the same beer is brewed under its normal name.? The beer is proudly advertised far and wide as “the Pale, Stale, Ale”; and picture ads show a beer mug with white under the yellow-colored beer such that the beer’s slogan declares: “The Foam is On the Bottom!”.The brewery structure is a simple commercial plastic kit.? The passageway over one of the mainline routes through Tincup is imagined to carry beer to delivery trucks (old army vehicle’s painted in muted browns) in the fenced-in yard.? That fence is pretty heavily covered? with graffiti.? Nearby, a flat tire is being changed. One small grassy plot near the brewery’s chimney has chickens ranging about.? Across the street from the brewery, an ice cream vendor has parked his truck which naturally draws a lot of children at play.Bond??????????? Bond is not a city but, rather, an important division point on the YVRR.? Here, the mainline to Denver splits off onto the very long branchline extending all the way to AxeHandle, Idaho.? All trains are required to stop at Bond for crew changes.? Actually, this is a fictional argument made up to compensate for the fact that I have to change throttle controls for the locomotives as they transfer between the (lower) Mainline route and the (higher) Branchline.?? This transfer is accomplished by a very complex switch/turnout/rail configuration known as a “Double Slip Switch”.? Here, trains running in either of two directions on either of two routes can exit the double slip on either of two exit routes.? Prototype railroads use a great many of these double slip switches because they save a lot of space, allowing yards to be greatly compressed in length.? Model railroads employ them less frequently because they are quite expensive and require careful installation and maintenance.? I have three double slip switches on my YVRR.? The photo below shows the mainline to Denver to the far right and the branchline main track to the far left.? The curved track leading toward a Transfer Table leads to a 2-stall engine house.? Whereas turntables employ rotational movement to align with different tracks, the moveable bridge of a Transfer Table relies on translational movement to align one track with another. ??????????? In addition to being a Division Point, Bond also serves as the storage site for helper locomotives that might be required to help heavy tonnage trains up the 1.25 % grade through Craig, CO.? One end of Bond’s Transfer Table aligns with either of two stalls in the engine house.? One stall houses the helper locomotive; and the other, the rotary snowplow (seen in the photo) but the other end aligns with one of three different parallel outside tracks; and one of these is the lead track to the engine house.? One of these 3 tracks stores the YVRR’s heavy crane car.? A safety fence has been constructed around the lowered end of the boom to prevent accidents.? A short length of dual-gauge track stores a narrow gage K-27 (class) 2-8-2 Mikado, a standard gauge Climax geared locomotive, and the company’s automobile which has been modified to operate on railroad tracks.? ??????????? Bond still displays some final vestiges of narrow gauge operations which used to exist over some of the branch line. Some of the track at Bond still has dual gauge rails; and one stub-ended turnout (different from a split-rail turnout) exists in the yard – both imagined throwbacks to earlier decades. In fact, the ex-D&RGW narrow gauged K-27 sits on the track leading to the paint shop with an order to “paint the brass running gear black”.? This is a concession to my never having finished painting my one narrow gauged locomotive because I never really intended to operate narrow gauged equipment over the YVRR.? Evidently, the paint shop is currently repainting its doors.? A balance-beam scale and a small set of concrete-lined bins housing different materials used along the right-of-way are just to the side of the paint shop lead.? Compressed air and electricity for the Paint Shop are generated using a newfangled contraception called a diesel engine.John Deere Tractor Manufacturing Plant??????????? As a thank you gift for helping dispose of the estate of a deceased model railroader, the survivor gave me a bag containing about 30 John Deere tractors.? What does one do with 30 identical tractors?? I chose to convert a simple plastic kit of a large factory into my John Deere Tractor Manufacturing Plant.? Rows of finished green-colored John Deere tractors parked in the yard await shipment to farmers around the country.??? A flat car already loaded with a number of tractors sits on a transfer table inside the plant.? This industry stands just beyond the area of the Bond helper facility yard.? It has been made easily removable because I need access to Craig, CO, from time to time.? Humorously, some local teenagers painted a poignant saying of a scale 4x8 sheet of plywood near the plant:I’d rather get a John Deere tractor than a Dear John letterGolden SpikeBond was also the site of the driving of the golden spike – a ceremony held at our home to mimic the historic ceremony at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869 when our nation was linked ocean to ocean by railroad!? The YVRR story is as follows.? The mainline from Santa Fe to Denver had been finished and operational for decades. Most of the long branchline from Bond to AxeHandle had been finished as well.? Only an 8’-long section of single track passing below the Sand Dunes (painted backdrop) remained unfinished.? One day, I realized that, if I were to complete that missing 8’ section, I would be able to operate trains from the yard at AxeHandle to Bond and then switch onto the mainline connecting Santa Fe and Denver.? This was done quickly. Then, parallel to Promontory Point, I invited a dozen friends from the BMRC to witness the driving of the Golden Spike (actually an ordinary spike painted gold) which was pushed into a tie by my wife, Judy, (left) to the applause of all present.? This was done immediately after a 0000special train had left AxeHandle for the long journey to Bond and was resting there.? The crowd?in attendance included two international dignitaries in that the two Up With People girls living with us at the time were also present.? A solidary concrete marker made from one end of a white plastic swizzle stick (near the pliers) used to stir mixed drinks at some bar someplace still marks the site of the ceremony.River RaftingBond is very close to the Yampa River, well known for its white water river rafting.? This river supposedly flows out of the actual northeast corner of the basement, under a silver bridge on the long branch line, curves through a deep canyon (Yellowstone Canyon) only to curve again at a vertically-faced rock wall with an orange-colored raft floating just above the start of Split Rock Rapid.? ??Several rafts (rubber O-rings painted orange) can be seen enjoying the sport of river rafting.? Furthest away, one boat is just rounding a bend in the river in anticipation of entering one of this section’s major rapids: Split Rock Rapid.? This far boat is made from a smaller o-ring and houses N-scale figures.? This technique is called “forced perspective’ in that smaller figures make the viewer think that they are further away.? The next nearer raft is actually in the throes of Split Rock Rapid; but close inspection shows that the rafters are all looking upstream (!) rather than downstream to see what obstacles they are about to encounter.? This is because two of their party have been ejected from the raft and are now called “swimmers”.? The rapid is named after the large rock at the foot of the rapid that has been cleaved in two by the force of the water.?????????? This rapid was fun to model.? The water is made using a pair of colorless liquids called “Envirotex” which eventually hardens into a clear water-like plastic.? I worked with this liquid during its entire setting process constantly “teasing” the surface to create the appearance of splashing waves.? I would use some kind of metal pick to raise the setting plastic forming wave crests repeating that process until the plastic finally hardened and held its wave-like shape on its own.Still further downstream, another raft has made it safely through Split Rock and in calmer water.? Some of the rafters have decided to cool off by floating alongside the raft.?? This raft is just opposite Anasazi Cliff Dwellings – my attempt to mimic Mesa Verde.? There, one can find one dwelling.? A large block of the cliff wall has broken loose and fallen into the water.? A little seen detail until it is pointed out is the Indian Pictographs to the left of the dwelling.? I had asked our 14-yer-old foster child who was one-eight Crow Indian to scratch these markings into the wall; so that, now, I can say with all honesty that these pictographs were done by the American Indians.Unseen by the rafters at water level, a young couple, very much in love are entwined in a romantic embrace under a tree atop the near river bank.??????????? For many years, the final detail along the far river bank near the Cliff Dwellings was a fisherman seated on a rock with his fishing pole (one bristle from a whisk broom) blocked into a small rock crevasse. The fishing line was one strand of my daughter’s long straight hair glued to the far end of the pole and passing through a small hole drilled though the hardened plastic “water”.? A small weight glued to the hair under the layout allowed me to touch that weight and cause the fishing pole to jiggle up and down as though a fish had been hooked.? I did this just as I was showing the fisherman to visitors.? Sadly, this scenic detail feature has been broken for a number of years and never repaired.Bond to DenverThere are no photos of Denver because it is imagined to be one “end” of the continuous loop between Santa Fe and Denver.? Denver is the (actual direction) northern end of the same 4-track-wide train storage tracks separating the two cities.With the two cities on opposite ends of the same set of tracks, I can run a train continuously leaving one city, traveling “hundreds of miles” to enter the other and then, magically re-appear leaving the first city again; or I can park that train on one of the 4 “hidden” storage tracks and run a different train already standing on one of the four holding tracks.The only noteworthy edifice between Bond and Denver is the Moffat Tunnel, discussed next.????????????????????????? Main Range TunnelThe east portal of the 6-mile-long Moffat Tunnel completed in 1927 is faithfully modeled a short distance past Bond.? A photograph of the portal’s face stands near the tunnel to testify to the model’s authenticity; and this situation is seen in the photograph at the top of the next page.? Having a 5x7 photo actually standing on the layout is, admittedly, unrealistic; but I want the visitor to see how close to the prototype the model actually is!?? When the family first moved to Colorado, we made almost weekly visits about 9:00 on a Saturday morning to the Moffat Tunnel.? We would watch the westbound Yampa Valley Mail train and the westbound California Zephyr enter the tunnel about a half hour apart.? We watched?the heavy rubber curtain open and close for each train (and the occasional freight train interspersed between the two passenger trains).? We also heard the 20’-diameter exhaust fan blow waste gases out the Winter Park left10477500end before returning home for normal Saturday activities.? The two trains came in different orders depending on the CZ’s arrival in Denver which explains the inconsistent order of the two trains.It was a wonderful and reliable day of rail fanning.? My model was built without the two very long side wings that have since been removed also from the prototype (One could argue that the real tunnel was remodeled after my version of it.) Judy and I made another pilgrimage to the Moffat Tunnel in February of 1977 when the celebration of its 50th?anniversary was held.? The time vaults (bronze plaques on either side of the tunnel) were opened and the late-1920s silent film, “The White dessert” was shown a few days later at the Paramount Theater in Denver.? Judy and I went to that dreadful movie (from a plot and acting perspective) but a superb movie (from railroad cinematography perspective).On my model, the lettering “Moffat Tunnel” is made from commercial 3D letters glued in place.? The two bronze plaques were cut from another copy of the photo on display on the layout.I did model the side louvers; but I did not bother modeling the thick rubber curtain.The above completes the circuit of the lower mainline extending from Denver to Santa Fe with a magical connection between the two that allows continuous operation.? Now, we return to Bond to continue our illustrated photo tour of the Yampa Valley (model) Railroad which begins with a description of locations along the very long branchline to AxeHandle, IDThe BRANCH LINEBond to CraigTwo Tunnel Portals??????????? The original double-track line from the double slip switch at the north end of Bond had a commercial plaster cast tunnel portal.? The double track followed a 180° curve arriving at the last outpost of the actual D&SL Ry (Moffat’s original route).? About 2010, however, I hand-laid a concentric third track.? The 3 tracks under the stairwell loosely resemble the 4-track mainline around the famed Horseshoe Curve on the PRR in Pennsylvania, even though the inner track is really just a long semi-circle, stub-ended siding mainly serving Craig, CO.? The tunnel portal for this third track is an attempt to model a rock slide protector that has seen some purposeful use.? Selected roof boards have been broken by smaller boulders that have tumbled down onto it.A Strange Museum??????????? I wanted to model a railway museum that had on display the first car I ever built!? A sign above the NYC “Pacemaker” box car kit (a Varney kit) proudly declares it was built by “Chief Car Builder:? Bob Rothe (aged 12)”.? It was built at the “Foster Plant” because I lived on Foster Avenue when I built it.? The rest of the “museum” is a railcar manufacturing plant – a strange combination of uses for any building (below).76200381000The workmen are, however, building cars that follow model construction methods rather than simulating prototype construction methods.? Note that the roof ribs on some future box car are being applied just like they are on the models; and side panels for a future caboose are all laid out.? The yellow refer car in the back is about to have its pre-formed plastic floor lowered into place using the crane whose rail can just be seen at upper right.? That floor component also has pre-fabricated truck-mounting? and coupler mounting provisions.? A tool crib is in the right near corner and a single x-acto blade is hanging on the wall waiting for someone to check out this tool for use.? This combination of railcar fabrication plant and a museum is hardly credible; but, after all, it is my model railroad!The Mining District??????????? I have made a small community of mines under the stairwell.? There are five separate mines compactly compressed into this one blue-foam hillside plus a mining head frame.? ??I decided to add this mining theme because a review of unbuilt kits revealed a good number of mining-related kits.? Several of them were produced by E. Suydem Company – noted for his all-metal (corrugated sheet metal) kits.? This mineral-rich mound of earth is one of two small scenes on the layout modeled using blue foam instead of plaster as the foundation for the terrain.? I do not feel as though foam “ground” is as realistic but both are marginally acceptable.? This segment of modeled scenery should be viewed from both sides of the stairwell.An Early Reprise of Another Model??????????? Later in this document (see the city of Benchley, WY) I will discuss a simple kit-built model of a newspaper office having strong ties to the legend of Superman.? In the mining district, however, the Kryptonite Mining Company under the management of Lex Luthor continues these ties via two name references. The main important feature of this model is the material mined and who the owner of the mine is. Kryptonite is a fictional material that had the ability to take away Superman’s powers; and Lex Luthor (sadly, I misspelled Lex’s last name on the model) has always been Superman’s nemesis.? This Suydam metal kit was built in the 2000’s during a flurry of my experimenting with the assembly of these well-designed-but-difficult-to-assemble-without-warping all-metal kits.? The facility consists of 2 identical smaller buildings on an elevated platform with spare parts littering the space between the buildings.? The safety railings and ladder were my added touch over concern for worker’s safety.Molly’s Mine??????????? Molly’s Mine, a quality wood kit, is a loose reference to the Unsinkable Molly Brown of Titanic history and the 1870s mining days in Leadville, CO.? She was married to Jake Brown and, sadly, was too coarse to ever be accepted into social circles.Nuclear Materials??????????? The Yellow Cake Mining Company pays tribute to my life-long profession.? I worked for 30 years with enriched uranium.? Many salts of uranium are yellow in color and are called “yellow cake”.? All the workers are wearing orange-colored radiation-protection suits.? By employing Miss Edith Tu as the mine’s