OK, my lame attempt at a Halloween-themed project and post. My layout mostly concentrates on the narrowgauge from Durango to Silverton and beyond. I treated Durango a lot like Alamosa was as a dual-gauge terminal. This allow for some mainline running on the standard gauge. Beside Durango, there is Hesperus, where the dual-gauge ends at the coal mines there. The standard gauge continues on toward Moab, passing through the mythical town of Dove Creek, Colorado.
With the narrowgauge in the mountains above it, Dove Creek is located on a deck below/ The layout is a no-lix, with Durango being the point where the upper and lower levels on the other side of the room meet at a peninsula in the middle. There is roughly 10" of clearance and I kept most of the track near the fascia. Not ideal, it's operational trackage I'd otherwise not have and provides a place for some interesting industrial switching. Until now, it was rather underdeveloped except for being well lit and some incomplete false-front buildings on one industrial spur (fruit packing and canning house, ice house, wholesale grocer, Sears warehouse, and foundry.
The two biggest shippers had tracks, but everything else was left to the imagination. For the most part, there was a whole lot of uninspiring nothing.
I resolved to add some much needed acreage. While it suffers from a lack of vertical space, there's still some interesting things to do. First, I needed to fill some of that gaping space. I cut some styrofoam, making sections that fit to cover various ares. Some smaller pieces I glued in place where access wasn't an issue. In others, I made removable panels. To but up against the track and provide a smooth transition, I use 3M 77 spray glue to attach 0.010" styrene sheet so that it hung over, forming a lip to catch the edge of the sub-roadbed. I used aluminum duct-sealing tape to strengthen the lip from underneath.
Now I had things filled in. In this shot, there's a green pin to the left of the turnout. That's about where the styrofoam was able to rest, with the styrene filling the gap over to the edge of the cork under the track. No before pic here, but you can see the pink foam that I added. This let me extend the track another couple of feet. This nice long spur is for loading cement into hopper cars, plus there will be a small bagged cement warehouse, too.. The track in the foreground is the main, while the track in between goes to the quarry and the coal track that feeds the cement kilns (which actually circles around in a loop...) So now I had room for a depot more suitably sized for a town of Dove Creek's importance. Here's the station and you can see downtown behind it. I need to add one light back there, but the existing lights lit most everything else well. Dove Creek is a bit seedy, in part because there are a lot of young single guys working at the "plant" that caused it to grow so quickly after WWII.The "plant" is the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Dove Creek Facility. Operated by the Uranium Corporation of America, it is more commonly called URACAM. Raw materials, in part from the ASARCO mill in Durango, go in and then...well, we can't tell you. But use you imagination, that's what model railroading's all about. All I know is that there is a L&N baggage car that is dropped and later picked up at the plant, whose ultimate destination is a bit vague. Here's a pick of the main gate, where Main St. ends. Sorry it's still so dark and spooky back there. Here's a closer shot with the flash. Past the lead into URACAM is the Co-op's stockyard. Finally we get to where Colorado ConCrete Products built their new cement loading facility. Supposedly foreign-owned, they nonetheless do a brisk business because the Cold War has been very, very good for the cement business, with all the long runways, hardened missile silos, and bunkered command centers, not to mention those interstates. In this pic, the Rio Grande main to Moab is on the left, the middle track goes to the coal dump for the kiln and into the quarry for loading crushed stone and gravel. Partially visible on the right is the cement loaded with the track running through it. The cement loader was made from leftover New River Mine parts and some pieces from another Walther steel complex building. The low shot shows more than you normally see when viewing, as well as how I painted the benchwork flat black to help avoid it being a distraction. Here's the CCCP sign, which sometimes causes the locals to scratch their heads at the marketing those folks do. Their bosses often spend lots of time downtown at The Thurnderbird Club, asking prying questions of fellows to work at URACAM. Just curious, I guess. Anyway, it's kind of a constricted space, but opening it up and putting in some minimal facilities makes it a much more credible location to operate in. Most everything was built from leftover pieces and parts, so it cost practically nothing. It still need lots more detail, but serves it's purpose of turning a relatively useless space into something much more interesting.
