Current railroad project:

Name: "Punta Cayo Railroad"
Locale: Somewhere in the tropics
Theme: Waterfront, jungle hills and palm tree covered scenery (Sugar cane, bananas)
Scenery: Insulation foam, Plaster rock castings, Scenic Express Ground cover products, 400 hand re-made palm trees.
Control: Bachmann - DCC and equipment
Roadbed: Cork roadbed
Track: Micro Engineering Code 83
Turnouts: Micro Engineering Code 83 modified #6
Max Grade: 0.5%
Min. Radius: 26" mainline, 24" other
Backdrop: NONE
Facia: Stained Lauan plywood
Roadnames: Mixed
Per Cent of Completion: 95%
Completion Date: TBD

While I’m in the planning stages of my next railroad and with so many new scenery products, techniques and building materials available (particularly foam and roadbed products), I thought it would be a good idea to build a small test railroad to not only try these items but come up with a way to build my next railroad backwards, from the back to the front, primary scenes and scenery first, and then trackwork and foreground scenes and scenery last.

Since I’ve always wanted to build a small tropical waterfront railroad along with wanting to do a bit more model building in O scale other than building structures for my friends, I hatched the plan for the construction of “Punta Cayo” in On30 scale.  Originally it was to be a logging to seaside railroad but soon realized it’s 4 x 6ft size, to be portable, would not allow we to do what I wanted to depict.  So “Punta Cayo” is now a Banana - Sugar cane plantation to seaport railroad with enough switching to keep it from becoming boring.

Past railroad project:

Name: "Durango, Rico and Northern Railroad"
Scale: S-Scale, Sn3
Size: 11' x 22' over garage 
Height: Lowest track at 48", Highest track at 56"
Style: Sievers Benchwork, 3/8" BC plywood for sub road bed on risers
Period: Fall 1948
Locale: Silver San Juans
Theme: Rugged mountain and tree covered scenery (Ore, sheep, cattle, oil, lumber)
Scenery: Insulation foam, Plaster rock castings, Scenic Express Ground cover products, 2400 Mckenzie brothers trees.
Control: NEC - DCC
Roadbed: Homasote
Track: Tomalco Code 70
Turnouts: Shinohara #6 (main and yards) Modified Shinohara #6 to #4 (logging sidings)
Max Grade: 3.5%
Min. Radius: 26" mainline, 24" other
Backdrop: Painted, reversed vinyl flooring, 24in x 12ft sections
Facia: Stained Lauan plywood
Roadnames: Rio Grande Southern, D&RGW
Per Cent of Completion: 85%

The Durango, Rico and Northern Railroad was conceived in the late 1800's as part of a network of rails and stagecoach lines designed to tie together the mountain rich ore towns between Durango and Rico and points North. Originally surveyed by Thomas Wigglesworth in 1881 for the Denver and Rio Grande, the route is generally believed to be the product of Otto Mears as part of the Rio Grande Southern. The line left Animas City, North Durango, ran several miles up the Las Animas River Valley, then up the North fork of Hermosa Creek and then down Scotch Creek just South of Rico. From there, it followed the Dolores River, through the Lost Canyon and over Cimas Pass and then back to Durango. Although the Rio Grande Southern did build from Durango to Ridgeway via the Dolores River route surveyed by Wigglesworth, the Rico to Rockwood branch was never built and remained a stage line and (to this day) later a logging road.

Since the Denver and Rio Grande already had an existing line from Durango through Rockwood and on to Silverton, the Durango, Rico and Northern would have run from Rockwood to Rico via Hermosa Park, then the East fork of Hermosa Creek, then down Scotch Creek, to Scotch Creek Junction with the Rio Grande Southern. It is this branch that is being recreated and modeled here in SN3 as it would have appeared in the years spanning 1940-1949 in Southwestern Colorado. The DR&N, and all its references and descriptions are based on research material from the Rio Grande Southern as well as the Denver and Rio Grande during the 1890's and later years. During its construction, the DR&N, had enough foresight to lay 50-pound rail, build heavier bridges and more adequate grading than was needed in 1891. This foresight paid off as the line was able to utilize its own C-16’s and the heavier K-27’s it leased from Rio Grande Southern and Denver and Rio Grande over the years.