proprietor, the mine’s slogan makes humorous sense:You Can’t Have Your Cake and Edith Tu??????????? The Yellow Cake Mining Company is a collection of several kits combined with scratch building; and it resides on a hillside where workers – wearing their orange-colored radiation protection suits and tethered to an air supply machine – go about their daily business.? These figures were easy to make starting with unpainted commercial figures.? Their heads were coated with thick globs of Aileen’s Tacky Glue which turns clear when it hardens, nicely simulating protective head gear.? Then, the entire body and the back part of the head gear was painted reefer orange.? In a mini-scene, a villainous person is holding a gun to one of the nuclear workers.? The steel framework used for tailings disposal was scratch built starting with some of the steel stock supplied in an E. Suydam kit.? I am disappointed that I made the scratch-built 4-wheel tailings-transfer-carts so large.? Fully loaded, they would each contain up to 100 tons of tailings; but the overall appearance of the mining complex is pleasing.The Pasture??????????? In late 2014, I added a light-weight (and, therefore, easily removable) scene of a horse pasture on the inside of Horseshoe Curve.? My collection of modeling supplies - donated to me by survivors of deceased model railroaders in gratitude for my help in dispersing the deceased’s collection of hobby items - contained a box of dozens of horses; and this find suggested the scene.? I wanted this area to be removable because I need access under the stairwell from time to time.? I used broken (not ground) sesame seeds to suggest horse droppings randomly found about the pasture.Craig??????????? My version of Craig is a long, skinny, city modeled mostly in relief using several fa?ades.? Historically, Craig was the end of Moffat’s D&SL – later D&RGW.? Craig is where the YVRR turned construction sharply north for its final goal of AxeHandle, ID.A Furnace Fabrication CompanyMany years ago, a couple of furnaces earlier, and about the time I laid tracks around and enclosing the furnace and hot water heater, my first attempt to run a locomotive on the inner track revealed that I had located the track a tad too close to the furnace.? A couple of my locomotives would not clear one corner.? I could have re-laid the track; but it seemed easier to cut away a corner of my furnace.? The operation only removed a triangular wedge half an inch on a side by 2” tall.? The hole was easily patched with a thin sheet metal cover.? Still, how many people would modify their furnace out of deference to their hobby?? To turn this error into a modeling scene, I made a thin, building fa?ade which I identified as Bob’s Furnace Works.? Years later, our furnace was replaced and the error cover-up was no longer necessary; so Bob’s Furnace Works found a new home at one end of the new modeled city of Craig, CO.Automobile showroom??????????? In the late 1940’s, I purchased a number of automobiles cast in plaster which I painted as well as a teen-aged boy could do.? Made by the Leo Stokes company, they only cost 20 cents each!? Although they do not approach the quality of model automobiles available in the 2000’s, they are historic models from the early days of the hobby.? Thus, the interior showroom of Leo Stokes’s Fine Cars has many of these cars for sale to local residents.Passenger Station??????????? The railroad station at Craig is a busy place as evidenced by all the people gathered on the platform.? The station follows typical YVRR livery of yellow and dark green.? Perhaps some passengers are watching the busy scene on the street described next.2905125000The Accident??????????? A smaller white truck has run into the rear of a larger yellow-colored truck (right) and a fire ensued.? One party has died and is covered in a blanket.? Another is injured and bloody; he is sitting on the ground by a police car being tended to by medical staff.? Police cars and ambulances can be found while curious onlookers seek to view the gruesome scene.? This accident took place right in front of the next business discussed. Door Manufacturing Company??????????? The Adora Door Co is owned by Doris Adora.? She began her company the same year (1935) that I was born.? This simple plastic fa?ade structure was named because of the lyrical flow of the words.? The company slogan is:You’ll adore an Adora DoorTwo Unidentified?Businesses??????????? Two more plastic wall sections complete a block of fa?ade buildings in spanning part of the north wall of our basement.? Neither business has been identified; but both provide good viewing of the fatal street accident.Machine Screw ManufacturerThis small kit-bashed specialty industry has an interesting and humorous reason for its existence.? A line-side business three tracks removed from the better part of Craig in a corner of the recently modeled horse pasture, Gilland’s Scratch-Built Screw Co, exists because a member of the BMRC, Jerry Gilland, scratch built a beautiful, non-operating O-scale model of the UP’s famous “Big Boy” 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive.? Even though it really is a wonder of creative design and innovative manufacture, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the model for our club’s monthly Telltales. I pointed out that Jerry had not made his own screws by threading brass rod stock.? Two months later, at a BMRC meeting, Jerry countered my friendly jest by publically presenting me with a hand-made wooden wood screw and a hand-made wooden machine screw with an operating nut.? Not to be outdone, I decided to turn a simple, popular, small plastic kit into Gilland’s Scratch-Built Screw Co – with Jerry’s wooden screws – painted gold – proudly mounted atop the building.? I imagine that this company manufactures specialty screws for unique application in other businesses.? For example, machine screws are made in national coarse and national fine threads such as 10-24 (NC) and 10-32 (NF).? This company might make, on special order, packages of 10-64 – “National Double Fine” (NDF) machine screws.? Wood screws ordinarily come in standard diameters such as #4, #6, #8, and so on (#14 is the same as ?” diameter).? Gilland’s Scratch-Built Screw Co could make, on special order, packages of wood screws in sizes such as #6-1/2, #8-1/4, etc.? Model railroading is fun and having fun with model railroading by interjecting humor is even more fun.4 Residential Fa?ades??????????? Further down the street and unaware of the drama playing out a block away due to an auto accident, families recline in the front yards of four residential buildings modeled as fa?ades ?only. One family is watching their children play in the front yard.? Nearby flower beds are made of candy cookie sprinkles.? Dry Goods StoreOne simple plastic commercial kit is built without a roof so the kit can hide a support for the next level up. Machine Tool Company??????????? M L Foss was a Denver area company selling precision measuring tools such as micrometers, gauges and the like.? The flat fa?ade identified as M L Fuss is my version of that business.Farmer’s Supply Company??????????? I built an old model kit using printed paperboard sides to service the farmers in the area.? They sell Purina Chow products.3 lesser Fa?ade buildings??????????? This little-seen part of Craig provided an opportunity for me to use up 3 more flat structure fa?ade s.An Historic Water Tankright635000A no-longer used spur off the branchline’ s main track used to provide access to the scratch- built, square, enclosed, locomotive water tank.? This model (right) is a pretty accurate replica of the last square water tank in the USA - which once stood on the Corona Pass route of the D&SL just before Tunnel #31.? I recall seeing it several times with the family, although hard winters reduced the structure to a pile of rubble by the 1990s.? On the model, the railroad ties between the turnout and the tank have been removed; but ties at the tank and beyond leading into a tunnel show the ravages of decay.?? They are gray and no longer rectangular in cross section.The Meteorite??????????? This mini-scene is intended to evoke a smile on visitor’s faces.? It is one of the few other segments of the YVRR layout, other than the Mining District, using light weight foam to produce the desired topography.? The result is of questionable quality in my opinion; but the goal of the scratch-built scene is accomplished.? A quite large (4’ to 5’ diameter) meteorite has crashed to earth on a knoll just above the Moffat Tunnel and a short distance from the city of Craig.? Dozens of residents from there can be seen in the photo below to have hiked to the fascinating scene.? Police have cordoned off a circle around the recent intruder, because three men wearing hazmat suits are carefully approaching the meteor to ensure it has not introduced a dangerous virus such as?the Andromeda Strain.? The meteorite, itself, is a ceramic mill ball painted with a glue and rolled in broken, not crushed, glass.Craig to Benchley??????????? The uphill grade continues, although lessened, for an actual additional 20 to 30 feet with most of the single track hidden as a middle level behind the benchwork containing Tincup. My first plan was to cut off helper locomotives at a spur only a few feet past the water tank; but I never could figure out how I would be able to uncouple the loco from the train and how to prevent the caboose from rolling back down the continuing uphill grade.? I decided that I would take the helper train all the way to Benchley to cut off the helper and let that loco drift all the way back to Bond at some later time.? As of the 2010s, I have not yet experimented with actually employing helper service on the long branch line.? I am afraid of being able to match two locomotive’s pulling/pushing power; and I don’t relish a derailment on that difficult-to-access hidden middle track.The ViaductThe somewhat famous stone-arched Starrucca Viaduct has been relocated from Pennsylvania to the mountain states.? I can do this because it is my layout!? The prototype is a very long, straight, tall, bridge; but my scratch-built model has only three arches and is on a curve.? Nostalgically, the bridge is selected for modeling because I actually crossed it by rail on a 3-day-long return trip from Washington DC (an ANS meeting) to Denver – all by rail.? I could not see the bridge; but I was aware of the fact that my train was taking me over the interesting edifice.? As I recall, the sub-structure is all wood.? An embossed brick overlay was glued to that to create the historic viaduct which crosses over the lower main line (Denver to Santa Fe) via one arch and an industrial siding to the stock pens and the rock quarry via another.? One of the concrete abutments has been defaced with graffiti from some local high school kids.BenchleyGirder Bridge??????????? Benchley, WY, is wrongly shown on most maps of the USA as Rock Springs, WY (a fiction).? It stands where Rock Springs would be; but I renamed it Benchley because the city stands just above my workbench.? Both names can be seen on the much-earlier map of the mountain states.??????????? The approach to the double track (mainline, outside, and passing track, inside) through Benchley, WY happens on a bridge.? That bridge passes over the lower main line (Denver to Santa Fe) via a scratch-built, rusted, simulated-steel, deck girder bridge.? YVRR management has noticed its rusty condition and has a B&B crew re-painting the bridge.? The painter with the compressed air paint sprayer works from a 4’x8’ platform lowered over the side.? A length of pinkish, rubber hose connects to an air compressor above, on firm ground.??????????? The painter on the scaffolding is in danger of falling to his death.? I realized that he needed a safety harness tethered to a safe point on the bridge (a length of yellow thread tied to the painter’s waist).? When first installed, I glued a co-worker just inside the bridge to monitor the painter’s safety.? The first good-sized locomotive to cross the bridge struck the co-worker in the back causing the train to stop dead in its tracks but leaving no marks on the co-worker. This happening clarified the difference between my two worlds: stopping a model train when a model figure is struck in the back receiving no injuries whatsoever is not at all the same as a real locomotive striking a real human being, killing it without even slowing down the train!Part of the paint crew is painting one of the vertical H-columns supporting the deck girder bridge.? They are using an erectable scaffolding as they paint higher and higher.Furnace humidifier??????????? In the spring of 2012, we had a new furnace installed.? This required removing all of Benchley and, later re-installing it (not an easy chore – especially with the need to protect exposed rail ends against any kinking!? The return led to a?number of changes to the city of Benchley, WY.? These will be mentioned where relevant in subsequent old-faced sections.? We had a humidifier installed at the same time as the furnace.? A few lines associated with the humidifier had to pass vertically above the level of the layout; so I had to build around these to hide them or to use them.? The Spring Aire Humidifier Co somewhat disguises one of the larger humidifier lines.? Only the front of the roof was modeled so that the lines can pass through the back (missing) portion.? The company is named as it is because that is the brand of humidifier installed.Concrete Tie Plant??????????? The Wyoming Concrete Railroad Tie Manufacturing Company is located immediately next to the Spring Aire Humidifier Co.? It, too, hides lines related to our new humidifier (a copper tube and the electrical power).? A bundle of plastic water lines (our solar heater drain lines) and some copper tubes are a few scale feet from one corner of the building.? The roof of the plant has four cyclone exhaust vents; and these are made from the fluted caps of medical products such as: creams, salves, and ointments.? Painted silver, they are quite believable.? Stacks of concrete ties awaiting shipment are seen in the yard area.? Dust from the fabrication process has lent a lighter cast over much of the industry.A Wood Building Under Construction ????????????For years, I have wanted to scratch build a wood frame building that is under construction using proper stud placement and window lintel design.? Walls were laid out in a jig such that very thinned white glue could be “painted” onto each wood-to-wood attachment.? The technique worked quite well except that the dried wall had some very thin, clear, flat “fillets” of glue that had to be cut away.? I was building this structure when I heard the sad news of the death of one of the members of the BMRC – Bruce Kasson – an N-scale modeler. He died in a motorcycle accident.? At his memorial service, I learned that he was an avid motorcycle enthusiast; so I elected to make this industry a motorcycle accessory shop in his honor.Benchley’s Model Railroad Club This scratch-built Salida & Collegiate Range Model Railroad Club model is located close to the main line tracks through Benchley. They are constructing an O-scale model railroad roughly based on the S&CR RR which (as was explained near the beginning of this document) was the predecessor railroad of the YVRR, the local railroad passing through town.? This is really human nature.? The favorite prototype of many model railroaders is the railroad that is closest to them.? That is why so many modelers in the Denver area model the D&RG, the D&SL, or some other Colorado line.This model of a model railroad (above) shows different stages of construction from exposed bench work to finished scenery.? The yard is just about finished and cuts of cars are simulated (not seen) by using scale lumber painted and scored to look like a stored cut of cars.Near the throat of the yard is a small scrap of wood that is the same color as the building housing the club’s layout and about the same aspect ratio (length to width to height).? Therefore, in my imagination, the story I make up about the people working on the model S&CR is the same story that these modelers make up about the people imagined to be working inside the model of a model of a model railroad.? Philosophically, this argument can be carried on to an infinite number of iterations.? The basement?of the model was added recently. It contains the shop area where sheets of plywood and homosote are cut to size and shape.I wanted visitors to see inside this building so I made the roof out of a sheet of clear plastic even though I know this is not realistic.Manufacturer of HO Scale Couplers??????????? This scratch-built yellow brick building houses the manufacturer of the railroad car couplers found all over the YVRR.? This is another attempt to interleave and cloud reality with the model.? Kadee couplers are twice the size of prototypical Janney couplers. Frictional differences, however, would never allow a scale model of a prototype coupler to work. Consequently, this modeled industry manufactures what is seen on the model railroad – not a coupler that would not work.? The ground floor is rented out to Paul’s Bakery in honor of my son who loves to bake.? The yard and side of the building is full of Kadee coupler components.Chamber of