The photos in this album were taken by Harlan Buzz Lenander of Albuquerque. Buzz has built a fantastic model of the Cheyenne Steam Yard in N scale. He displays it in meets from Cheyenne and Colorado to New Mexico as part of his club's modular layout. If you ever get a chance to see it, don't miss it. It is even more complete than my model of it.
Here Dave Stoll is operating at the Sinclair refinery just east of Rawlins, Wyoming. The refinery has limited physical models other than the tracks. Most of it is represented by the fine photo backdrop.
This is Lenny Wyatt's fine Passenger House, part of the Cheyenne roundhouse for passenger locomotives. Lenny is currently working on the Freight house for placement in the foreground. Lenny scratch built the Passenger House and has just started on the Freight House as of March, 2017.
Dick Zeren of the Bay Area is operating in Laramie as Yard Master. He holds a one half sheet block card. My operating system uses car and block cards that govern one move at a time. Subsequent moves are added to the end of them after the current move is completed. Thus moves are quasi random, because any operator can forward the car or block at any time just like real freight agents work. This has the added advantage of moves for a given car do not repeat over and over to A to B to C to D and back to A.... View More Additionally, since the system is nearly random, there is no need to "balance" moves east against moves west, and this greatly simplifies setup. Furthermore, cards are disposable; if a card gets separated form a car, we just write a new card in about 10 seconds adding the Road Name, Car Number, Car Type, and Color. Then the car is "routed" by filling in From, To, the loaded condition (Full, MT, LCL). There are no waybills. They are kept in the cabooses where they belong so they are not lost, soiled or torn.
This is the small coal marshaling yard at Hanna, Wyoming. Note the Yard Limits sign, the compass star with the next few west and east locations shown, and the pink OS notice on the fascia. All instructions on how to operate are on fascia signs and a single sheet Train Order. Operators have no bulky and confusing booklet to carry; they only have to read the fascia and remember where they are headed which is shown on the Train Order sheet. The TO is a written representation of a stack of track warrants... View More from A to B, and on to c, etc. for conductor/engineers. The OS call to the Dispatcher at each pink OS notice on the private phone system is for the conductor/engineer to get verbal confirmation of his clearance to his next destination. A white wall phone is partially visible on the far right of the photo.
Meanwhile, back in Laramie, east of Hanna, STeve Schiffman, today's Laramie Classification Foreman, who works under the YM, works the west end of Laramie. Car cards and block cards can be seen on the rack below the fascia.
There are 10 loads of coal on two tracks serving the Cheyenne Yard Power House. The other buildings are part of the Cheyenne Steam Yard. The transfer table connects the steel car shops and tin and tank shops (left to right). In front of them is the Grain Door Shop. We have many of the buildings left to build for this model of the Cheyenne Steam Engine yard.
In the foreground on the fascia can be seen one of the 10 switch panels with rocker switches mounted inside 1" diameter tubes that control 69 Tortoise switch machines in the yard. We use manual ground throws for turnouts that are easily accessible, and the electric switch machines for those beyond reach on this 7 foot wide bench.
This is the next bench east of the Cheyenne steam yard. It holds front to back the Denver Track (on the bench edge), 8 classification yard tracks, a three track local classification yard for cars into and out of the Cheyenne steam yard spots, and a three track passenger train staging yard for storage of passenger trains waiting to head back west through and out of Cheyenne. Out of view at the far end of this bench is the small helix that is the route to staging on the lower level. Trains are made up in... View More staging and come up the small helix and enter Cheyenne through the east yard limits onto the layout. So the lower level staging with ingress and egress from this end represents Chicago, KC, and St. Louis and all points east of Cheyenne. Also not visible on top of the helix structure is a turning loop for passenger trains, and it connects to the three passenger train staging tracks at the back of the upper bench.
