1st Formal Op Sess 102513 16
Here is Laramie with the Tie Treating Plant, which incidentally is now a super fund site, on the right. Laramie is a key yard on the second bench past the end of the Cheyenne bench (the layout still runs for 11 benches into Ogden on its own bench, and that does not count the staging bench!). At Laramie, blocks from the east through Cheyenne (or the west from Ogden) are reassembled or reordered into blocks to go to LA, Oakland, or Portland which are our 3 code place names for all west bound blocks (or from those places east bound through Cheyenne into blocks for North Platte or Denver). The Denver ones bypass Cheyenne on the Speer, Wyo Wye west of Cheyenne and go direct to Denver (staging) and south (Texas or wherever). If they go on east to Cheyenne from Laramie, they go through North Platte for Chicago, KC or St. Louis or where ever. We are truly a coast to coast model railroad!
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:18 PM•Views: 283
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 17
This is Laramie on the left and foreground, the Tie Treating Plant on the center right with Hermosa Tunnels (#1) way down near the end of the Tie Treating bench. Then at the very end on the end cap is Dale Junction, and we have all 7 turnouts that joint tracks 1, 2 and 3 (1860's, 19015, and 1951). #3 is on the right hand bench across from #1 and #2 against the wall. All go up Sherman Hill to the summit at the far red support beam from Cheyenne behind the camera. The summit is the highest place on the layout at about 12 inches above the reference elevation of Cheyenne, just like it was the highest point of the original Intercontinental Railroad at 8,013 feet. Jim (Doc) Shafer did the tough Laramie Yardmaster job with two assistants, one of which was Jim Tuck. Others are shown on the lower level at Evanston below Laramie. Barry Adico was the Evanston Yardmaster, but we were not quite well enough prepared to keep him busy.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:18 PM•Views: 269
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 18
This slightly different view of Laramie shows Medicine Bow, Wyoming on the far left, which has only a depot and freight room in one building (not finished yet) and a stock yard and team track. The boxes on the left edge hold the empty coal cars that the engineers and I manually removed from two coal trains from there (Hanna, not done yet) out and back both east and west. Hanna is where the helix is now and that place will be one of our two coal mines, with it and Reliance at Rock Springs on the new benches. So to have coal trains we had two set up, one for east and one for west on the lead to the helix and ran them at the very beginning of the session to Cheyenne and to Ogden leaving loaded coal cars and picking up empties. When they got back we pulled them off the layout and left them in the boxes and sent the locos to yards for reuse.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:18 PM•Views: 273
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 19
A better view of Hanna or where it will be. The helix is there now on the Hanna End Cap, part of the 3 benches yet to be built.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:18 PM•Views: 268
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 20
this view is from the Mezzanine stairs beside the main entrance to the building. On the far left is the spline elevate track past the support beam at Sherman, Wyoming with Track #3, the Harriman Cutoff bypassing it about 3 feet away. Then the tracks go through Dale Junction with the 7 turnouts (3 crossovers between #1 and #2 and the junction with #3--out of sight to the left) and then back in the picture the double Tunnel #1 at Hermosa and on down to the Tie Treading Plant and Laramie. This angle looks right down the lower level aisle with Evanston, Wyoming on the right and Wasatch and Curvo, Utah on the left of that lower level benches. Curvo is the two tunnels at different levels, #5 and #6 plus the overpass immediately at the western portals. # 5 was completed in 1869 and was timber lined at 579 feet long, now modernized and 587 feet. #6 was completed in 1916 and is 1223. The overpass changes the direction of running from right to left (going west) down to Ogden at the yard limits (on my layout).