Commerce??????????? The Benchley Chamber of Commerce is a small log cabin type building typical of many towns/cities that want?to provide tourists information about their locale. A couple of “locals” are playing checkers nearby; and a futuristic automobile is being shown off.Ceramic Company??????????? The Van Briggle Pottery Company is really located in Colorado Springs, CO; but I relocated it to Benchley, WY.? The scene is shown on the next page. The popular prototype manufacturer of coffee mugs does so out of an old Colorado Midland (CMRy) roundhouse.? My model pottery company also works out of a popular old roundhouse; but mine is a plaster kit based on the DSP&P RR, a narrow gauged railroad’s roundhouse at Fairplay, CO.? The coffee mugs on the long table outside are individual beads from a woman’s necklace painted a fiery rust color.? A modified figure stands facing the back wall peeing on that wall.? He had been a highway road worker; but when I removed the jack hammer he was modeled to be using to dig up blacktop pavement, his new purpose (peeing) jumped out at me. He can be seen doing his business’ to the far right in the photo (below)??????????? The Fairplay roundhouse is narrow gauge so the commercial model is also.? The consequence of that is that a standard gauge freight car won’t even fit inside the door!Newspaper OfficeI built this simple, plastic kit with no initial idea of what it finally would be.? When completed, it looked to me as though it looked like the newspaper building in the movie “Back to the Future”; so I decided to turn this kit into a newspaper office (photo on next page).? But which newspaper should it be?? On a whim I chose, the Daily Planet where editor Perry White directs the activities of?meek, mild-mannered, reporter Clark Kent and the lovely and flamboyant Lois Lane.? The three have parking places seen on the left side of the building and the cars parked there reflect their movie persona (Clark’s blue Studebaker is a cheap and dependable car while Lois drives a flashy convertible. Perry White’s car is the grey-topped car parked in front).? Notice the realism of a dog peeing on a fire hydrant in the immediate foreground and the trench being dug along the roadway in preparation for the laying of new sewer pipe.? This trench is a result of the 2012 new furnace project and is discussed later in this document.? A magazine stand across the street adds a touch of reality to the scene.A telephone booth at the front right corner is the place where Clark Kent goes to transform into Superman.? Notice his street clothing lying on the ground just outside the phone booth.? The layout’s association with Superman does not end with this one building although most visitors do not see the “reprise” to the story until several minutes later.? I have built a collection of mining buildings under the stairwell in the so-called Mining District.? The Kryptonite Mining CO is owned and operated by left6667500Lex Luthar, although Lex’s last name should be spelled Luthor.? Many recognize that Kryptonite is the one substance that can negate Superman’s power.? Many have looked about the room asking: “Well, where is Superman?”? My reply points out Superman’s ability to fly faster than light; so, no wonder he can’t be seen!Railroad Station? ??????????? The YVRR’s passenger station at Benchley is scratch built in cut-away fashion to allow visitors a view inside the structure.? This scene nicely completes an otherwise exposed corner of the layout just above the workbench.Road?Reconstruction??????????? Already noted previously, Judy and I elected to have some major work done on our home in the spring of 2012 including a new high-efficiency furnace, a heat pump, and an on-demand hot water heater (eliminating a?hot water storage tank altogether).? The new furnace required the old version of Benchley be taken down so the entire plywood benchwork containing the curved track between the switching leads into Benchley and the Gauntlet bridge had to be removed to another room.? Great care was necessary to avoid any kink whatsoever in the temporarily stored benchwork.? Then, after the new furnace with a new cold-air return plenum was installed, I had to return the city of?Benchley to its previous location and reconnect the four through rails (2 main line and 2 passing track rails) at both ends.? Fortunately, these exposed rails never got kinked at all. ?????????????The removal of Benchley had required me to use a large circular power saw to cut away the plywood from a 1x4 support.? When Benchley was finally returned, a trough in the scenery was left parallel to the street because of this saw cut.? This could have been patched and returned the street to full use right away; but the idea occurred to me to make this trough into a scene of a crew laying a new water pipe under the highway.? Notice that there is one last length of pipe resting on the sidewalk waiting to be laid in place.? There is also an inverted “V” of earth waiting to be pushed, shoveled, and broomed back onto the pipe to refill the trough before the road could be returned to full service.? So, for now, the road is limited to one lane of traffic with a person standing in the street holding a “stop/slow” sign in front of a line of impatient drivers.? The yellow traffic cones are made from the conical tips of a certain brand of ball point pens – the same kind of tip that formed the base of the dentist’s and barber’s chair in Dr. Payne’s office, discussed a bit later.? The North-Facing Fa?ade Against and Between the Furnace??????????? A string of commercial, well-detailed, plastic, building fronts – called fa?ades were painted and lettered by me to cover the otherwise uninteresting faces of the new furnace.A Department StoreMarshall Field & Co is/was a popular department store in downtown Chicago.? My mother shopped there frequently in anticipation of Christmas each year.? This version of Marshall Field & Co begins on the 2nd floor and goes up from there.? The ground floor is rented out to Deborah’s Church Goods in honor of our oldest daughter who has earned a Master of Divinity degree.A Famous Hotel10477539052500??????????? The next business moving west (actual west) is not a fa?ade at all.? It occupies the space between the furnace and the cold air return plenum.? The Overlook Hotel (left) is a kit-built hotel with a lot of added scenic interest.? The Overlook Hotel gained fame as the hotel in Steven King’s movie: “The Shining”.? This hotel (much smaller than the one in the movie) represents that scary place.? It is even complete down to the hedge maze on the lawn.? This maze was made of suitably thick (the hedge thickness) strips of ?” wood painted green with “grass” sifted onto the wet paint and glued together to form the maze.? Notice a couple of hotel guests exploring the maze.? Unfortunately, a normal height adult glued to the floor of the maze would have his/her head unrealistically a little above the top of the maze; so I solved this problem by cutting off their feet at just above their ankles before gluing them to the floor of the maze.?????????? Many guests are on the well-kept veranda while several more are strolling about on the well-kept lawn watching a game of croquet in progress.? The balls are, as always, candy “sprinkles” as would be used to decorate cookies.? The white wire hoops are just short lengths of wire bent into a “U”, painted white and pressed into the foam board base of the hotel diorama.????????? The slightly out-of-focus (sorry) brass bell suspended from an arch is actually a small bell cast from the bell broken during the Chicago Fire of October, 1871.? That bell had hung from a wood beam in Chicago’s Water Tower; and when that support beam finally burned through, the bell crashed to the ground level and cracked.? Thousands of these small bells were made from the bronze of that bell and were sold at the Chicago Exposition of 1893.? My grandfather bought this bell and gave it to my father who, in turn, gave it to me.? All of a sudden, it is, once again, a large sized bell (in HO scale).????????? A row of very skinny trained and teased evergreen trees form a line on both sides of the concrete veranda just outside the hotel’s back entrance.? These skinny trees were intended to be tooth-flossing devices.? That patio also has some large pots for growing decorative plants.? These are made from short lengths of brass tubing glued to expired hearing aid batteries and painted blue.? The front side and entrance to this elegant hotel has already been discussed in another section.? Another Famous Hotel??????????? The Tabor Grand Hotel was modeled in Benchley and not in Leadville where Horace Tabor really built it. This is another well-detailed fa?ade that I painted.? Once again, a merchant’s shop, (Flowers by Sarah) has been rented out on the ground floor.? Sarah is another daughter.A Bank??????????? The First National Bank of Benchley is another well-detailed fa?ade that I painted.Grocery store??????????? The next fa?ade business is unidentified except for the rented out ground floor.? A grocery store is located there.? At least hotel residents down the street not wanting the high-priced meals at the hotel restaurants (a steak dinner costs over a dollar at the Tabor Grand!) can find tasty food to eat.The West Side of the FurnaceTool & Die CO??????????? The Precision Tool & Die Co is an acknowledgment of my best friend in high school, Jim Krejci.? His father owned a tool and die company in Park Ridge, IL (I think).? Jim was a model railroader like I was. We had an on-going friendly rivalry concerning our locomotives.? My parents had given me a Varney 4-6-2 Pacific kit costing $37.50; and my grandfather had purchased the $7.50 tender that went with it.? Jim’s locomotive was, as I recall, a Bowser (brand) 4-8-2 Mountain type.? We chided one another frequently as to which of our locos ran better.? In truth, neither of us had done a very good job of constructing our respective kits.? Still, my Varney Pacific proudly sits to this day on my museum table against the central wall of the basement.The other things Jim and I had in common was that we both loved to play ping pong and shoot pool; and we were about equally matched at both games.? He also introduced me to classical music – even though he only played the accordion.? Judy and I even double dated with Jim and a girlfriend a couple of times.? After high school, Jim and I drifted apart and I seldom saw him during my college years.? Still, this plastic kit is a direct result of that childhood recollection. I was always a bit curious about just exactly what a tool and die company was.? I built the kit to sit at a slight angle and with the rear wall omitted altogether because I wanted to locate the industry against the furnace.? Another reason to make this kit into that particular industry was that somewhere along the line and many years earlier I had acquired a set of 1/8”-scale (1:96) machine tools including lathes and milling machines.? These are slightly out-of-scale for HO scale which figures to about 1:87; but the appearance was pleasing to me.??????????? The lettering on the industry’s sign was hand-done by me using dry transfer letters.? In my imagination, the nature of a tool and die company would be such that the outside yard around the building would be very clutteredWest-facing Fa?ade? Only one commercial, well-detailed, plastic, building front – called a fa?ade?was painted by me to cover the otherwise uninteresting face of the new furnace.? This yellow brick building does not have a specified industry.? Still, a red grocery/food-related truck is backed into its loading area.? The rest of the buildings along this furnace face are more than fa?ades. General Store??????????? I like the concept of a General Store.? It seems to me to suggest an easier, less structured life with fewer demands on one’s time.? This was a better-than-average plastic commercial ready-to-use structure?with lots of human interaction modeled.Nuclear Poison “Assembly” Building??????????? The kit-built American Boron Company uses the catchy slogan: “as easy as ABC.? The ground floor houses Baseball’s Hall of Records with my father, E. H. Rothe in charge.Building to Hide the Furnace’s Gas Pipe??????????? Our new (2012) furnace has a black gas feed pipe rising right through the far corner of the?west side of Benchley; and it looked a bit unsightly.? To hide that pipe I made a simple, two-sided, windowless building and lettered it, tongue in cheek, for the Yampa Valley Natural Gas Supply.A Hobby ShopAs a 12-year-old boy, I frequented Leonard’s Hobby Shop on Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park very frequently.? I can still see in my mind the sea of mostly-yellow boxes of Varney freight car kits, the rack of magazines – both Model Railroader and Trains, the bottle of lacquer-based model railroad paints in such colors as “box car red”, and the Weston scale figures costing 75 cents each!?? This would be the spring of 1948.??????????? Naturally, one of the kit-built structures somewhere on the layout had to commemorate those warm, lush memories.Dentist Office and Barber Shopleft129540000??????????? I built this kit because our then 6-year-old son, Paul, had just lost a baby tooth.? The false-front style of the D. Payne & Son – Dentist and Barber wood kit seemed to me to fit into a small railroad community like Benchley and making the kit into a combination dentist office and barber shop seemed reminiscent of the early west.? I made the barber pole from memory and used Paul’s tooth as the “shingle” for the dentist half of the business.? Even the name of the dentist was selected to illicit a smile from visitors – would you want Dr. Payne to be your dentist?? One of my coworkers at Rocky Flats, Doug Payne, died of cancer; so he is remembered through this industry.?? The dental chair inside actually uses a silver conical metal tip from an old ball-point pen as the conical base of the dentist’s chair.? The business uses the front third of the floor area with the dentist living alone in the back.? Notice that his bedroom curtain (a bit of toilet paper rolled in my fingers to break the fibers) is blowing out the window.? His camping trailer is kept on the premises and there are two horseshoe pits showing the skills of those who last played.A City park???????????? Tall grass is being mowed with the shorter grass appearing a bit lighter in color.? Meanwhile, a game of horseshoes is in progress.? Horse shoes (here and above) are tiny bits of soft iron wire flattened with a single blow of a hammer.? Several were lost when the hammer struck; but enough could be found to allow the game to continue.??????????? Along the street, a teen-aged driver has run into a road side post and damaged his dad’s car.? Several folks have gathered around to survey the damage and offer advice to the distraught teen.Benchley to AxeHandle (including backdrop)Gauntlet Turnout Ever since I first learned about gauntlet track, I have wanted to find an excuse to scratch build one – well, almost scratch build one.? Mine is really just very heavily kit bashed.? The entire bridge is made of N-scale Through Deck Girder bridges turned upside down with tracks laid on the underside - now up.? This is the first and only model on my entire layout to have been assembled using super glue.? This product scares me because the nozzle always seems to become stuck with set glue after I use the product the first time.? The four rails were super-glued to the ties.? Wooden bridges are susceptible to fire from a stray clinker from a passing steam locomotive; therefore, fire barrels are spaced across the bridge.? A scratch-built spindly central column supports the center of the bridge.Gauntlet track is two parallel railroad tracks so closely spaced together that one of the rails of one track is actually located between the pair of rails of the second track. This design would be avoided whenever possible in prototype railroading because the gauntleted region of track has all the maintenance expense of double track; but it is limited to single track usefulness.? That is, two trains cannot exist at the same time over that region.? One reason why a prototype railroad might resort to gauntlet track would be if rock stability through a tunnel proved unsatisfactory to drill a tunnel wide enough for normal two-track passage.?????????? This girder bridge is an example of a gauntlet turnout – double track on one end reduces to single track on the other.? That is, the two tracks of double track railroad through Benchley converge to the gauntlet configuration only long enough to cross over a spindly trestle bridge.? Then, rather than returning to double track, the turnout is finally completed.? Engineering experience reveals that it is unwise to ever put the movable points of a turnout/switch on a bridge.? Derailments would be disastrous.? I had to invent a reason for the YVRR to need to resort to a gauntlet turnout:? Engine crews working Benchley complained that the passing track was too short; so B&B workers lengthened it as much as possible by re-locating the frog on firm ground just before the bridge.? Then, that would have placed the turnout’s points on the bridge.? Thus, the construction of the gauntlet turnout was necessary.? This length of gauntlet track fulfilled part of one of the requirements for my Master Model Railroader (#281) status.The Tunnel DistrictThe prototype D&SL/D&RGW (now UP) railroad’s between Plainview, CO and, say,?Crescent, CO is often called their?