There are a few chairs for operators to rest their feet. Behind Arizona's Linda Libelula and Bob Butler is the main helix, and on a lower level deck is a turning loop for passenger trains into and out of the Portland, Oregon staging yard of the OSL. The OSL is 168 feet of hidden track that leaves the main at Granger, Wyoming on the bench beyond the main helix here. After the Granger/OSL junction the OSL track go into a "mouse hole" to become hidden track. It bends around 180 degrees and rapidly... View More declines in elevation down to a third level which can be seen at the lower edge of the far bench fascia. Trains on the hidden OSL track are protected from falling to to the floor by a polycarbonate shield which can be seen reflecting light at the grey painted fascia.
This is the Green River freight yard with a few stub tracks for local spots to switch in that Wyoming city. Note the curved lower level backdrop here which is typical of all of the lower level benches. The space made by the curve outward at the top is the wire tray for the upper level benches above this scene. The whole lower level has its own wire trays below the front of the benches behind hinged doors. Thus both levels have wire trays of about 6 x 6" cross section for all DCC and signal components... View More that might need maintenance or adjustment, such as electronic circuit breakers, current detector loops and boards, signal control boards, etc. Any wires that are not soldered are joined in these trays (i.e., screw terminal junctions). Soldered 10 gauge main DCC buses and 14 Ga sub buses and feeders are distributed under the tracks as twisted pairs following good DCC installation practice.
Just west of Green River (to the rear of the previous photo) is Granger and the OSL Junction. Further west are the models of the 7,600 and 5,700 foot Aspen and Altamont tunnels. They are in the mountain behind the seating break area of the former photo. After the tracks go thorough these two model tunnels (11 and 13 feet long) they emerge at Evanston, Wyoming, shown here. On the aisle behind Stan McCartney in the plaid shirt are the Curvo tunnels in Utah.
On the upper level in this picture is the... View More Laramie Roundhouse and coal tower. \
This photo gives a good sense of the free standing mushroom design of the layout. Operators from this aisle cannot see or be seen from any other aisle. The effect is that only the tracks stretching west to the left or east to the right are visible from any aisle.
This is a more detailed view of Evanston, Wyoming. The tracks right to left are the coal tower supply track, the west and east bound mains under the coal tower, the alternate main, and an abbreviated two track yard with some industry spots off them.
This is a scan from the definitive book on the Cheyenne Steam Yard by Robert Darwin, "The History of the Union Pacific Railroad in Cheyenne." This was the yard as it was in 1943, and I model 1957, but there was probably not much changed in those 14 years as steam was still used up until late 1957. This scan is helpful in viewing the following Cheyenne pictures of our model.
Back in Cheyenne looking northwest is the coal fired power plant with the yard office to its left. The large building immediately behind the power house is the Blacksmith shop, and the Electrical Shop extends out of the side of the larger Tank Shop/Tin Shop/Boiler Shop building. Beyond that is the Back shop fronting the roundhouses. The Cheyenne depot is shown on the far bench edge with a yellow streamliner taking on passengers.
The tracks in the foreground are the Denver track and a 4 track A/D yard.... View More
The Denver track is the route from Laramie to Denver. down the eastern slope of Sherman Hill via the Harriman Cutoff (Track #3), through the Speer Wye, and bypassing Cheyenne. Technically this Denver track should be hidden track but is forced onto the bench top by the yellow Tortoise switch panels lining the bench edge. However in keeping with the prototype, there is no communication between the Denver track and the Cheyenne yard, so the prototype plan is followed.
From the same camera position is shown the Steel Car Shop/Store House to the left of the Transfer Table which tracks lead into the Wheel and Tank Shop and beyond that the lower Wood Working Shop. Just barely in the photo on the far right is the edge of the 90 foot turntable.
The arched stick above the Transfer Table holds a small video camera used to transmit a picture to a monitor at the aisle so that the Table tracks may be aligned with the shop tracks.
Another view of the Passenger House part of the Cheyenne Roundhouse served by the 105 foot turntable. This is also aligned via video camera and a monitor, the camera being mounded from the underside of the view mezzanine. I loo9k forward to Lenny's completion of the entire round house, that is the Freight House shown only here (March, 2017) as the finger tracks.
Here can be seen the depot through the gap between the Passenger House and the Main Shop building. Also through this gap runs the single Omaha Track connecting the turntable and the east bound mains just east of the depot.
