I have been a narrow gauge modeler for the last 20 years. Unlike most narrow gaugers, I model the Colorado & Southern. In the mid 1990’s I built and fully sceniced Malcom Furlow’s San Juan Central HOn3 project railroad, that was based on a series of articles in Model Railroader. I also used many of the modeling ideas in Harry Brunk’s series of articles published in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette entitled*, “Up Clear Creek on the Narrow Gauge”* . I have posted several pictures of this layout, in order to generate discussion. This layout was dismantled several months ago, to make room for my “retirement layout”, which will occupy a newly finished 12 X 18 ft.train room.
Would love to hear from other model railroaders who model the C&S NG…let’s give the DRGW crowd “a run for their money”.
Though I don’t model narrow gauge, the C&S has always fascinated me, and I’ve always thought their locomotives were particularly handsome examples of narrow gauge motive power. And their route between Denver and Leadville, with all of those branches, was just SPECTACULAR!
I hope you will post progress shots of your new layout.
I model Rio Grande standard gauge steam (in a fictional California setting, go figure, LOL!) but I have two C&S standard gauge steamers ‘on loan’ that I run frequently. C&S, whether standard or narrow-gauge, had some incredibly handsome steam power.
I once wondered about going to Nn3, but decided agaisnt it due to how far into regular N I am. I do love the look and feel of narrow gauge railroading thoguh, and your layout certainly captures it.
One other thing: I would have purchased a kit for a C&S mogul or consolidation, I gforget which, if I had amde the swap to Nn3, lol.
Thanks for the kind words guys. Here is the current trackplan for the new layout. Like most model railroaders my “wants” far outweigh the space available, so compromise is inevitable. On this new layout my criteria was as follows:
Como yard, roundhouse, turntable, and tall timber coal trestle
Logical location for my model of the Argo Tunnel, even though this structure was on the Clear Creek Branch of the C&S
No turnouts tighter than a #6
No curve less than 18" radius, with goal being 22" or greaterr
Had to have realistic location for at least two large, tall, bridges, one iron (Hell’s Gate style), one wood
Had to have a logical location for “The Palisades”
No hidden trackage
No grade greater than 3 percent
Would love to get feedback on this track plan, as nothing, other than the room size, is locked in stone.
It looks like that’s one neat layout you have planned there. I also am a C&S fan, I kind of backed into it as a result of a vacation one summer that took the family to the Georgetown Loop RR.
While there I snapped some photos of the Silver Plume, CO depot, with the intention of modeling it for use with my On30 equipment. I also picked up a book at a local bookshop titled “Narrow Gauge to Central and Silver Plume” by Cornelius W. Hauck to use as a reference work.
So far all I have been able to complete is a couple of modules that set up on a shelf in the basement. Someday, when I have a house the room, I hope to create a layout that will replicate as much as possible that stretch of track between Georgetown and Silver Plume. This module contains my depot model, the C&S caboose is a modified Bachman model I based on a prototype that is on display in downtown Georgetown.
The other module is my fanciful vision of what the current museum’s engine-house facilities might have looked like had they been around in the 1900’s. Of course, the C&S had no such facilities in Silver Plume.
Very cool! I liked your version of the San Juan Central! Very well done. Plus I love the On30 pics, that is some great modeling!
I got my engineer card on teh C&S div of BNSF in 2008.My favorite lines were the Kountry line ( I think thats the one from Denver to Leadville) it ends before you get to Littleton these days,but at the end of track there area few lengths of rail laying inside the gauge with an 1880s date on it!little light rail just laying there.Plus the Golden line is one of my favorites. I found a Colorado Rail annual that was the history of the C&S and found some pictures of Arvada Co. where we used to tie down the train if we were running short on hours.Needless to say its like when your grandpa said " I remember when this was all farmland"Amazing to see how much things change.
As for charm, the C&S is a GREAT little railroad to model.I am proud to say I was a part of its history,even though it was swallowed into the BN I still got to work with guys who were true blue C&S wide gaugers lol.For some reason a C&S engineer is called a Mudduck. Never could figure that one out. But I am proud to be a Mudduck!
The SJC was one of the 3 layouts that I had in my mind when I created my current layout. John Allen’s Gorre and Daphetid and Bob Grech’s WP were the other two. Your’s would have been a fourth!