“Tunnel District” because 19 short tunnels existed over those few miles. I liked the notion; so the next 25 feet of track past the gauntlet turnout contains 5 short tunnels.? The first of these dives under some free-lanced mountains painted on the east-facing surface of the central load-bearing wall of our home.? The next 15 feet of backdrop scenery (north-facing wall of the basement bedroom) is my rough approximation of the Frontal Escarpment of the Rocky Mountains between Boulder and (south) to Plainview – the Tunnel Districts for both model and prototype terrain.? Trains next pass below the towering heights of the majestic Maroon Bells – Colorado mountains moved to Wyoming for the purposes of this model railroad.? Tuning north, the splendid Grand Teton Mountains can be seen out the right-hand windows as one final tunnel, the last of the Tunnel District, is exited.? These mountains were free-hand painted by me using artist’s acrylic water-based paints with a colorful scenic calendar as a guide for both color and outline.Lone-Tree SidingThe top level of the shelf above the 4-track-wide storage tracks representing both Denver and Santa Fe was wide enough to accept a 20-foot-long passing siding. That siding is called Lone-Tree Siding because of the single tree found along its entire length.? Colorado’s Uintah Railway had a real siding called Lone Tree. ?The pastoral farm scene painted on the backdrop contains one blunder.? Paul pointed out that the tractor cutting down the wheat in the field is moving the wrong direction such that it appears as though the wheat is springing up behind the tractor.? Oh well!????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? More Replicated Scenic AreasThe next backdrop scene is my version of Utah’s Monument Valley after which a river is crossed on a high bridge.? After Utah, the next backdrop scenery is Colorado’s famous Sand Dunes National Monument.?? The final painted background of a clear-cut forested area is the consequence of another treasure (a number of cast metal tree stumps) in my collection of spare modeling parts.? These were painted and glued in the narrow strip just before the final terminus of the branchline at AxeHandle, ID.AxeHandle Yard??????????? This classification yard was not in the early plans for the YVRR.? I built it in later years for a couple of reasons.? I needed an end terminus as a destination for branch line trains.? In addition, I had bought a collection (at? BMRC “swap meet”) of used code 70 turnouts in good condition except for a lot of old ballast adhering to the ties.?? The collection included one double slip switch.? This 20” wide by 12 foot long yard, unlike almost all the rest of the track work, was not hand spiked rails on hand-laid ties.? I used new and used commercial code 70 track.?? The final result really looks fine to me and the track works quite well.? Commercial manual turnout throws were used as well.? Turntable?????????? I needed a turntable to be able to turn locomotives for the return trip to Bond.? The highly-detailed one at Salida is still not completely finished (I plan to add simulated locking devices at each exit track) even though it was begun about 1958!? The much simpler, hand-operated, scratch-built turntable at AxeHandle was completed in a couple of days.? It lacks detail style, and prototypicality; but it accomplishes the goal.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?President’s Private Railroad Car I am the President and CEO of the YVRR as well as its creator, builder, designer, janitor, and all things in between.? The image of this car had lurked in the deep recesses of my mind for many years.? I scratch-built this car and invented the following rule for YVRR engineers: By the power of my presidency I can tell the YVRR dispatchers that my wife and I want to have our private car coupled to the rear of any passenger or freight train traveling anywhere along the widespread route of the YVRR and to switch our car onto an unused siding at any city along the line.? Many times, we did not even specify the city.? Wherever we parked, that is where we would vacation for a few days to a week or more.? The windowless shed at one end of the car contains bicycles for us to use at our destination. The car has a white picket fence surrounding the thick grass turf covering the entire car except for the small enclosed house with a bay window wherein we sleep. A gate in that fence allows us to lower our bicycles to the ground via a sloped ramp.? The two of us can be seen sunbathing (below) on the grassy lawn with the picnic table set for lunch cooked on the nearby brazier.? The plates on the table are round punched chards from a computer-tape-run milling machine.? 2276475000Napkins are rectangular chards from old IBM computer cards.? The underside of the car carries two water tanks – the blue one for potable drinking water and the grey one for used “grey” water.? The maiden voyage of this President’s Car was to the point where the Golden Spike was driven in place to join together the northern extension of the YVRR with the much older route that started life as the S&CR RR.? This model and the dining car are the two models I emphasize most when showing the TV room.Passenger Station??????????? The highly-detailed, kit-bashed, heavily-populated, AxeHandle Passenger Station was a complete European passenger station kit; but I combined front, back, and sides to make an even larger station and scratch-built a dining portico in one corner of the deck.? This station is the largest along the entire YVRR and is imagined to be only equaled by Denver’s famed Union Station and the station in Santa Fe.? The portico is surrounded by a pointed picket fence (bank pins pushed upward through top and bottom simulated concrete – actually wood – rails with a single beed from a necklace forming the curve between rails.? The sharp points at the top are intended to inhibit suicide attempts by people jumping to their death.? This station won a blue ribbon at a?BMRC contest.??????????? Passengers travel to and from the “great hall”, two levels higher, via an imagined below-grade tunnel; but two covered portals can be seen along the station platform serving passenger track #2 (the 6th track from the front of the table).? The 7th track is not even wired.? This is to show off a waiting-to-be-loaded, new-fangled, AT&SF, streamliner.? In my world, the AT&SF connects with the YVRR at AxeHandle – a little too far north for the prototype AT&SF.Coaling Station??????????? I bought this unfinished Campbell Models coaling station from the estate of another deceased modeler.? This particular kit can be found on a great many layouts.? It is/was very popular within the hobby. ?It was exactly the same kit as the one used for the coaling station at Salida; but this one was unfinished.? There was no roof to the coal bin.? Rather than finish the kit, I decided to model it as though a crew was in the process of doing just that.? Later, I bought a set of painter figures and set them up as though they were painting the lower part of the station.? Months later, I realized how unsafe this would be lest a worker a hundred feet in the air accidently kicked a 2x4 off the roof allowing it to fall on the painters below.??????????? A humorous aside related to this very popular kit.? In building my Salida version (at work during half hour lunch times) and following the printed instructions very carefully, I found a couple of errors in those instructions.? I wrote Leo Campbell telling him of my find and he responded, thanking me and explaining that no one else had ever written him about these errors.? Evidently, a number of kits were not completed to that point and/or craftsmen kit builders overlooked these errors.Engine house??????????? One small corner of the developing yard right near the wood frame doorway between two rooms was going unused.? It was just the right size and shape for a single-stall engine house.? That is what it became. ?Evidently, I was in my “constructionist period”; so the engine house and the coaling station are both under construction.AxeHandle Ancillary StorageThis triangular section of layout is just scenery.? None of the tracks are wired at all.? The addition made sense because of the television set in the basement.? It spans that space and provides an excellent display for some ancillary railroad equipment storage.? This non-operational wedge of scenery is contiguous to (and supposedly, a part of) the operational yard at AxeHandle.? The tracks of both are parallel to one another.Buzz Allen’s Modeling Talent ??????????? I bought this scratch-built model from Buzz Allen, now moved away from Colorado.? Buzz had this engine house structure for sale at a BMRC “Swap Meet”.? I bought it for $20 and placed it here with a plastic model of one of the locomotives from the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Point.? Buzz is one of the best modelers I know.Burned Gondola Car ??????????? This was a wood no-longer-wanted gondola kit built by someone else that somehow came into my possession. I decided to follow D&RGW practices by setting fire to older, unwanted rolling stock. So, I actually set fire to this completed kit and, at just the right time, I lowered it into a container of water to extinguish the flames.The Dining Car and Passenger ServiceAn entire passenger train sits on track #6 (counting from the front) always ready to operate.? In truth, I seldom run this train, called The Yampa Valley Flyer, because I am much more interested in freight train operations. ?Still, it and a 2–car local passenger train could be run whenever desired.left68008500I have intentionally cut the diner car out of the train and placed it in prominent view on this ancillary wedge.? The dining car is fully outfitted with tables and simulated chairs (short lengths of brass ladder sock bent along the edges and painted gold).? Each table has white linen table cloths (wood painted white) set with dinner plates (BCD chads from a computer tape for lathe operation) and salad plates (chads from the sprocket drive of the same tape).? Rectangular chads from an IBM punch card makes acceptable napkins.? One woman (3rd window on one side) is eating spaghetti (a bit of white glue on her plate with paprika dabbed into it).? A person on the other side has a dinner salad (rubbed sage dabbed into the glue).? Several tables have individual poppy seeds and sesame seeds glued in place to represent dinner rolls.Dual Gauge TrackworkSomehow, I acquired several pieces of dual gauge track.? The entire length of one track is laid in dual gauge.? The dual gauge track next to Buzz’s engine house is more complicated.? A dual gauge turnout is being removed by a crew of YVRR workers.? A distance away is a “transition track” whereby the common rail of dual gauge track is swapped from one rail to the opposite rail.The WelderI purchased this scenic delight from Jack Rummel of the BMRC when he prepared to move to Longmont.? This is not yet set up to be scenically operational.? When that is done, static from radio will cause random sparks as though the welder is flame-cutting metal apart.BOOK II – How I built my Model RailroadIntroduction to the HobbyMy start in this life-long hobby is best told in the article I wrote for the Model Railroader magazine, “Thanks, Dad”, published as a guest essay in June, 1978.? The text of this is seen near the beginning of Book I of this writing.? My 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cars built were a red-over grey NYC Pacemaker boxcar, a black Nickel Plate gondola, and a silver Rock Island boxcar.? By the middle of 1948, the model railroad bug had bitten hard.? I recall with nostalgia my frequent visits to Leonard’s Hobby Shop on Milwaukee Avenue just south of Lawrence in Jefferson Park.? Most Varney car kits cost $1.90.? There, I was also introduced to MR and Trains magazines (35 ?) and lacquer-based paint.?? I also recall fondly buying several Leo Stokes plaster castings of automobiles that I would paint at home.? I bought my first commercial Weston figure – a station attendant.? That figure was dropped on the floor at home such that his head broke off.? He still resides on my layout as a decapitation.left44323000In June of 1948, I graduated from 8th grade and my parents gave me my First Locomotive, a Varney 4-6-2 “Pacific” costing $37.50.? My grandparents gave me the matching tender, a $7.50 gift.? While in high school, I took a still-useful drafting class.? One of our projects was the drawing of a white framed house with a screened-in porch.? The model became my First Scratch-built structure shown at the left.? It is on my museum shelf in the basement TV room.I built my first layout at 6847 Foster Avenue in Chicago.? It was under the stairs and about 4’ x 6’.? Sadly, no photos exist of that debacle. It was not very good; but it was mine!? Commercial brass track was used and not too well laid.? A good friend, Jim Krejci, and I would alternate railroad evenings at one another’s homes.? His locomotive was a Bowser 4-8-2 “Mountain”.? We had a friendly rivalry as to which loco was better.? Jim’s father was a tool and die maker; and that was in my mind when I built the tool and die company in Benchley.By the time I entered Knox College (1952), I had grown a little sensitive about letting people know that I still liked toy trains.? After all, mature college boys don’t build toy trains; they ought to have transitioned to chasing after girls.? I think I built one car while at Knox; but the chief factor keeping my interest alive was the major classification yard and loco servicing facility at Galesburg, IL.? See the earlier tale and figure of a refrigerator car icing platform at Galesburg, Il, much earlier in the text.In graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, I was more open about my interests.? During these Madison Years, I bought a life subscription (#0671) to the MR magazine for which I paid $60.? MR now costs $6 per issue at the newsstand.? At lunch one day with then-MR Editor, Russ Larson, his response to learning of my life subscription was: “Oh well, you helped the magazine, begun in 1934 (I think), during its formative decades.”?? I gave the current owner of 952554292500Caboose Hobbies, Duane Miller, my entire collection of MR magazine from 1948 (when MR changed to a larger page format – 8 x 10) to about 2000 and continue to donate every couple of years.? Duane gave me the 1920’s gas station kit (made into the diorama shown above) as a “thank you”.? I did keep several years of MR from the early 1940’s through 1947 for nostalgic reasons.Later, I bought a Lifetime Membership #2231in the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) for $100.? I think this happened in the 1960s.The Yampa Valley Railroad BeginsBetween 1947 and 1964, my interest in model railroading never really diminished.? It may have taken a back seat during high school and college years while I struggled with the issue of an adult male playing with toy trains.? By the time I married Judy in June of 1957, I overcame that self-imposed social barrier and openly embraced the wonderful and multi-faceted hobby of model railroading.Then, in the late summer of 1964, we packed up our Wisconsin possessions and moved to Boulder, CO; here I began a job as an experimental nuclear physicist with The Dow Chemical Company.? From August to November, we lived as a family of 4 (although Judy was pregnant with Paul) in a rented home at 17th and Bluebell in south Boulder; but we always knew we wanted to buy a home of our own.? The home we selected was partially chosen based on the basement’s configuration. The open area to the east of the stairwell looked promising as a great space for a good-sized model railroad.Even the purchase of this new home has a humorous twist to it.? Judy and I had been looking at a number of candidate homes to purchase.? This was tiring Judy because she was near term carrying our son, Paul.? At a certain point we decided that we would not look further until after the baby was born.? One Sunday afternoon, Judy was scanning the real estate ads and paused at an interesting possibility located in south Boulder at 3965 Britting Ave.? She broached the possibility of one more look to me but quickly withdrew her suggestion observing that I was engrossed in watching a Green Bay Packer football game.? Her comment was something akin to: “This house looks promising but you won’t want to go because you are watching the Packer’s football game!”