Now I had things filled in.
In this shot, there's a green pin to the left of the turnout. That's about where the styrofoam was able to rest, with the styrene filling the gap over to the edge of the cork under the track.
No before pic here, but you can see the pink foam that I added. This let me extend the track another couple of feet. This nice long spur is for loading cement into hopper cars, plus there will be a small bagged cement warehouse, too.. The track in the foreground is the main, while the track in between goes to the quarry and the coal track that feeds the cement kilns (which actually circles around in a loop...)
So now I had room for a depot more suitably sized for a town of Dove Creek's importance. Here's the station and you can see downtown behind it. I need to add one light back there, but the existing lights lit most everything else well.
Dove Creek is a bit seedy, in part because there are a lot of young single guys working at the "plant" that caused it to grow so quickly after WWII.The "plant" is the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Dove Creek Facility. Operated by the Uranium Corporation of America, it is more commonly called URACAM. Raw materials, in part from the ASARCO mill in Durango, go in and then...well, we can't tell you. But use you imagination, that's what model railroading's all about. All I know is that there is a L&N baggage car that is dropped and later picked up at the plant, whose ultimate destination is a bit vague. Here's a pick of the main gate, where Main St. ends. Sorry it's still so dark and spooky back there. Here's a closer shot with the flash. Past the lead into URACAM is the Co-op's stockyard. Finally we get to where Colorado ConCrete Products built their new cement loading facility. Supposedly foreign-owned, they nonetheless do a brisk business because the Cold War has been very, very good for the cement business, with all the long runways, hardened missile silos, and bunkered command centers, not to mention those interstates. In this pic, the Rio Grande main to Moab is on the left, the middle track goes to the coal dump for the kiln and into the quarry for loading crushed stone and gravel. Partially visible on the right is the cement loaded with the track running through it. The cement loader was made from leftover New River Mine parts and some pieces from another Walther steel complex building. The low shot shows more than you normally see when viewing, as well as how I painted the benchwork flat black to help avoid it being a distraction. Here's the CCCP sign, which sometimes causes the locals to scratch their heads at the marketing those folks do. Their bosses often spend lots of time downtown at The Thurnderbird Club, asking prying questions of fellows to work at URACAM. Just curious, I guess. Anyway, it's kind of a constricted space, but opening it up and putting in some minimal facilities makes it a much more credible location to operate in. Most everything was built from leftover pieces and parts, so it cost practically nothing. It still need lots more detail, but serves it's purpose of turning a relatively useless space into something much more interesting.
Dove Creek is a bit seedy, in part because there are a lot of young single guys working at the "plant" that caused it to grow so quickly after WWII.The "plant" is the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Dove Creek Facility. Operated by the Uranium Corporation of America, it is more commonly called URACAM. Raw materials, in part from the ASARCO mill in Durango, go in and then...well, we can't tell you.
But use you imagination, that's what model railroading's all about.
All I know is that there is a L&N baggage car that is dropped and later picked up at the plant, whose ultimate destination is a bit vague.
Here's a pick of the main gate, where Main St. ends.
Sorry it's still so dark and spooky back there. Here's a closer shot with the flash.
Past the lead into URACAM is the Co-op's stockyard. Finally we get to where Colorado ConCrete Products built their new cement loading facility. Supposedly foreign-owned, they nonetheless do a brisk business because the Cold War has been very, very good for the cement business, with all the long runways, hardened missile silos, and bunkered command centers, not to mention those interstates. In this pic, the Rio Grande main to Moab is on the left, the middle track goes to the coal dump for the kiln and into the quarry for loading crushed stone and gravel. Partially visible on the right is the cement loaded with the track running through it. The cement loader was made from leftover New River Mine parts and some pieces from another Walther steel complex building. The low shot shows more than you normally see when viewing, as well as how I painted the benchwork flat black to help avoid it being a distraction. Here's the CCCP sign, which sometimes causes the locals to scratch their heads at the marketing those folks do. Their bosses often spend lots of time downtown at The Thurnderbird Club, asking prying questions of fellows to work at URACAM. Just curious, I guess. Anyway, it's kind of a constricted space, but opening it up and putting in some minimal facilities makes it a much more credible location to operate in. Most everything was built from leftover pieces and parts, so it cost practically nothing. It still need lots more detail, but serves it's purpose of turning a relatively useless space into something much more interesting.