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:19 PM•Views: 261
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 21
This shows Dale with the 3 crossovers and 7th turnout for the #3 junction. Ideal cement is inside the curve at the end cap, and the Park City Branch is on the very outside "hidden" track down to a shelf under the lower level. Dale is used not only as the junction, but to change the direction of running from right hand (on the far side--east down to Cheyenne) to left hand running toward the camera and on down to Laramie. This takes advantage of the more gentle grade on track #2 to come up to Sherman from the west out of Laramie. Consequently the older, steeper #1 is used down into Laramie where a double crossover at the yard limit is used to change back in Laramie. It is also left hand running between Ogden and Curvo.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:19 PM•Views: 253
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 22
An over all view of the layout. Laramie is in the center and the crossover connected 4 mains out of Cheyenne is Tower A (no interlocking tower building yet). It is controlled from the riser on the aisle on the other side of the bench by the first of the 12 switch panels on that fascia. bob Elliis is running the City of St. Louis up from Denver, bypassing Cheyenne via the Speer Wye and on toward the beginning of Track #3, the Harriman Cutoff up Sherman Hill. #3 will junction with #2 at the very end of the right hand bench at Dale. In the foreground is an industrial area with 5 industries, largely incomplete that is in the west end of Cheyenne.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:22 PM•Views: 255
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 23
An elevated view taken from a few steps up the Mezzanine stair case at the east end of the building. Bob's City of St. Louis is well onto the western leg of the Speer Wye.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:22 PM•Views: 267
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 24
Further along the Wye. Passenger trains don't get enough attention, but this one has an admirer. Well, Passenger trains do require a lot of tracks devoted just to them to do it right. On the Wyoming division we have 4 tracks through both Cheyenne and Ogden just for passenger trains with associated sidings for commissaries and clean out tracks, and other storage tracks. Other yards have at least one extra main to accommodate passenger trains or freights that have to pass them at the depot. Here in west Cheyenne, Ray Kukulski just delivered the City Coal and Ice and we don't have the tracks in for it yet. It has an elevated coal dump track so there will have to be a turnout at or to the left of the box car to enable the track elevation change up to the new facility. It is beautiful. He has made many very fine kits for us, and they are all beautifully finished.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:22 PM•Views: 255
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 25
An overhead view of the Cheyenne coal dock and arrival leads. Lenny Wyatt scratch built the Passenger House which is about 40% of the two part round house in Cheyenne. the outline and finger tracks for the Freight House are in place. Maybe Lenny can start it while we build the new benches.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:22 PM•Views: 273
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 26
Same ol' same ol' except for different operators, and I did not want to leave anyone out. We had 27 out of the 28 who RSVP'ed attend, and I cut off reservations Monday night 5 days before the event. About 4 or 5 were observers, but I got most of the newcomers, including two 14-16 year old young men ( I donknow...maybe you guys were older--I'm so old I can't tell everyone looks real young to me) who operated the whole time for the first time. One of my goals was to introduce many newcomers to ops to this very fascinating part of the hobby. It sure beats running around in a circle. After this, I think the word is out and it will be very competitive to get a reservation to operate here, so observers can come, but I need to know if they only want to observe. We will need that space for others. Our biggest problem was not enough throttles--I had 9 and others brought about 6 more. I have ordered 10 more, so we can accommodate 25 to 30 active operators, especially when we get the new benches and track in.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:23 PM•Views: 256
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 27
Relaxing between jobs. All these guys operated. This is Jim Byfield and Ray Kukulski on the left. Jim works often as a volunteer and Raymond builds those beautiful models for us. Lenny Wyatt works full time. He is a contractor who built my house in Sedona and the building and shop for the Wyoming Division. He scratch built the Passenger House, wired the benches with AC power for boosters, florescent lights and outlets, and installed all the Tortoise machines (dozens or a hundred--hopefully all...Aargh...Green River is ahead!), and did the detail design of the panels from my ideas, drew the faces on AutoCad and got Ted Ferkenhoff, a modeler and printer in Flagstaff to print them on his big printers--many are 24 inches long. The black vertical line in the center is the power cord of a hand held DustDevil hand vacuum cleaner I hung from the Mezzanine to unkink the cord. Somehow we forgot to put it away. Oh well, ....
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:31 PM•Views: 263
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 28
There's the cord again. I thought you'd like to see it. I also had the good fortune to catch Mike Nelson blinking, so he looks asleep. I promise he was not. Mike and Lorne Noyes ofter drive from Prescott to work all day on the layout, and really help. Lorne takes good photos and I will get his SlickPic link for this session. Lucus Wyatt, Lenny's son is walking away from us, and Bob Marshall with the camera is sitting next to Mike Nelson.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:31 PM•Views: 250
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 29
Allen Montgomery at his Staging Yardmaster operating station on the right with Bob Ellis in the middle (Mr. Passenger Train),and I can't make out who else--Sorry.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:32 PM•Views: 254
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1st Formal Op Sess 102513 30
More busy operators, Doc at Laramie Yard.
Capture Date: Oct 25, 2013 01:32 PM•Views: 254
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