? I clearly recall my response which was something close to: “Oh, we can go.? These dumb Packers are losing to the (Minnesota) Vikings.? I can’t bear to watch.”Truth be told, neither of us fell in love with the house such that we just had to have it; but, more importantly, neither of us could find anything wrong with the house.? And so, we live in our home of well over half a century because the Packers lost a football game!Even before the final boxes were unpacked at 3965 Britting Avenue, construction on my life’s dream began.? The previous months had not been wasted.? My mind toyed with many initial layout plans for the first section of the layout.? As that thinking evolved, I decided to make this first section a “switching layout” with two main lines passing from one end to the other.? Crossovers would be included to permit movement from one main line to the other and a number of industrial sidings would allow complicated switching problems to be presented to the operator.? Furthermore, some additional industrial sidings “reverse cut” into other sidings would add additional difficulties.Scale SelectionEven before the first wood was cut, I decided I wanted to build my model railroad for long-term, dependable operation with minimal maintenance.? To attain that goal, I had to establish high quality construction criteria.? These will be discussed next.? First, however, there was the question of what scale to build in.? The choices, in those years did not include the now somewhat popular, albeit smaller, N-scale or the much larger (and much more expensive) G gauge.? Truthfully, HO scale was the only one ever considered mostly because the few models already on hand had been built in that scale.? HO scale means that 3.5 mm of linear length represents 1 foot of the prototype (1:87.0857).? That ratio is usually rounded off to just 1:87, although I tend to prefer using 1:87.1.Gauge and Rail HeightAnother early choice was the track gauge and the size (height) of a piece of rail. I had grown up knowing only the “standard gauge” prototype of the C&NW RY in Chicago. So, standard gauge became the natural choice.? I did not want to model a high-speed, heavy duty?major transcontinental railroad.? I envisioned a smaller, less complicated, prototype railroad that would use lighter rail.? Commercial rail was available at the time (1964) in only three rail heights: code 100, code 70, and code 55.? I selected code 70 where the rail was 0.070” high.? Thus, my model rail would be almost 6.1” tall -- perfect!? Years later, code 83 (0,083” high) became somewhat common; but I already had a lot of code 70 rail laid.Track and Rail SelectionI wanted to hand-lay my track. This added to the challenge by pushing my modeling skills, but, at the same time, it greatly increased the versatility of the resultant track configuration.? Prototype realism could also be increased because ties could occasionally be laid imperfectly (not precisely parallel to one another) as is sometimes found on real railroads.? Commercial standard gauge track could be bought in three-foot lengths; but their plastic ties would be too perfectly uniform in spacing and always parallel to one another – not realistic for my imagined prototype mercial extruded rail was available in both brass and nickel silver.? Brass had earned a bad reputation over the years because its oxide – unavoidable with the passage of time - was not an acceptable conductor of electricity.? Consequently, model railroads built using brass rail had to be cleaned (lightly sanded) far too frequently for satisfactory operation.? The surface coating developing on nickel silver rail is, however, an electrical conductor.? Therefore, the natural selection for use on my model railroad was commercial code 70 nickel silver rail.? This could also be bought with the rail realistically blackened all around to better represent used prototype rail.? Once spiked in place, a few wipes over the tops of the rail with a fine-grit emery paper removed the blackening from the top of the rail resulting in realistic-looking gleam of often used railroad tracks while still maintaining good electrical contact.One length of this nickel silver rail would connect to the next length using thin but tight-fitting “rail joiners”.? These are short pieces of pretty hard metal formed to slip over the ends of adjacent lengths of rail.? They are so well made that I had to file a relief chamfer on all edges of each rail to allow the joiner to be forced onto each rail; but the resulting connection provided a very smooth transition from one length of rail to the next.? This has eliminated any derailments when a wheel set would pass over such a joint.? To avoid even a very small bump under the rail joiner (even though it was thin it did have some small thickness), I would notch away small bits of wood from a couple of ties at the site of the joint.? I have never experienced a derailment caused by a wheel passing over a joint between two adjacent lengths of rail!Electrical ConnectivityI did not usually solder these joints even though nickel silver solders very easily.? I had been advised by others not to trust electrical conductivity across a soldered rail joiner.? Even the tiny vibration of trains repeatedly passing over such a joint would eventually break the soldered joint.? Thus, I established the good criteria of soldering short feeder wires (a few inches long) to the base of each and every piece of rail – no matter how short that piece might be.? These feeder wires would pass though small holes drilled through the layout such that wired connections could be soldered between that feeder wire and the appropriate larger gauge “bus” wire having the needed electrical voltage for that length of rail.? Sometimes short lengths of rail were required for certain applications; and each piece of rail had a feeder soldered to it.As fate would have it, I departed from my standard practice on a 20-foot-long, 4-track-wide “staging yard”.? Here, I used commercial 36”-long lengths of pre-fabricated code 70 nickel silver rail with rail joiners connecting lengths of track.? I soldered these rail joints and did not have a feeder wire connected to each length of rail. This was a mistake! The connections worked well for several decades; but the steady movement of trains over the soldered joints eventually cracked one of the solder joints on the single trackage connecting the lower level of the layout with the upper level which I consider to be a very long branch line from Bond, CO past Craig, above the staging yard, past Benchley, WY returning back above the affected trackage, and around to the major yard at AxeHandle, ID.? Pure proximity of one rail physically pressed against the next allowed the electricity to pass some of the time.? Maybe it is temperature; but, over the last decade or so, trains would stop running as they crossed over into this no-longer-electrically-connected section of track.?? The cracked solder joint is very difficult to get to for repairs.? I have to reach over 24” of layout to get to it and can only use one hand due to tight quarters.? The crack is a few inches under a higher roadbed and just a couple of inches above the staging yard.? I have invented half a dozen “jumper” metal bypasses to pass electricity around the cracked joint; but each of these lasts a finite length of time before the problem reemergesTurnoutsNaturally, turnouts (sometime called “switches” but not to be confused with electrical toggle switches) were necessary in order to allow me to pass trains from one track to either of two alternate routes.? One example of this would be a turnout that allowed a train to pass along on the mainline or to diverge away from the main to deliver a car to an industrial siding.? My model railroad has many dozens of turnouts strewn along its right-of-way.? I had decided early on that I wanted to hand make and hand lay each of these turnouts.Hand making turnouts required filing two short lengths of rail to a knife edge.? These are the “point rails” of a switch.? More filing was required for the “frog” - the place where one rail actually crosses another rail.? This filing was accomplished by sawing a narrow slit into a short length of ?” square wood.? The kerf of the saw blade was such that I could press the opposite flange of a length of rail into it to hold it during filing.? The square wood was held in a vise while the opposite edge of the base of the extruded rail would be filed to the desired wedge-like point.? Different wedge angles had to be filed for point rails and for frog components.Then, all the components of a turnout would be spiked upside down to a scrap piece?of homosote and soldered together. Some cleanup was at times necessary to open flange ways and to ensure proper spacing (gauging) of the turnout.? This enabled me to create non-standard turnouts.??Making my own turnouts allowed me to custom fit the size of the turnout to the need.? Commercial switches come in #4, #6, and #8 frog angles.? (The lower the number, the sharper the departure of the diverging route.)? Prototype railroads used the same scheme although they might well have a #20 frog angle.? Model railroads needed smaller frogs to conserve linear space along a layout.The electrical polarity of the frog has to change as the turnout changes from “thru” to “diverge”.? I designed my own polarity switches (here, I am referring to an electrical switch); and several of these can be seen in many figures.? These “Popsicle” turnout throws begin with a small block of wood screwed to the outside edge of the layout with a moveable popsicle stick slid over a screw passed through the bottom of the block.? A straightened-out paper clip passed through a small hole in the side of the layout and connected the upper part of the popsicle stick with a string leading to the mechanism under the layout and seen in some other figures.The turnout points were actually thrown about 1/8” via a short length of straightened-out paper clip bent at the end between the point/closure rails of the turnout.?? The other end was bent to 90? and soldered into the top end of a length of brass tubing (the brass tube found in many dried up ball point pens). This tube passed through the layout and had a length of 1/16” by ?” brass stock soldered to the pen tube under the layout.? This bar stock had a few holes drilled into it such that another loop of paperclip tied to the string (mentioned in the previous paragraph) would connect to the popsicle stick on the edge of the layout.? Another paperclip, string and spring – the spring hooked fastened to the far side stringer of the bench work – held the turnout in its normal (through) route; but pulling on the entire assembly via the popsicle drew the turnout to its divergent route.? The popsicle stick could be held in the divergent route behind a nail pressed into the first block of wood.A Typical Roadbed Cross Section??????????? An “L-Girder” is simply a best-quality (no warp) 1x2 glued and nailed to one edge of a best-quality (no warp) 1x4 forming an inverted “L”.? Several 8’-long L-girders would be made at one time; and these could be cut to length as needed as the layout grew.? The advantage of an L-girder is its long-term resistance to warping.? Then, the bottom support (called the roadbase) for the eventual right-of-way, a length of 1/2” plywood, was “cookie cutter” sawed into the desired curvature of the desired track.? Another advantage of the L-girder was that the overhanging lip of the 1x2 would allow the plywood to be fastened to the L-girder from underneath by passing a deck-screw upward through the lip into the plywood roadbase.? Attachment from above was unwise because the next layer in the process would cover over the screw’s head, thus preventing slight lateral adjustments – if necessary.??????????? That next layer was a length of Celotex (a fibrous black insulation board available in 4’x8’ sheets) cut into the same curvature as the plywood only a little bit narrower; and this Celotex strip would be glued to the plywood.? Next, a final layer of another material called Homosote (a gray compressed paper insulation board available in 4’x8’ sheets) would be cut to the same curvature and glued atop the Celotex.? The Celotex and Homosote were both sound-deadening materials intended to quiet the sound of trains running over the layout.? The special advantage of the Homosote was its ability to accept and hold firmly the railroad spikes to be used in a later stage.? One important precaution to minimize vertical dips and rises in the final roadbed was to stagger joints between plywood, Celotex, and Homosote such that they never coincided at the same place.? Finally, the edges of the Homosote were rasped to about a 45??angle to simulate the slope of the ballast to be added later.? When gluing the Celotex and Homosote to the plywood, C-clamps were used to hold everything together until the glue set; but pieces of scrap wood were used between the clamp and the Homosote to prevent unwanted vertical curves.? The result of these careful steps was a straight, smooth, and flat roadbed with the desired curvature and the proper slope for the ballast.? I was ready to lay some track!??????????? Ties on the finished track were also hand-laid.? I used commercial “low-profile” wood ties manufactured by (Leo) Campbell Co.? These ties were pre-stained (using Rit dyes) to various shades of dark browns, muted grays, and new-tie blacks.? When thoroughly dry, these colored ties were placed, one tie at a time, into a 3’-long jig I made; and then a narrow strip of masking tape allowed the entire 3’-long strip of properly spaced ties to be picked up out of the jig and transferred to a temporary surface immediately adjacent to the strip of roadbed to be worked on. ??????????? The length of Homosote to be covered by that strip of ties was marked in pencil on the Homosote and the Homosote was painted with a thinned water-based powdered glue.? Then, the masking tape was carefully peeled away from the ties using a metal edge to hold the ties down while the tape was peeled back.? Two actions had to be done quickly while the glue was still wet.? One was to slightly misalign a few ties here and there.? Prototypically, lesser important track would have more misaligned ties than well-maintained mainline track.?? The second action while the glue was still wet was to drizzle copious amounts of ballast over the ties and down the sloped sides of the Homosote to represent the embankment of rock ballast of a full-sized railroad.? So much ballast was applied at this stage that the top of a department store cardboard dress box had to be held under the operation to collect the overflow; and the loose grains of ballast more than covered the tops of the ties.? Frequently, I would use my fingers along the length of roadbed just drizzled to pat the ballast well into the glue to ensure maximum adhesion.? After that final step, I walked away from the operation for a day to allow the glue to set up securely.??????????? The next day, I would vacuum up the excess ballast that was not held in place by the glue.? Not wanting to waste this ballast, I held a topless and bottomless tuna can with a piece of nylon stocking martial stretched across its open bottom between the vacuum cleaner nozzle and the roadbed being cleaned.? In this manner, that excess ballast could be collected for reuse on the next section of roadbed.??????????? The glue used in the above procedure was either a water-thinned white glue (Elmer’s glue) or a dry, powered glue (possibly called Weldwood glue) that had to be mixed with water to a certain consistency. For either glue, it would be brushed onto the length of Homosote being worked on.??????????? Unavoidably, a few ties would have raised above the Homosote a very small amount.? This could not be tolerated because the raised ties would create small vertical curves in the subsequent laying of the rails.? A short block of 1x2 wood with rounded ends had a piece of sandpaper glued to it; and this “sanding block” was passed lightly over the just-laid row of ties knocking down any local high spots.? Sanding continued in broad sweeps of the arm until I felt the tops of the ties were all the same height above the Homosote.? This sanding, of course, removed some of the stain and I had to re-stain these ties using a modeler’s paint brush.? When this was dry, the roadbed was finished and I was ready to lay the rails!Laying the Railroad Track??????????? Commercial code 070, weathered, nickel silver rail was available in bulk packages of 33 pieces of 3-foot-long lengths.? I have earlier described how rail joiners would be used to connect one length to the next.? Tiny commercial railroad spikes (1000 to the package) were used to hold the rail in place.? Each spike is about 3/8” long and has an offset head just like a real spike.? I used a pair of needle-nosed pliers to hold the spike while driving it through a tie and into the Homosote. The rail being spiked into place was positioned very close to its desired location and held there with metal weights.? The rail’s distance from the near end of one tie was judged by eye such that when the 2nd rail would later be spiked in place, the track would be very closely centered on the ties.? Most of the time this eyeball location worked out quite well.? Only occasionally did the finished track appear not to be centered on the ties.? I would spike this first rail about every 4th tie using one spike on each side of the rail. I must confess that if the hour was late and/or the time spent track laying had been too long, I sometimes spiked every 5th or even every 6th tie!? This procedure of two spikes per tie every (usually) 4th?tie continued until that first rail was firmly and finally spiked into place.? Standard gauge “track gauges” were cast bronze commercial tools with small points precisely located to fit the railhead of the commercial rail.? One point was placed onto the just-laid first rail such that the remaining points of the track gauge would hold the second rail at precisely the