Have you seen Charlie’s layout? It will be featured in the upcoming HOn3 Annual. It’s even more fun in person. He was recently over at my place and I think I inspired him to add more trees!
Looks like trains arriving/leaving run behind the turntable area running the loop. You have also created a reverse loop situation so recall you need a reversing electrical track protectiong somewhere.
I generally like to eliminate the reverse loop situations to prevent the possible shorting out if you run past your electrical ends.
Having a reverse loop “cheats” your turntable as you can turn the whole train, if you have a reason for a reverse loop cool, but not having it forces needing the turntable.
A lot of accesses to the turntable, needed? and the 2 track opposite side tracks connection?
Just pointing out what you want to do to operate and think about to help what you want to do.
nice work on the previous layout. I am not one upping DR&RGW or any other lines but competition drives ya sometimes heh.
I will be doing some narrow gauge to connect to my mainline system railroads to feed traffic to, an abandoned line that interchanged with the N&W, just “de-abandoning” and it will get more modern power.
First of all, thanks to route_rock for the personal vignette on the C&S.I especially liked the information on C&S engineers being referred to as a “Mudduck”. I have done a great deal of research on C&S and had never heard that term before; good stuff.
Great photos of Charlie Allen’s layout; many thanks Margaritaman
wedudler and Dinwitty, really appreciate the comments on the track plan. The siding at Jefferson is there, just so that I can do some swithing on this part of the layout. The prototype actually had a ‘Y’ there, with one of the diverging tracks serving a stock yard. A ‘Y’ just takes up too much room for the space I have available, so I went with the siding instead. Not sure about the question on the length of the siding. Do you think it is too long, too short, or is there something else about it that doesn’t make sense?
As for the track plan at Como, it’s actually very close to the prototype without using up too much real estate. The tracks on the north side of the turntable were originally covered by the wooden addition to the roundhouse, which burned down in the late 1930’s. After the fire the rotary snow plow and other MOW equipment was stored there. The prototype configuration is very similiar, and to get to the tracks you mention, you had to cross the turntable if you wanted to get to them from the south end of the yard. All of the accesses currently connecting to the turntable were there on the prototype.(there were actually a few more on the north side of the turntable, as the roundhouse had fourteen stalls in its heyday (incredible for a narrow gauge operation in the early 1900’s.
The tracks that run behind the roundhouse were also there on the protype. When proceeding to the south you could bypass the yard heading to the Fairplay Branch. Trains proceeding to the north either took t
Last week I saw for the first time a Digitrax reverser at work on a wye. Wow. Completely seamless. Coming from an old block control guy, it was a dream come true.
Because of the steep grades and the lower tractive effort, typical of NG locomotives, train lengths of 5-6 cars were the norm. As far as train meets go, they were pretty rare on the C&S NG, especially after the downturn in the Colorado mining industry that occured at the end of the second decade of the 20th Century.
I will double check the length of the Jefferson siding to ensure that a locomotive and at least 5-7 cars will fit comfortably.
As for the scenery at Jefferson, I will have a painted backdrop that closely matches the terrain in this area, a depot, a water tank, and small stream east of the town. Rows of small buildings along both sides of the track are also planned. As for the terrain contours, you can see those in the 3D view I posted previously. The area around Jefferson is pretty flat, even though is sits at a fairly high elevation. Because of space limitations, the track south of Jefferson actually represents the route to Leadville, so I will have quite bit of scenery below track level and a fairly long, curved timber trestle between Como and the area occupied by Jefferson. Any suggestions?
Nice work on the On30 modules! This is an excellent way to build for the future. When I was on active duty in the USN I was moving every three years and was just too busy to build a layout. What I did, was use that time to build as many structures as possible. Structures are by far the most time consuming portion of building any layout. I also found out that my great eyesight didn’t last for ever, so now I have lot’s of highly detailed structures that I would have a tough time building “with these old eyes”. I also did a lot of rolling stock that required scratch building. As soon as I break out the camera I will take a shot of my C&S NG work train, that includes steam wrecker 099, boom car 078, and outfit car 025.
I have always maintained that were I to ever go back to HO-Scale – and I have outlined in other posts why that is a future possibility – I would either go to Narrow Gauge or wire; I’m not sure how feasible either of those ideas are. With the space available to me I am more likely to go to a layout heavily oriented towards switching.
Still I did enjoy your photographs of your C&S. Keep up the good work!