We have placeholder cards for many of the Cheyenne Yard buildings. This is the 650 ton coal Tower and the diesel fuel tank not shown on the 1943 Darwin drawing. There will be a large water tower to make a head for the water spouts on the coaling tracks.
We model all the tracks of the Cheyenne yard except 3 of the freight house tracks, and two of the storage tracks. The two storage tracks we do have are shown here (with the red box car on one).
This is the Hanna, Wyoming Depot across the double track mains from the coal marshaling yards of the three Hanna Mines that we model (out of about 15 that existed at one time or another).
This is the Laramie Turntable and 9 stall Roundhouse. Besides the scratch built Cheyenne roundhouse(s) and this one we have 9 stall roundhouses in Ogden, Green River, and Evanston.
The 650 ton coal tower is also seen here.
This shot of the rising terrain west of Cheyenne starting the climb up Sherman Hill shows the double tracks under the backdrop and the turnout leading to the Granite Quarry at Borie, Wyoming. The tracks in the foreground are the 18 foot long stretch of double track main on the mostly single track alternate main up Sherman Hill, the Harriman Cutoff (Track #3). This short stretch of double track allows two complete trains to pass each other, since the mostly single track is bi-directional, up the Hill to Dale, and down from Dale through Speer Wye and on to Denver bypassing Cheyenne.
This view is northwest over the double track portion of the Harriman Cutoff . Beyond Track #1 and #2 near the backdrop depiction of the Granite Quarry tailings, is the quarry yard tracks.
The west end of Ogden at the as yet unpainted brass Coal Tower and 105 foot turntable and 9 stall roundhouse. Around this bend is the other end of the main staging, so entering it from this side we call going to either LA or Oakland.
You will recall that if entered from the other end this staging represents east of Cheyenne, or Chicago, Marysville, KS, KC, St. Louis and points further east or southeast.
Still further east on the way out of Ogden is the large Sperry Flour mills.
The buildings in the background are part of the 13 industries in the SP territory of Downtown Ogden. There is a 3 track SP interchange yard that handles cars to and from UP here.
Immediately out of Ogden the tracks start the climb up the Wasatch Mountains following the Weber River. Here the track is on plywood cut from the bench top and pried up to make a grade, but soon, the space between the tracks and the level bench will be big enough to allow us to revert to the standard spline roadbed.
This beautiful backdrop is photos stitched together by a local artist for us, Kelly Daniels. All our backdrops, except the 20 feet or so in Ogden is photos captured by Kelly.
This is the freight house at Echo, Utah. Echo is where the tracks turn from a southeast direction to a northeast direction on a sweeping 90 degeen bend in the shadow of the steep uplifted sandstone cliffs of Echo. At Echo the canyon changes from steep and lushly wooded Weber River Canyon to the colorful Echo Canyon with the steeply uplifted rock formations.
The coal dock at Echo, Utah beside old US 30, the Lincoln Highway, and now rebuilt as I 80. Notice all three, UP, US 30, and I 80 followed the original Ames Brothers route to California, known forever as the Transcontinental RR Route.
We intentionally misplaced the Ideal Cement plant on the model bench end cap to utilize its room for a large industry. The actual Ideal Cement (the old Devil's Brand) is on the other side of the tracks and a bit west of the Echo bend in the tracks.
An "aerial" view of Laramie, Wyoming. The Speer Wye is shown well here as is the Denver Track which forms the western leg of the wye off #3, the Harriman Cutoff.
Around the end cap of Laramie, but still in the model's yard limits is the Laramie Tie Treating Plant, with its narrow gauge tracks. On the lower left corner is the sawmill and burner, and the office and fire house is on the other side of the paper plans for it. Nest is the narrow gauge engine house and finally the 3 retort treating facility. I plan of scavenging a useless steamer and making a steam power plant to make the coal tar for the tie treating process. That addition will be behind the retort building and will have a coal delivery track bending around the retorts.
Another "aerial" view from the mezzanine showing the double track part of #3, Harriman Cutoff, and the original mains, #1 and #2, with the Granite Quarry at Borie beyond them.