correct gauge.? Two more spikes (inside and outside the 2nd rail) held that rail in place at the correct final spacing (gauge).? I have a number of these bronze tools and usually several were placed all along the length of the 2nd rail being spiked down.As stated above, each piece of rail had an electrical feeder wire soldered to its base before the rail was spiked into place.? This feeder wire was a 3” to 5” long piece of solid (not stranded) copper wire.? The feeder would pass through a small hole drilled all the way through the roadbed coming out under the layout.? Infrequently, that feeder wire would be added after the track was spiked in place.? In those cases, the hole was drilled just outside the rail and the feeder was soldered to the outside of the web of the rail.The net result of all this precise attention to tedious detail has been flawless operation over the trackage of the Yampa Valley (model) Railroad (YVRR) for many decades!? I am quite proud of this final result – both in appearance and in operation!Scenery??????????? A model railroad consisting of only high quality track on open benchwork would be boring, unrealistic, and essentially incomplete.? The goal of many – if not most – model railroaders is to create a believable segment of a potentially possible world.? That means that scenery must fill in the gaps on both sides of the railroad track.? This segment of this chapter will detail that aspect on my model railroad.??????????? My mountains, valleys, and low, rolling hills are made of plaster.? I consider plaster scenery to be far superior to today’s more-popular (and much lighter weight) foam scenery.? To make my plaster scenery, I would visualize in my mind a very rough image of the topography desired in a given region of the layout.? A mountain, for example, would begin with a weird combination of things that could be stacked on top of one another to attain even a very rough approximation of that image.? I have used cardboard boxes, wadded up balls of newspaper, balloons, and a number of other objects to achieve that goal.? Then, that pile would be overlaid with a couple of layers of unfolded newsprint using masking tape to hold the paper in place. A final overlay of aluminum foil covered the developing sculpture and served to keep the plaster in the next step from sticking to all this underlayment.The SubstratePlaster work was accomplished in two stages.? The first was a thin layer of a very strong plaster called Hydrocal.? Here, a thin, watery mix of Hydrocal plaster and “prepared water” was mixed to the consistency of a heavy whipped cream in an empty Cool Whip plastic container.? Next – and acting very quickly because of the limited time before the plaster would begin to set up – individual sheets of newspaper torn into about 4” by 6” panels – would be dipped, one at a time, into the soupy mix and quickly slapped onto the aluminum foil base.? Adjacent panels would overlap earlier ones by about 50%.? I had about 10 to 15 minutes to apply these overlapped panels of plaster-soaked newspaper before the plaster in the bowl became too set up to work well.? In that time, I could cover an area of the aluminum foil about 2’ by 3’.? By the time the next bowl of fresh, soupy Hydrocal plaster was mixed, that first application would have set up almost completely.? The next bowl would allow an additional area of foil to be covered.??????????? The process continued until the entire area of aluminum foil – possibly as large as an arm spread – would be covered with this thin layer of strong plaster.? I would let that set up overnight before removing and discarding all the spatial fillers (paper wads, boxes, balloons, etc.).? These were removed working from the underside of the bench work.? The removal process ended when the layer of aluminum foil was torn away and crumpled up for discard.??????????? The “prepared water” used to mix with the dry plaster was “prepared” as follows.? A small amount of liquid soap was added to the water.? This “wet” the water to minimize air bubbles being whipped into the mix.? Additionally, a small amount of white vinegar was added to the water.? This tended to retard setting and extended the working time of the soupy mix a little.The result of this first plaster stage was a quite thin (perhaps 1/8” thick) shell of very strong, self-supporting, plaster.? One important precaution to protect the artistically-done railroad tracks was to cover nearby trackage with strips of protective covering such as cloth, newspaper or plastic strips.? In spite of this precaution, an occasional drip of plaster landed on the finished right-of-way and had to be scrapped away or covered over.? This layer of Hydrocal, however, could not be the final topography for the modeled scenery.? Hydocal does not take paint very well.? The earthen colors do not look realistic in my opinion.The Final TopographyThe second stage of plaster leading to the final configuration of the scene being developed used another plaster called Molding Plaster.? This was mixed in another Cool Whip container, but to a thicker consistency (a thick pancake batter), using the same “prepared water” to minimize air bubbles and lengthen the working time with the plaster.? The absence of unrealistic looking air bubbles was more important for this final coating of plaster.? I used a tablespoon and even my bare hands to quickly spread this plaster on top of the Hydrocal. Then, a variety of tools was used to form this still-wet plaster into a believable topography.? While still far from setting up, I used my fingers, a wooden tongue depressor or some other large tool to move and shape the plaster into what I visualized in my mind.? At some later point in this shaping process, the plaster would begin to set up such that further movement of it caused multiple, sometimes-large, visible cracks.? It was time to stop working the wet plaster.? Still, these cracks had a pleasingly realistic appearance; and as I scraped the final spoonfuls of now-setting plaster out of the mixing bowl, I would use my fingers to press blobs of creased and cracked plaster onto the developing scenery creating believable outcroppings of earth.? Before the plaster became fully set, I could use smaller tools such as a nail or some other sharp, pointed tool to carve away (to “sculpt”) the plaster, further improving the site being worked on.? These scraps of plaster would later be vacuumed away.Even the next day, the site could be improved further by using a knife-like tool such as an X-acto knife and blade to scratch realistic “striations” into the now-fully-set plaster.? This notion occurred to me because I had observed the surface characteristics of real rock faces in nature.? A final vacuuming of the site left a believable mountain-like topography ready for later coloring.In addition to this artistic sculpturing of plaster to create scenery, a few other techniques were used to create special earthy configurations.? One of these was to crumple and then un-crumple a piece of aluminum foil.? The unrumpled foil would retain creases, folds, and ledges left over from the crumpling.? Fresh wet plaster poured onto this foil and left to set allowed the plaster to take on all these surface details resembling an interesting fractured rock wall.? To use this plaster panel, the aluminum foil would be peeled away and discarded.? Then a small amount of fresh plaster would be spooned onto the Hydrocal where I desired a near-vertical rock face; and the panel would be set into this fresh plaster.? This plaster would also be “teased”, picked at and worked to make it blend into the base topology.A similar method to the foil technique was to find a real rock with lots of surface character.? I would wash this rock and then “paint” its surface with several coats of liquid rubber.? The last couple of coats could have some cloth worked into the liquid rubber to strengthen the rock casting being made. A day or two later, the now-hardened-but-still-flexible rubber mold would be peeled off the rock such that fresh plaster could be poured into the mold and allowed to harden.? These rock castings had an altogether different character compared to rocks from aluminum foil castings.Previous techniques have mentioned the Cool Whip bowl used to mix the plaster.? A number of bowls were used because the residual plaster left in one bowl would not be completely hardened and would contaminate a fresh bowl of plaster with fragments of nearly-set plaster.? Still, the older bowls could be used the next day because the flexibility of the Cool Whip bowls allowed the now-fully-set plaster scraps to pop off the plastic surface as the bowl was flexed.? I found a great use for these very thin shards of scrap plaster.? A sloping hillside of finished scenery could be coated with a very thin coating of quite watery plaster and quickly sprinkled with these tiny shards of scrap plaster.? After excess bits had been vacuumed away, the resulting hillside looked as though it was covered with a scree field often seen in prototype mountains.One final technique for enhancing a supposedly finished section of scenery was to make “boulder fields” where individual rocks of various large sizes would have tumbled down a mountain side, coming to rest on a fairly flat field.? To begin making this scene, I would start with a crumpled aluminum foil base laid out flat on the floor.? Onto this, I would pour a fresh mix of fairly thick molding plaster, letting the pour form into a half-inch-thick “pancake”.? I would let this almost set up; but, when it had set just enough to hold its own shape, I would peel away the foil; and, acting quickly, break up the pancake into a number of individual “rocks” (close to about ?” on a side).? These would then be allowed to set completely.? The texture of the fractured faces took on very realistic-looking rock-like appearances.? These individual “boulders” would then be pressed into a fresh coat of plaster using the new plaster to hold the individual rocks in place.? The act of pushing the rocks into the new plaster would raise an unrealistic-looking ridge of plaster where the two plasters met.? This ridge would be carved, pricked. teased, and worked to feather the boulder into its new setting.Coloring the SceneryAll the work of the previous several paragraphs accomplished a stark white, colorless, topography with a (hopefully) realistic-looking geological terrain.? The scenery making process moved next to coloring.? I chose to use artist’s oil colors (available in tubes in a wide variety of colors).? The paints that most resembled realistic-looking earthen coloring were:burnt and raw umber and sienna, and flesh ochre.? In addition, I used a small admixture of white paint to lighten the color a shade.? Payne’s grey could be used to darken a color just a little.??????????? As these quite thick oils were mixed and tinted on a home-made artist’s pallet, I would use mineral spirits as a thinner to produce a thinned mixture of the desired color.? When a 1\2” wide brush was dipped into more mineral spirits, touched onto the pallet, and gently touched onto the white plaster, the colors flowed onto and into the absorbent plaster in a?most satisfying and realistic manner.?? I learned quickly which colors produced what effect and how much thinner to use.? For example, one detail should be shared.? Recalling the surface scratches scratched into the finished surface of hardened plaster using a pointed x-acto knife blade, I learned how a much-thinned “wash” of one of the darker colors would flow into the scratches and bring out the marvelous detail of these scratches.? I think I became quite good at coloring the plaster scenery.? I soon learned when, where, and how to highlight ridges and specific rocks.? Caves and depressions in the rocks needed to be darkened, I learned.??????????? Coloring the scenery with artist’s oil colors and mineral spirits was one of the more enjoyable and satisfying aspects of building the layout.Ground Cover??????????? Applying earth-like coloring, alone, to the white plaster scenery did not complete the attainment of realism.? There needed to be modeled trees and vegetation as well as exposed patches of dirt and gravel.? Products used to achieve the ground cover included commercial ground fibrous grasses in shades and textures of greens ranging from the lush green of a well-maintained lawn to the lighter yellow-greens of weeds.? Commercial packages of treated lichen as well as some lichen I picked off trees in the mountains near my home formed bushes and clumps of three-dimensional vegetation.??????????? I used to collect a coffee can full of a particularly attractive color of dirt in shades of grays, browns, yellows, reds, and any other realistic-looking earthen colors.? These would be passed through home-made sieves of different grid sizes to segregate each color into a range of particle sizes.? Stored in individual containers, this collection allowed me to select the right color and size for a given application of dirt to pebbles to gravel to the more-colored scenery.? Adhesives for these loose materials included thinned white glue and commercial liquids that would dry colorless.??????????? Trees were another whole category of modeling projects.? Some trees were made from collected twigs and bush fragments that had a tree-like appearance to them.? Small clumps of commercial lichen would be glued to the “branches”.? Many trees – especially background conifer trees – were formed from a commercial craft product called “Bumpy Chenille”.? A strand of “bumps” would be cut between bumps at the smaller-diameter ends; and, typically, each bump would be formed into a conifer tree.? Material below the fattest part of the bump would be scissored away; and the fuller part of the tree selectively snipped and teased to give the tree some character.? The smaller-diameter top of each tree was burned away by holding the tip in a candle flame to create a quite realistic-looking conifer tree.? Still other trees use weird products like spun, filmy, green fiberglass attached to tree-like armatures.? A small number of trees on my model railroad are commercial products that add foreground detail.? In summary, tree making methods are truly varied.? Many other modelers have their own favorite way to make trees.??????????? Naturally, the above stages of plaster work, coloring, ground cover, and trees were not done all at once.? They had to evolve as the layout grew and as space allowed.??????????? To this point, we have scenery with a believable topography, good coloring, ground cover and hundreds of trees planted – all this surrounding and complimenting realistic railroad tracks.? Still, the sharply-ending back edge of the layout clearly defines the attempt as merely a model of the real world.? One needs to see beyond the three dimensional model presented.? I needed a backdrop painting.Backdrop PaintingAt different times during the layout’s development, I recognized that I would eventually need a backdrop.? Toward this goal, the concrete and bare studded walls were paneled with 4’ by 8’ sheetrock or Masonite.? These were painted a flat white to produce a surface to be painted using my untrained artistic skills.? I selected artist’s acrylic colors as the medium to paint with.? Water is the thinner and brush cleaner.The scenes represented and their locations around the layout are as follows:The short, east-facing wall behind the tunneled mountain at the foot of the stairway depicts a typical Colorado mountain backdrop.The western half of the north-facing wall (the basement bedroom) attempts to suggest a likeness to the Tunnel District of the D&SL/D&RGW.? There are actually five tunnels in a relatively short span of tracks.The eastern half of this north-facing wall is an artistic rendering of the famed Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado.? While painting that, a small mishap occurred and that mistake was corrected by my taking some liberties with the actual mountain’s appearance.The very long west-facing wall is divided up into three separate scenes.? The southern-most is a depiction of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming as well as the nearby Teewinot mountain.? To paint these and the Maroon Bells, I remember holding calendar pictures showing these mountains in my left hand while I copied the images onto the wall in a different scale than the calendar using my right hand.? The central scene along the east wall (west-facing) is a completely imagined farm scene complete with a farm house and a pasture being harvested.? Humorously, my son, Paul, commented immediately when he first saw the finished scene that the tractor harvesting the field was going the wrong direction.? The wheat was springing up behind the tractor rather than being mowed down by it.? As stated earlier, that error remains to this day.? The northern-most panel of the east wall depicts the well-known Monument Valley in Utah.? This, too, was copied from a calendar’s picture.The south-facing wall at the north end of the main room also has a couple of scenes.? The eastern part depicts the Sand Dunes of Central Colorado.? The western part is mostly just sky but does have a depiction of a logging clearing which I carried on into the three-dimensional modeling as AxeHandle is approached.The entire wall in the TV room is simply sky.? A small splotch (an error) can be seen in the upper right above the coaling tower.??????????? All in all, I am pleased with my first attempt at artistic painting.? This completes my discussion of the methods employed in building my model railroad – the YVRR.? The following brief comments about each table summarizes my thinking during its construction.Tincup Section (1964)Begun before moving boxes unpackedBuilt as a switching challengeJudy’s Christmas present (USRA light 2-8-2) is still my favorite locomotive 2’ x 10’ table is one that could be salvaged when the YVRR is finally dismantledDescribe how to salvage making a boxNeeds to be rewired to the new owner’s likingSalida Yard (late 1960s)Initially contiguous to the Tincup switching yardFriends pointed out advantage of relocating Salida and moving Tincup out from the wall (west a bit) to allow trackage to be built behind itSalida (2’ x 8’) is another table that could be salvaged when the YVRR is finally dismantledDescribe how to salvage making a boxNeeds to be rewired to the new owner’s likingSalida Loco Service Facility (late 1960s)Turntable began in the 1980s and actually not yet finishedThis table (2’ x 4-8’) is another section that could be salvaged when the YVRR is finally dismantledDescribe how to salvage making a boxMay not need to be rewired to the new owner’s likingThe Rest of the Layout is Built (1970s)Need to venture out to a number of different methods of turnout controlsPopsicle sticks in Tincup and Salida Yard, commercial manual throws in AxeHandle yard, electrical throws for remote settings, untried weight control as at Craig, double slip switchesother unique designs such as at both ends of Benchley passing sidingAxeHandle (early 2000s)A 2nd yard at the end of the very long branch line to give a destination for branch line trainsThe table (20” by 12’4”) has no legs but sits on brackets so table should be easily moved laterAxeHandle deviates away from my once-standard practice of track layingI had bought about 2 dozen turnouts mostly in pretty good condition (one double slip switch)I bought several lengths of commercial code 70 pre-laid nickel-silver trackage to use.Turnout throws are commercial hand-throw devicesWiring is quite simple with minimal numbers of toggle-switch controlled sidings20”-wide table is one that could be easily salvaged when the YVRR is finally dismantledA future new owner could easily carry the segment up the stairs since it is less than 2’ wideNeeds to be rewired to the new owner’s liking.Final Thoughts??????????? The closing short topics conclude my telling of How I Built My Layout by revealing a bit of why I built it and what possessed my mind when and where I was doing it.Fictional History of the YVRR (A Terse Summary)The Salida?& Collegiate Range RR (falsehood #1) connects Salida, CO with Tincup, COThe Chili Line is sold to the S&CR RR instead of remaining D&RGW (falsehood #2)This connects Salida and Tincup to Santa FeThe D&SL is sold to the S&CR RR (falsehood #3)Home offices move to the Yampa Valley and …The S&CR RR name is changed to YVRR (falsehood #4)Tincup to Bond is built in 1935 to provide access to Denver not totally a falsehood…because of the real Dotsero CutoffThis completes the YVRR’s Main line between Santa Fe and Denverand allows continuous running since trains magically re-appear at the opposite cityAt Craig, the line is built north instead of west to Salt Lake City (falsehood #5)The Tunnel District passes close to Colorado’s Maroon Bells…which are very close to Wyoming’s Grand Tetons (falsehood #6)Construction ends in AxeHandle, Idaho (falsehood #7)Humor on the YVRRMy personality is such that many things I do in life have a sense of humor behind them.? The YVRR is no exception.? Let me give you some examples.My 6-year-old son, Paul, was complaining that he had a loose baby tooth.? At about the same time, I was putting together a craftsman-quality wooden structure kit.? The Campbell Scale Models kit was of an old-style, unspecified false front business.? I decided to commemorate the loss of Paul’s baby tooth by making the business: “D. Payne & Son – Dentist and Barber”. That way, I could scratch build a barber pole to “announce” that aspect of the business; and hang Paul’s tooth on the front of the building as an advertising “shingle”.? Coincidentally, a friend of mine from work named Douglas Payne had just died; so the building honors him as well.? I often ask visitors how they would like their dentist to be named Dr. Payne – sounds like “Pain”.When I was 13 years old, I had squandered 75 cents (a lot of money in 1948 for such a young boy) to buy a Weston (brand) commercial figure.? The model person was a railroad conductor.? Soon after bringing it home I was handling it to admire my new possession.? I dropped the figure onto my bedroom floor and the cast pot metal head broke off.? I was heartbroken; but could not bring myself to discard the broken figure; but this story has been regaled earlier.? ????Another modified commercial figure, a person carrying a sack of flour on his right shoulder, leads to yet another story.? The sack of flour came loose and, suddenly, the persona of the figure changed markedly.? Instead of being a bored laborer, his raised right arm gave him the appearance of swearing.? Accordingly, I glued him on a path around the turntable and glued a tipped-over wheelbarrow with its contents spilled onto the path in front of him.? Another modified commercial figure started out as a man working on a road gang as though he was using the air hammer incorporated into his figure to dig up some blacktop.? This time the air hammer fell away and he now stands facing a stone wall relieving himself.? He is now peeing on a stone wall.? ??????????? Two different industries in the town of Benchley are served by the same trash-removal company.? The lids to their waste bins proudly proclaim: “The White Trash Company”.Two men working for the “Camp Six Bridge and Block Company” - a wood saw mill on the shore of Yankee Doodle Lake are obviously holding binoculars to their eyes.? A sharp-eyed visitor will notice that a pair of lovely ladies are sun bathing on a red blanket across the lake.? Both figures were originally nudes; but I painted bikini bathing suits on them to preserve the family nature of my layout.The city of Craig has just had a fatal accident where a white truck drove into the rear of a larger yellow truck and a fire ensued.? Police and an ambulance are standing by.? The deceased driver of the smaller truck is laying on the road covered with a respectful sheet while others are attending to the needs of a bleeding second person.? Naturally, curious onlookers are gathered to watch the gruesome proceedings.? I have enjoyed white water river rafting since the 1970s.? That explains a scene where three rafts are floating down river across the tracks from Bond.? The raft closest to the bridge is past the last dangerous rapid so the rafters are more relaxed.? One of them has even chosen to float alongside the raft in this calmer water. The middle raft is in the throes of a significant rapid called “Split Rock Rapid” because of the two rocks prominent at the foot of the rapid.? Astute visitors have asked why people in the boat are tuned around looking back upstream instead of watching for the dangers being approached.? I point out the two people who have been expelled from the raft and are now called “swimmers”.? The third raft is still some distance from Split Rock rapid at the 90? bend in the Colorado River. They are made out of rubber O-rings?but the one further away is smaller and I used N-scale people in the raft.? This swindle is called “forced perspective”.? The size of people is fairly standard so smaller modeled people appear to be further away.? A couple of my models have fun with Superman.? I assembled a plastic structure that resembled, in my mind, the newspaper office in the movie “Back to the Future”.? It became the daily newspaper for the city of Benchley.? The newspaper is the Daily planet.? Parking spaces outside the building can be found for P. (Perry) White – Editor, C. (Clark) Kent, and L. (Lois) Lane.? Furthermore, the cars they drive match their movie personalities. Mild-mannered Clark Kent drives a simple Studebaker whereas flamboyant Lois Lane drives a flashy convertible.? One front corner of the building has a telephone booth which is where Kent would transition into Superman.? Notice his street clothing on the ground outside the booth.? Many visitors have I inquired: “Where is Superman?” to which I respond: “How could I know?? He flies faster than the speed of light!”? Later in their tour of the YVRR, those same visitors might come across a mining complex in the Mining District under the stairwell.? That mine is the Kryptonite Mine which is owned by Lex Luthor.? A recent addition (the 2010’s) depicts a small mountain scene where a large intact meteor has landed.? The police have cordoned off an area around the meteor.? Three men wearing hazmat apparel are approaching the meteor to ensure that it does not contain any harmful viruses such as the Andromeda Strain.? Dozens of town folk have traveled from nearby Craig to watch developments from afar.? This scene was an early attempt to deviate away from plaster and use the now-much-more-popular foam scenery materials.? I still think plaster scenery looks better; but there is so much good scenery that a small fraction of so-so scenery can probably be allowed.Two other patches of plaster scenery have been replaced in recent years because of the heavy weight of the plaster.? This is a concession to my advancing age and weakening strength.? One of these was a hillside that has been replaced by an airport scene.? The second was a 20”-square scenic panel that filled a “pop up” access hole used at times for maintenance purposes.Model BuildingMy workbench is located just under the scenery and trackage of Benchley.? That is why the city bares that name even though prototype maps want to call the town Rock Springs, WY.? Frequently used tools are conveniently arrayed around the perimeter of the work bench.? The lighting is very bright; and a pair of high magnification glasses are readily available to facilitate close-up work.? I use a micrometer often and this is kept in the drawer to the bench.? A collection of metal weights and commercial angle brackets ensure flat models with square corners.? A soldering station, two Dremal tools with an array of attachments, drill bits down to #80 are conveniently at the ready to the lower left of the bench.I maintain a large inventory of scratch building supplies (basswood, balsa, styrene, sheet metal, and scenic detail parts such as windows, doors, and metal detail castings).? Paints, figures, and tubes of metal and wood shapes are also readily available as are cigar boxes of segregated machine screws and nails.Unbuilt kits of rolling stock and structures are stored in several kitchen cabinets?which also support a white museum shelf of some my unused modeling efforts.? A 3-track test track serves as a locomotive performance center.? It is built just under a long picture of a mountain background to allow the test runs to pass through pleasant scenery.? Finally, I use a few dollies and portable devices to help me work under the layout.Electrical AspectsI did some things right ? and many things wrong ? while building my model railroad.? It will prove useful to any future owner of the layout to know these facts; and some of the mistakes may be humorous.? My first good decision was to use a short length of solid copper wire soldered to the underside of each and every piece of rail no matter how short it might be as a feeder wire (a few inches long) to every piece of rail.? Thus, a length of track several feet long should have a number of feeders sticking down below the layout; but these would be associated with both rails along that length.? What I should have done (but didn’t) is to attach a sticky label pointing to each feeder by some sort of descriptive name such as: “Far Main Thru Tincup; right rail for N-bound train” or “Frog to Lumber Yard”.This policy was maintained everywhere on the layout except for: (1) the 4-track, 20’-long Staging Yard behind Tincup, (2) the middle level of single track connecting Craig to Benchley, and (3) the long passing siding called Lone Tree on the upper level behind Tincup.? The upper level, (3), has never been a problem; but it would be easy to access trackage if ever one occurred.? The middle single track, (2), has one broken solder joint that has been discussed elsewhere.? It is/was hard to fix because of the very tight space in which to work and the long reach across the table presenting Tincup.? The 4-track staging yard, (1), had a couple of broken solder joints which were much easier to access.? I formed loops of springy phosphorous bronze wire that could be pinned to the Homosote and held by springiness against the outside of the rails on either side of the break.? This jumpered the current around the break.Another good move was to build my own 12V DC power supply.? In the 1950s, I bought a surplus transformer from the Physics Department of Caltech.? The secondary was wound with 1/8” square copper bar or tubing (I don’t recall which).? I tested the transformer up to 100 A at the school finding no drop in Voltage at that excessive current.? I used very high current diodes (recalled to be about 25 A!) in the bridge rectifier.Still another old toy transformer with 4 different controllable Voltage outputs was put to use as an auxiliary source of low-Voltage AC power.? Three of these are set to slightly different Voltages so lights and other accessory models can be operated at various brightnesses.? The 4th is used to control the small number of electrically-thrown turnout switch machines.? This adaptation was made in 2017 abandoning the previously-used pair of filament transformers (primaries in parallel, secondaries in series to provide a higher Voltage).?? As screwed contacts age, a bit of corrosion tends to reduce the effective voltage causing the turnout to not “throw” completely resulting in occasional derailments.? Presently, that 4th voltage is set at 20V AC.? Still, every couple of years, one should loosen every screw connection a quarter of a turn and retighten to attain a fresh contact surface.One of my bigger failings was the lack of use of color coded wiring.?? As I wired the layout sitting under it, I used any suitable length of any wire of any color to connect feeder wire to feeder wire.? See the mess of wires in the photo on the next page.? My wiring works well until some electrical “glitch’” needs to be resolved.? Then, I become totally confused and have, on occasion, taken a few days to resolve the electrical failure.? This dilemma is hinted at in the photo on the previous page.? No color coding is evident!? The string and straightened paper clips are associated with mechanical turnout throws whose popsicle stick operators appear along the outside of the layout.? This expenditure of time could have been avoided (and is recommended for any future owner of the layout who is re-wiring it) by adopting and adhering to a strict color coding such as (colors selected as examples).? Use a blue wire, say, for connecting all feeders to, ice platform, say, the right hand rail of a north bound route.? Use an orange wire, say, to connect feeders on the opposite rail.? A green wire could be used to connect feeders to frog sections of a turnout to the associated electrical polarity selection switch (homemade or commercial).? Then the wires to each of the selectable polarities would be blue or orange as appropriate. 