Colorado RGS narrow gauge
David Thompson’s Rio Grande Southern and Denver & Rio Grande Western HOn3 layout
Placerville
Ridgway Carbon Jct. Hesperus
Dolores River
Mines
Ore mill
Summit Dolores
Wildcat Canyon
Rico
Coke Ovens
A Vance Jct Down to Lower level area
Lumber mill and log pond
Telluride
Snowshed entrance
Animas River/ Lightner Creek
Dolores River
Durango Lower level area
RGS Main Line RGS Telluride Branch D&RGW
Numbers shown ( ) is the track elevation from the floor in inches
Smelter B Helix Lizard Head
down to Ophir
Ophir
To helix up to Lizard Head
Glencoe
Howard Fork San Miguel River
B Vance Jct. Cima
Dolores River
Lost Canyon
Gato/ Aztec
Telluride A
Up to Lower Level
Ore mill Upper Level
and included such locations as Hespe- rus, Dolores, and Rico. The Denver & Rio Grande Western ran through Car- bon Junction to a return loop doubling as both the Farmington branch and the main line to the east.
After completing what turned out to be this first phase, I still had the itch to lay track so I began to look at ways and means. It occurred to me that the space under the Lizard Head return loop, which I had left entirely open for ac- cess, could accommodate a helix down to another location such as Ophir. Also, since I had provided relatively wide aisles, it proved feasible to include not only Ophir but a continuation to Vance
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Junction with a return loop under the helix. The result is a sort of “wedding cake” configuration, but it works. Still having the itch, I continued another phase, partly under existing bench- work, through Placerville to Ridgway, again benefiting from the initial wide aisles. As a finale, I was able to route a branch from Vance Junction to a shelf in the adjacent workshop where Tel- luride and Pandora are located. The basic layout construction is an open grid of 1″×4″ lumber with penin- sulas supported on 2″×4″ legs and the balance cantilevered from the walls. Risers support roadbed of ¹/₂″ Homa- sote®
over ¹/₂″ plywood.
The helix is made of ¹/₄″ tempered hardboard cut to the appropriate ra- dius and laminated together to form a “snake” suspended from threaded rod with nuts adjusted to give the desired spacing and grade. Fascias are ¹/₈″ hardboard and these, as well as all visible lumber. are paint- ed reddish brown. All electrical switch- es and indicator lights are mounted in the fascia. Track is code 55 and 70 made by Micro Engineering and Shinohara, and the switches are Micro Engineering, Shino- hara, and BK. Although originally wired for d.c. block control with PBL sound, the layout has recently been converted to
SEPTEMBER 2013
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