Past the lead into URACAM is the Co-op's stockyard.
Finally we get to where Colorado ConCrete Products built their new cement loading facility. Supposedly foreign-owned, they nonetheless do a brisk business because the Cold War has been very, very good for the cement business, with all the long runways, hardened missile silos, and bunkered command centers, not to mention those interstates. In this pic, the Rio Grande main to Moab is on the left, the middle track goes to the coal dump for the kiln and into the quarry for loading crushed stone and gravel. Partially visible on the right is the cement loaded with the track running through it. The cement loader was made from leftover New River Mine parts and some pieces from another Walther steel complex building. The low shot shows more than you normally see when viewing, as well as how I painted the benchwork flat black to help avoid it being a distraction. Here's the CCCP sign, which sometimes causes the locals to scratch their heads at the marketing those folks do. Their bosses often spend lots of time downtown at The Thurnderbird Club, asking prying questions of fellows to work at URACAM. Just curious, I guess. Anyway, it's kind of a constricted space, but opening it up and putting in some minimal facilities makes it a much more credible location to operate in. Most everything was built from leftover pieces and parts, so it cost practically nothing. It still need lots more detail, but serves it's purpose of turning a relatively useless space into something much more interesting.
Finally we get to where Colorado ConCrete Products built their new cement loading facility. Supposedly foreign-owned, they nonetheless do a brisk business because the Cold War has been very, very good for the cement business, with all the long runways, hardened missile silos, and bunkered command centers, not to mention those interstates. In this pic, the Rio Grande main to Moab is on the left, the middle track goes to the coal dump for the kiln and into the quarry for loading crushed stone and gravel. Partially visible on the right is the cement loaded with the track running through it.
The cement loader was made from leftover New River Mine parts and some pieces from another Walther steel complex building. The low shot shows more than you normally see when viewing, as well as how I painted the benchwork flat black to help avoid it being a distraction.
Here's the CCCP sign, which sometimes causes the locals to scratch their heads at the marketing those folks do. Their bosses often spend lots of time downtown at The Thurnderbird Club, asking prying questions of fellows to work at URACAM. Just curious, I guess.
Anyway, it's kind of a constricted space, but opening it up and putting in some minimal facilities makes it a much more credible location to operate in. Most everything was built from leftover pieces and parts, so it cost practically nothing. It still need lots more detail, but serves it's purpose of turning a relatively useless space into something much more interesting.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Looking good!! Like watching the progress on the layout!!
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Mike!
Great layout!
I really got a kick out of the CCCP sign!
Thanks for sharing.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Glad y'all are enjoying the bare-bones version of Dove Creek. It'll get better as I add detail.
Dave,
I appreciate you getting my sick humor. Over by the nuke plant entrance, there's an ad for this week's radio drama, thanks to Tomkat and his signage thread:
Maybe AEC plant security will catch on to who they have for neighbors? Nah, it'll spoil all the fun I'm going to have with this inside joke for a Cold War historian.
I've added some much needed lighting to Main Street in Dove Creek. Then I picked out a high spot on the old water tour to do a little railfanning and catch some pics.
First was the local, #21.
A half hour later, #25, the westbound Houston-Portland Zephyr, made a brief stop. Many workers at the Dove Creek AEC plant appreciate the convenient connection by train. A few are said to linger in the red light district outside the main gate a little too long before reporting in at the plant, according to several CID agents who are said to spend rather too much time there themselves...
Mike:
I see the pace of your progress continues at lightspeed. Thanks for taking the time to keep us posted.
Mike