23568454764200Still another unwise choice was the failure to use “common rail” wiring practice.? The consequence of this error is a lot of excess wiring.? I chose to run two wires (+ & -) to each of the 16 separate electrical blocks around the Denver-to-Santa Fe mainline.? Instead, I should have chosen one rail to be common over the entire layout with the opposite rail of each of the separate blocks electrically controlled by its own toggle switch.? This shortsightedness was solved by artificially forming a “common rail” system by tying one rail together at a huge connection point just close to the new furnace’s cold air return plenum.? My layout still has about double the amount of wire necessary!The failed solder joints in the difficult-to-access middle level single track between the staging yard (below) and the Lone Tree passing siding (above) was another weakness in layout design.? I had decided (wrongly) that 3’lengths of commercial track could be trusted to have soldered butt joints at rail ends conduct electricity through the rail joiners soldered in place.? Wrong!? The cracked joint in the far rail of the single track connecting Craig to Benchley prompted a number of attempts to jumper this broken (intermittedly non-conducting).I designed a “Standard Throttle” containing a speed control rheostat, a DPDT reversing switch and a 1A circuit breaker. This green box is at the end of a walk-around tether.? In the early years, all locomotives contained open-frame electric motors which operated off heavier currents (up to half an Amp); but in later years, canned locomotive motors became more popular.? These operated on much less current such that the rheostats suitable for open frame motors were too coarse for canned motors.? I had to modify my walk around throttle to permit me to use different rheostats depending on the locomotive being run.? Paul had built a transistorized throttle whose design would operate either kind of motor; but I continue to use my modified tethered throttle.Each of the original 16 electrical blocks along the Denver-to-Santa Fe main line has a DPDT selector switch that allows associated tracks to be controlled by the standard throttle (up position) or by a commercial power pack (down).? The 2nd power pack was added in 2016 and is seldom?used, although supposedly that MRC (brand) power pack can function both open frame and canned motors.As the layout grew and developed, I found I wanted to be able to remove certain portions of the trackage from that tethered throttle preferring to operate those sections by their own throttle packages.? That is, after a train had passed through one of these locations – powered by the tethered throttle – I could throw a toggle switch and operate a section of track in that area by its own local Throttle.? Each of these Local Throttle design ended up being unique to the needs of the trackage being controlled.? Those trackage portions capable of either “Local Control” or “Remote Control” (the tethered throttle) include:The classification yards at Salida and at AxeHandleThe Division Point at Bond (tethered throttle or branch-line throttle)The industrial switching at Tincup, Benchley, and Craig??????????? To illustrate, one person could be running one train around and around Denver to Santa Fe while a second operator could be composing a train in Salida and a 3rd operator was switching cars at AxeHandle..? A 4th operator could even do some switching at, say, Tincup, while the first operator navigated his train around the closed loop.??????????? In the 1960s, a new kind of electrical control of locomotives called Digital Command Control throttles (DCC) became very popular.? I toyed with the idea of converting to that scheme; but the way I liked to operate my trains did not seem suited to that technique.? The notion was quickly abandoned.??????????? Almost every household product purchased has its own AC or DC low-Voltage plug-in unit.? Loren Blaney calls them ‘knobs”. As these products fail and are discarded, I save the plug-in units (the knobs) and have used them in a few places as a source of lighting.? I have dozens of these but only a few are used on the layout.Access HatchesThe entire layout is so large that not every part of it is accessible.? A derailment or stalled locomotive is always possible at any point along the track work and some of these are hard to reach from the usual aisles.? The Tunnel District (along the basement bedroom wall) is one of these problem areas.? Two access hatches are possible.? Although it is difficult to do, Yankee Doodle Lake can be lowered and slid out of the way.? Secondly, a square area next to the Cattle Loading Pen and Rock Quarry area (only 14” square) can be lifted up and moved out of the way.? In 2017, I realized I could no longer handle this heavy square of removable plaster scenery; so I discarded it and built a light-weight foam access hatch that now serves as a cow pasture.? It has many trees and even a fire watch station that disguises a lifting handle.? Additionally, there is an unsceniced pop-up hole south of the furnace to be used when convenient.??????????? The staging yard storage tracks against the wall behind Tincup sometimes experience derailments, especially on the set of turnouts at both ends (Santa Fe and Denver).? An entire chunk of plaster scenery (modeled as a caved-in tunnel) can be removed from behind the Brick Yard area to gain access to Santa Fe.? The Denver end can be reached from under the layout. Additionally, three plaster sections near Mesa Verde were fitted onto one another and could be lifted out of the way.? In about 2015, I realized this plaster mass was too heavy and cumbersome for me to remove.? It was discarded and a foam airport scene replaced it.When either covering is removed, I can just about stand to work on the turnouts approaching Denver or Santa Fe.? Likewise, the lower level track along the bedroom wall between Salida and Tincup can also be reached from under the layout.? Once in a while, I had to extend my arm though the tunnel portal to reach a derailed car.??????????? The large open space between Bond and Craig is an easy, always available access.? I do this so often that I bought a mechanic’s dolly on which I sit to roll under a 1x4 stringer.? Even some of this space is being overtaken with scenery; but that scenery is designed to be easily and quickly removed.? One of these recently-added scenes – inside the 3-track “Horseshoe Curve’ – is a semicircle of foam core board, made into a horse pasture.? The other (not yet built or installed) will be the John Deere tractor manufacturing company.Really, only one other problem related to reaching ability is occasionally found along the middle level single track against the far east wall of the basement.? Here the (bad) decision to solder adjacent lengths of track to one another instead of having a separate feeder wire soldered to each rail causes train movement stoppages when the soldered rail joint fails.? My arms are too short to reach across Tincup (2 feet) and fix the broken joint another 10” away; but this situation is discussed above.Modeling Failures Turned into Scenic HighlightsThe first two of these may be described earlier but this short segment serves as a collective summary:Roof of the roundhouseTunnel portal near Yankee Doodle LakeDitch along Furnace AveCutting off a corner of the old furnace to make Bob’s Furnace Works??????????? The ditch along a street in Benchley was the result of a 2012 installation of a new furnace.? I had to cut away a large semicircle of scenery while the furnace was being installed.? The subsequent return of the scenery left a long gap which could have been filled in restoring the scenery to its original posture; but I elected to keep the gap and model a scene of a group of Public Service workmen laying a length of sewer pipe.??????????? In the late 1960s when I first laid the curved track passing through Benchley, the inner rail of the inner (passing) track proved to be too close to a corner of the old furnace such that one locomotive would be “nudged” as it passed.? I solved that problem by cutting a small corner off the sheet metal housing of the furnace replacing it with a homemade patch to retain proper air flow.? I built a facade of an industry to cover the patchwork calling the industry: “Bob’s Furnace Works”.AchievementsI earned the coveted title of Master Model Railroader (MMR #281) in 1990s.? The NMRA is up to about 500 MMRs by 2017.I have many articles published in the hobby press and three commercial models because of my modeling and research.Between 1964 and 2018, the YVRR has had well over 12,000 Visitors to the YVRR including several hundred in 1977 for Denver’s national NMRA convention.? RTD busses would stop in front of our house to drop off visitors.? Many others came in response to newspaper and magazine coverage of the YVRR.? Some of this coverage is on the backside of the basement door.The BMRC has monthly modeling contests which I enter frequently.? Dozens of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons have been won in BMRC’s contests; and some plaques can be found marking “Modeler of the Year”.I am a charter member of the BMRC; and several of its early meetings were held in our home in the early 1970’s.? I have hopes of being designated a “Life Member of the BMRC” sometime in 2017.Three commercial structure kits came on the market because of my research and modeling interest.? Timberline Models paid a small reward ($20) for information leading to their design, production, and marketing of a Colorado prototype structure.? Two of my three represented the snow shed at the top of Cumbres Pass.? I had carefully documented and photographed the D&RGW NG snow shed during one of my railfanning trips there.? Ron Parkhurst (the owner) chose to market the 600’ long prototype as an “entrance” kit plus as many “extension” kits as desired by the modeler.left86296500In the 2000’s, a local legal firm hired me to make a large model of a small section of Iowa where a fatal accident occurred involving a helicopter filming a Hollywood movie.? I had been recommended to the firm by a friend because of my modeling skills.? The model was a T-shaped section 10’ by 16’.? One corner required the modeling of a farm house from just several photographs.? One of those photographs and my attempt to model it is shown in the photo at left.? I was pleased with the modelling; but the court refused to allow the full exhibit; and the firm lost the case.? They let me keep the farmhouse.? This next is less of an achievement; but it could be included here.? By the 1980’s or 1990’s, I had the long branch line almost finished and connected to the Denver-to-Santa Fe main line.? I decided that the completion of a few feet of track near the Sand Dunes would allow me to run trains all over the layout; so I finished those few feet of track and sceniced it with a collection of cut-down tree stumps.? Then, I decided to mimic our Nations’ historic Golden Spike Ceremony of May 10th, 1869, but hosting my own YVRR Golden Spike Ceremony.? This was discussed in the first book, a tour over my layout.The third kit, with my name in the instruction sheet, was the dynamite shed, pictured above.? Again,?I had provided Ron with detailed drawings and photographs as well as, in this case, the scratch built model to the left in the photo.? A photo of the actual prototype shed is shown to the right of the model.? I even mimicked faithfully the slash in the 2nd timber up on the right side of the door, the split on the 2nd timber on the left side, and the “X”, “Y” and the white gouge mark along ends of selected floor timbers.? Even the two vent holes just under the peak of the roof can be seen on the photograph and just barely on the model.? I enjoy showing visitors the bullet hole in the roof near the far back left of the shed.? I surmise that some prankster attempted to blow up the shed from the side of the mountain, by firing a rifle bullet into the shed.? His attempt failed; but the bullet hole is in the proper location and at the proper angle for such an attempt.? The sheet metal roof material is modeled from the foil removed from an old electrolytic capacitor.? The model shown in the figure once had a 2nd outer door as seen on the prototype; but that detail got lost in handling and has never been replaced.? Sadly, this dynamite shed, originally installed to re-drill Tunnel #10 along the Moffat Road after a disastrous fire in the early 1940s, has subsequently burned down.In late 2016, I began the heart-wrenching drama of the dissemination my model railroad holdings in anticipation of a move to a Retirement Center and the associated sale of our home of over half a century.? I allowed BMRC members to “Take what they want and pay what seems fair” from my vast collection of unbuilt structure and rolling stock kits.? Another BMRC member has taken boxes of my books to sell on e-bay.? A few people have taken a couple of cabooses and some other cars.? For decades, I have maintained the position that I wanted to keep building my layout until, say, 2 weeks before I die (or move).? Coming close to being faithful to that promise,?I plan to begin releasing things off of the layout itself – including portions of the layout - during the last half of 2018.Future Modeling IntentionsThese could even happen after my layout is goneGolf Course Scene.? Model just a portion of a golf course including one green, a sand trap, and the next raised tee.Baseball Game Scene. Model half of infield to right field including stands along first base line.? I have commercial figures of baseball players.? I just need to fashion the diorama.? A 200’ expanse would be 2’- 4” in length – pretty large!Convert the simple start of the branch line at Bond into a wye to increase significantly operational versatility; but this will never happen because it means interrupting the main line and inserting a curved turnout just in front of the Moffat Tunnel.Build and display new models from dozens of unbuilt kits and give them away or display them at the Retirement Center.? This could easily happen with our planned re-location.(Magazine Articles to Write)“A Busy Roof is a Happy Roof” siting roof details often omitted from models.? This idea germinated during my frequent trips to the Colorado Railroad Museum looking down on the busy rooftops of the Coors Beer company.“The Philosophy, Physics, Physiology and Psychology of Model Railroading” discussing sound effects (the human ear is too big), operational pendulums (model pendulums swing too fast), friction does not scale so couplers must be unrealistically large. “Reciprocity! Model Applications Applied to the Real World” – a never used form of ladder safety, and a possibly means of electricity generation from random water wave motion. Layout MaintenanceI have designed and built four track cleaning cars that are designed to be presentable-looking model cars with their track cleaning feature not immediately visible.? They clean the track; but occasionally, I must vacuum up loose materials along the right-of-way and, more gingerly, vacuum away dust from the structures and the scenery.? Toward that end, I have built a portable vacuum-cleaner station for the infrequent dust removal of accumulated dust.? I have installed removable “Dust Covers” to protect Salida, AxeHandle and Tincup from the ravages of dust.? These are easily-removable 2’-wide clear plastic panels elevated by supports high enough to not touch the models being protected.? See half the covers for AxeHandle below.I have designed and built a couple of locomotive draw-bar-pull test cars.? These are intended to estimate the relative pulling power (“drawbar pull”) of a locomotive contemplated for purchase.? How much dead weight can it drag before the wheels begin to slip.? Individual railroad cars roll differently depending on the quality of the trucks used, their cleanliness, and their contact inside the journal box.? I made an inclined track to measure the free rolling of cars.? Some cars will easily roll down a ?% grade while others need to be “nudged” to roll down a 6% grade.Prototype Railroad Artifacts??????????? My love of model railroading is closely associated with a fascination with the full-sized prototype.? While Chicago was the hub of many railroads and, therefore, a strong source of interest for me, my move to Colorado could not have been more fortunate from that perspective.? Colorado contained mountain railroading at its best, narrow gauge still in operation, a 6-mile-long tunnel (The Moffat Tunnel), abundant abandonments, amazing wrecks, and endless history.??????????? This interest in the prototype led me to collect railroad artifacts to display on a wall near the layout as well as using railroad relics throughout the house.? For example, two freight car grab irons have been cleaned up, heavily varnished and make towel racks in the basement bedroom.? An old miner’s cabin’s window frame now has a copy of an 1880’s print of a photograph taken by William Henry Jackson carefully cut apart and placed in the frame as though one is looking out a window in 1880 watching a locomotive (the Kokomo) summit La Veta Pass.? Two copies of Howard Fogg’s commissioned 1969 UP calendar hang intended to commemorate the May 10, 1869 driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Point, Utah, proudly hang on a basement wall.?? A couple of interesting deviations painted by Fogg have been documented to accompany the calendars.? The UP didn’t want him to “advertise other railroads; but he was allowed to modify the name or paint a recognizable herald far enough in the distance so the name would not be readable.? Howard painted the NYC oval and the PRR Keystone in the distance; but he changed the initials of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac RR away from RF&P to RP&F (a summary page for 1970).? Howard explained to me that he honored his son, Richard Paul Fogg this way.? The September page shows a harbor scene with a number of container cars on flat cars.? The container in the foreground is lettered “RHKX” which, Fogg explained, honored his good friend Richard H. Kindig.? Both copies on my calendar are signed by Mr. Kindig!? Across the harbor, containers are numbered and Fogg told me the 5 numbers are the ages of his family when he did the painting:himself, his wife, and his 3 children.???? 0-146494500??????????? A number of actual railroad artifacts are displayed on a wall close to my layout (left).? True, the white map pertains to the model railroad; but the bulk of the rest came from hikes along both abandoned and still-operating Colorado railroads.? Most of these were picked up during one or another of some 300 miles of hiking railroads – mostly in Colorado. Consistent with our planned decluttering of our home before our move to a Retirement Community, a few of the items shown have already been sold at an Antique Tool Auction.? Hopefully, a few more will find a good home via an auction by a company: Railroad (Sue Knous). ................
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