Aerial View from the mezzanine of Dale on the west slope of Sherman Hill. The bench bends the double track main around its end cap into Tunnels #1 at Hermosa. The Dale Junction crossovers are used by UP and the model to change the direction of running from right handed up the eastern slope to Dale (from the right or westbound) to left handed down the Hill into Laramie. This is to take advantage of the more gentle slope on the newer Track #2 which came down the Hill more slowly than did the original #1. This made a more gentle slope up from Laramie on the left hand track.
Of course the whole idea of the Harriman Cutoff, #3 was to make a longer but easier climb up the Hill westbound.
Frontier Refinery in east Cheyenne. This scratch build model incorporated a few kit assemblies. The tank farm is not done.
The extreme forked tracks are the beginning to the turning loop for passenger trains to turn them without uncoupling them for the run back west. The two tracks at the top are the helix tracks down to staging on the lower level.
Also on the edge of staging can be see the same tow helix tracks and a third track outside of them. this third track is one end of the lower level passenger turning loop; the other end is behind th upper level's grey fascia, but the beginning of the passenger lower level storage yard in staging can be seen just as that fascia narrows towards the left.
From the mezzanine looking down on west Cheyenne we see some industrial spurs, and above them is the Speer Wye. To the right of the mole hole (the mole being the Downtown Ogden operator) is the Cheyenne Stock Yards. The large industry running across the photo near the top is Wycon Chemical in Wycon, Wyoming a producer of fertilizer from the Wyoming trona (soda) mined in the state. It is just outside of Cheyenne. It is now the Dyno Noble explosives plant, using the same trona source as the primary raw commodity.
The black stair railings guard the two steps off the upper level plywood riser down to the concrete floor on which the Downtown Ogden operator stands. The SP Inter change yard can be seen through the mole hole.
Laramie from the mezzanine. The spur off the yard tracks at the bottom of the photo represents the Coalmont Branch of UP. We take empty gondolas and flat cars up it and return with lumber loads. It is just another job for the Laramie YM as is the Tie Treating Plant also seen here. My planned steam plant will be between the round house and the retort house and the coal track will be run on a sharp curve around the retort building.
This view from the mezzinine shows the east end of the steam yard in Cheyenne. The passenger trains are in front of the depot out of view to the left, and near the far corner of the bench is the commisary, and emergency ice dock and cleanout track for passenger trains.
From this height can be seen there is quite a bit of room to shoehorn in the necessary buildings for the Cheyenne Steam Yard.
The main shop, made from 5 kits with the roof off the rear part for some reason. It is laying on the main part at a slight angle.
There are four mains running in front of the depot (or the rear if you drive up in a car), and passenger trains are on three of them. The passenger schedule was such that multiple trains arrived soon after each other, and occasionally if some is late, they are all here at once.
The giant blue butterflies are pinch clamps temporarily (for months now) holding the camera over the turntable. If you ask, we will send plans, so you can add giant blue butterflies to your layout.
Another aerial view of Laramie, showing the lower level below. That lower level witht he white styrofoam and purple foam is Curvo, Utah with the two tunnels, the first (#5) drilled in the 1860's and #6 in about 1905. The upper tunnel leas to the left (west) can just be seen in the upper left corner crossing on its overpass over the lower tunnel lead. this is where the current of running changes from right to left hand running down from Curvo (to the left) to utilize the 1905 more gentle grade up the Wasatch mountains (left hand back to right hand if traveling left to right in this photo).
A wide angel view from the mezzanine showing, art the top, the double track #1 and #2, in the middle the double track portion of Track #3, and the widely spaced track down the west slope of Sherman Hill into Laramie with the left hand running gentler grade up (#2) on the left.
Again, this shows the advantage of the free standing mushroom design: operators on any aisle can only see tracks and scenery left or right. They cannot see over into an adjacent aisle.
Before the session and as part of the open house Verryl gave a clinic in the crew lounge on his four card car forwarding system (Car Cards, Block Cards, Train Orders, and Loco Cards). Read more about it at
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